ABSTRACT
There has been much discussion in the last couple of decades about the notion of ‘doing’ theology: in the area of Christian political thinking this idea can be given a particularly apposite meaning. For although there has been quite a lot of recent writing about the State and public policy from a Christian viewpoint—and especially much occasional writing in the press—it has all been rather episodic and, compared with the systematic offerings of the past, fragmentary. As this doubtless corresponds to the divided condition of values within society, and within Christian society, it is unavoidable and even desirable. But it does mean that in a brief critical survey of opinions, like the present one, it is impossible to separate the contributions made by academic theologians from the attitudes and policy preferences of the church leadership. This is not because the church leaders are especially notable for theological insights, but because politics is a practical matter, and ‘doing’ theology has an immediate application in this sphere of human activity. Even in the Catholic Church, with a tradition of achieving balance between capitalist and socialist systems of ideas—expressed within the teaching of papal encyclical letters— there has been little that can really be called systematic political philosophy in the years following the Second Vatican Council.
