Christ and politics: a comparison of the political thought of Jacques Ellul and Jürgen Moltmann

The political writings of French sociologist Jacques Ellul and German theologian Moltmann are compared. Analysis is focused upon their concepts of freedom, justice, authority of the state, power, war and morality in international relations. Ellul is described as a "Dualist- Conversionist" and Moltmann is called a "Synthesist-Conversionist" in the terms of H. Richard Niebuhr (Christ and Culture), The authors share a declaration that Jesus Christ 'is the center of political thought, and each desire a transformation of contemporary Western culture. Numerous comparisons are made, culminating with an evaluation of each thinker according to the "marks of authentic political theory" of Dante Germino (Beyond Ideology). A conservative evaluation ranks them as important publicists only because they do not entirely fill all requirements for the title of "theorist" in the manner of Plato and St. Augustine.