Adding Cross to Crown: The Political Significance of Christ's Passion

Mark Noll explores what difference it might make "for Christians to concentrate on the person and work of Christ when they think about the nature of politics or when they engage in political activity." Noll concludes that the difference could be great indeed. He believes that seasoning images of Christ's kingly rule with images of his suffering on the cross - reminding us that we are only sinners saved by grace - could produce a Christian politics characterized by humility and moderation. "A Christian politics that forgets the cross," Noll writes, "a Christian politics that assumes a godlike stance toward the world, is a Christian politics that has abandoned Christ."
Noll offered these thought-provoking comments in the inaugural Kuyper Lecture, an annual forum on religion and public life sponsored by the Center for Public Justice. Noll's essay and the theologically and historically informed responses of James Bratt, Max Stackhouse, and James Skillen provide an excellent starting point for exploring the proper relationship of cross to crown in Christian politics.

Mark A. Noll is the McManis Professor of Christian Thought and professor of history at Wheaton College.