In partnership with Christian Aid, Madeleine Pennington and Paul Bickley explore what power means through a biblical lens. 27/01/2025
From personal relationships to politics, what we think about power (and how much of it we have) profoundly shapes our understanding and experience of the world around us. Today, many have an instinctive suspicion of ‘powerful’ elites. Yet from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, to Trump’s own divisive rhetoric on Greenland and military intervention in Venezuela, we also live in an age of strongman leadership on the global stage – and it is precisely the way such leaders talk about, and wield, their own military, financial, and political power that is now challenging historical norms so profoundly. As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney observed in a viral speech at the World Economic Forum, “It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry – that the rules–based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”
Competing understandings of power have become a defining characteristic of our historical moment, and finding a more hopeful and constructive way to relate to power feels increasingly urgent.
This report unpacks what the Bible says about power, first considering the over–arching narrative around power across the Old and New Testaments, before exploring some of the stories about power in the Bible and what practical implications they may have today. For the biblical authors, power is fundamentally creative, God–given, and indeed pervasive. Yet humans too often subvert its positive potential to dominate others. Power in the biblical understanding is both vital and dangerous; a gift and a risk.
This theological approach to power offers a compelling corrective both to those who abuse power for domination, and those who deny its potential for good altogether.
You can read the report here.
A Theology of Power emerged out of an ongoing theological partnership with Christian Aid. You can read other reports in this series here:
A Theology of Hope by Nick Spencer and Bob Kikuyu
