This world or the next? In the world but not of it? Prophetic vision or grubbyengagement with the world as it is? These are the tensions Nigel Oakley grapples withas he shows how Christians can, indeed must, engage with politics and with politicaldebate. He shows, in chapters on Augustine, Liberation theology, Dietrich Bonhoefferand Stanley Hauerwas, how these tensions exist in every strand of Christian politicalthinking, and then he applies those tensions to case studies varying from todays highlycharged debates on sexuality to the war on terrorism. In every case, he demonstratesthat noninvolvement is a nonoption. This book is both an intelligent introduction tothe difficult world of Christian political theology and to some of the key debates that areshaping our times.