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Bemoaning Donald Trump is easy; understanding him, his path to power and the role the Christian thought – or the lack of it – played in laying it out is much tougher.

On 20th June 2017, renowned US theologian Stanley Hauerwas joined Theos to discuss the role the church played in enabling Trump’s victory. This involved going beyond the figures – for example, that a reported 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump – to the theology, and asking what is it about our vision of the church and the state, of ‘politics’ and of ‘religion’, of success and of salvation – that made the 2016 Presidential election such a landmark.

By asking these hard questions, showing how Christian political thought has repeatedly been found wanting, and understanding how Christians can do better, we can go beyond the hand–wringing of recent months prepare ourselves for the next four years, and beyond.

Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University. He is the author of, among others books, The Work of Theology and Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life. 

Image by Gage Skidmore from Wikicommons, available under this Creative Commons Licence