So far we have looked at the theme of political theology, from the standpoint of theology and we have considered some of the difficulties involved in arriving at what might be seen as a cogent approach to the development of a political theology. I now want to change perspective and discuss the ways in which general issues of moral principle arise in relation to our understanding of modern society and politics, and in this context I shall concentrate in this chapter and the next on the state and its role in the economy. I want to focus on this theme largely because it has been so central to the concern of the churches in the past twenty years with the emergence of a much more promarket and limited government approach in Western societies. Relatively recent illustrations of this concern would be the publication of Faith in the City by the Church of England, Centessimus Annus by Pope John Paul 11 commemorating the centenary of Rerum Novarum promulgated by Leo XIII, and the recent document on The Common Good, published by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales.

This change of focus from theology to politics and economics is important because one has to have some sense of what the scope of theological concern in relation to political and economic life might be, and also what aspects of politics and economics to which it might make sense for a political theology to apply itself.