Political Science Confronts the Book: Recent Work on Scripture and Politics

Secular culture drives a wedge between political philosophy and scripture. For medieval thought the Bible had been a primary source for doctrines, principles, and examples to be woven into the fabric of political speculation. Theorists in the modern period also felt compelled to engage the scriptures. Machiavelli tells his readers to study Moses; Hobbes devoted two books of Leviathan to political theology; Locke refuted the scriptural arguments of Filmer and employed biblical examples to discuss conquest and tyranny. Yet incorporation of Scripture in political thinking largely died out by the twentieth century in academic political science and political philosophy.