Democracy and the “Kingdom of God”

There is a consensus among Christian theologians that the symbol of the "kingdom of God" inherited from the Judaic tradition, is the key to understanding Christianity, but theologians have for millenia differed among themselves as to the interpretation of this symbol. Political ramifications of, or reactions to, this Judaeo-Christian idea have included the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, the "Third Rome", American manifest destiny, Zionism, the Third Reich, and Liberation Theology. This text focuses on the question of whether the Kingdom of God is necessarily related to certain political implementations, and its possible implications for democracy and democratic theory. It examines the development of the symbol in the Old and New Testaments, the diversity of related theological interpretations and political concomitants, and the significance of the "Kingdom of God" in the development of present and future political formations and political theory.