I am very pleased to announce the publication of my second book, ‘Dominion Theology – Recovering Our Social & Political Responsibility.’ This was a development of a Masters Thesis from 2016, overhauled and revised for the last year. I am very pleased as to how it has turned out and consider it a must read for anyone interested in the interface between living the Christian life in the real political world. Your Christian faith is not meant just a purely private matter but is meant to reform and change the world. Only in the 19th and 20th century did the Christians go into the closet when everyone else came out!
That said, although written from a Christian perspective, it is not just for Christians but anyone interested in how faith, reason, and belief shape how we live our life day to day. It aims to dispel the fundamentalist critique of “politics” as somehow dirty and sinful, a vocation which Christians should avoid at all costs. It does this by considering historical precedent, Christian theology and philosophy, and the lives of influential figures in the making of the modern West. In contrast, it argues for active involvement in all areas of culture and society. The gospel is not just meant for saving souls but for “saving” all the institutions of government, the State, science, the Humanities, Arts, and Music:
“There is not a centimetre of all creation over which God does not cry ‘mine’…Whatever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand—in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science—he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God. He is employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God. And above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God.”
Abraham Kuyper—from the Inaugural Rectoral Address at the opening of the Free University of Amsterdam, Oct 20, 1880.
It is written with academic rigour, endorsed by a senior Emeritus professor who once gave me 30% for an essay, but accessible to any reader interested in the interface between religion and politics, faith and how it should apply to the living of our entire life of Earth rather than just being the “opium of the people.”
Available at the moment in Kindle, ebook, and Paperback, hardback is on the way! Kindle is good value, but if you contact me directly, I should be able to provide you with a paperback for the price of the Kindle + postage, though it might be another month before I have stock! Same applies for students, libraries, Churches etc who would like a copy. Amazon and most other sellers have got it now, I still do not have any physical copies!!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dominion-Theology-Recovering-Political-Responsibility/dp/B0GY2LDMCV/
It sits alongside my first book The Foundations of Philosophy, in many ways an expansion of the theme of the final chapter of that book which was Christian political philosophy. Both of these can be found on my Amazon author page, https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Michael-P%C3%B2l-Macneil/author/B0FD93J269 which you also get to when you click the author link next to the book title.
As soon as I am able, I will be creating a series of videos which will accompany the book where I talk through some of the themes and respond to any questions, so please feel free to contact me.
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-3852-6802-3
Kindle/eBook: 979-8-3852-6804-7
Hardback (I hope): 979-8-3852-6803-0
In the coming months, I hope to have an HTML version for use by scholars on the site, but am already working on the third book (which was actually my first book), so there could be a delay but it is going to happen as I remember how frustrating it was to try and get content out of Kindle when working on essays!