by Mark Broadway, Psephizo
It is sometimes remarked that it is uncouth to discuss religion and politics. Throw into that mix money, sex, and death, and you begin to set the bounds for the precise discussion that takes place within Danny Kruger’s 2023 manifesto-of-sorts, Covenant: The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood, and Nation. This is a book designed to spark debate.
My interest with the work begins on the cover. Covenant is a word with which theologians and biblical scholars wrestle. It informs our understanding of God, ourselves, and how these two disparate entities relate. Covenant shapes our understanding of what God has said, and how he chose to describe it. Covenant is the basis of so much that we take for granted, and yet, outside of the occasional sermon, very little of this is given articulation. The only place where I find myself talking about covenants on a regular basis is with slightly bemused prospective wedding couples.
They sit patiently through my explanation of the 2010 Church in Wales Marriage Rite which says that marriage “is given so that a man and a woman my pledge themselves to one another in a covenant of love”. “A covenant”, I offer, “is like a contract—but one that creates new relationships”. Going deeper, in the brief and sacred moments of marriage preparation, can be difficult. Complexity is increased as the only analogies that spring to mind are restrictive covenants, which some couples have encountered through the purchase of old houses. Covenant was, perhaps, a brave choice for the title of a book which is not an academic tome addressing the minutiae of presbyterian soteriology. Perhaps brave, possibly foolish.