Faith and Anarchy

At last I have started reading Jonathan Bartley's 'Faith and Politics after Christendom'. The subtitle is The Church as a movement for anarchy'. This does not imply that the church go round destroying things. The post-Christendom church no longer has political power and must think differently from the margins, think creatively and be contrary. Christian anarchy 'invokes a number of key ideas, including the diminishing identification of the church with government and a commitment to the freedom 0f the church from the government and the government from the church.' Government is perceived as one of the 'principalities and powers' with which Christians are meant to struggle.

Perhaps he says 'it also embraces the belief that one day we will see the reign of God without a government as we know it. An-arkhos in Greek means literally 'without a ruler'. He quotes O'Donovan as saying that the 'opposite of secular should not be religious' but eternal. Secular government is secular not in the sense that it is irreligious but in the sense that its role is confined to this age (in Latin, saeculum) that is passing away.
So applied to governments this implies that they are not agents of Christ and will inevitably be displaced when the rule of God in Christ is finally disclosed.

'Anarchism also involves a suspicion of top-down notions of political engagement and a confidence in the subversive and creative potential of prophetic truth-telling and grassroots action.'

And this is just the introduction! I must continue---