| This dissertation proposes methodological tools from Christian political theology have relevance for contemporary theological and secular discussions of new democratic structures, unbounded politics, globalization and changing ideas of citizenship. Drawing on the claim that democracy is composed of three elements---fairness in participation and membership, pluralism, and lived practices---the author asserts that a fourth element, changing boundary and scale, requires a revolution in how Christian political theology understands the role of the democracy in the light of God's Kingdom. The author examines the New Christendom model of Oliver O'Donovan, the theopolitical imagination of William Cavanaugh and the pluralist universalism of David Hollenbach as possible sources for a post-Westphalian understanding of democratic structures and memberships. The dissertation concludes that a theology of democracy in the 21st century requires attention to (1) prophecy, (2) contingency, and (3) moral anthropology in order to be both fully Christian and participative in the discourse of liberal democracy. |
