Stephen V. Monsma

Monsma navigates the waters of Christian faith based approaches to public policy well. He is even handed and rightly leaves room for the inevitable varying of opinions on the range of issues.

Monsma is not anti-government but he leans toward local and private decision making and action with government stepping in in certain capacities. I didn't ever get the sense that he wanted to elevate the Constitution above biblical ethics as sometimes seems to be the case with conservative minded Christians. Overall I found his discussion on the role of government to be thoughtful and helpful.

The basic (biblical) concepts Monsma says we must apply in all situations are justice and solidarity. While this might not be ground breaking, it was helpful to see him work through a number of issues with these in the forefront.

Monsma holds up William Wilbeforce as a model of his approach and at times it almost felt like Monsma wanted us to ask ourselves "what would Wilberforce do?". At times I also found myself questioning Monsma's commitment to certain "God given freedoms" which to me seemed to perhaps be more culturally demanded freedoms rather than God given. This would be an interesting topic for a book in itself.

Overall I would recomend this book as helpful and challenging to Christians interested in the intersection of faith and politics, regardless of party affiliation or personal political leanings.… (meer)

NCLA Review -This thought provoking video series consists of 12 ten-minute segments that are based on Steve Monsma’s book, Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspectives on Public Policy. The video can be used alone or in conjunction with the book. It features Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and other Christian scholars and public policy experts. A study guide is included to explain each segment and gives the central theme and the outline for that segment. The questions included stimulate discussion and reflection and are also at the end of each video segment. I was impressed with the broad coverage of topics all Christians deal with today – Justice, Life Issues, Poverty, Africa , Violations of Human Rights are some examples. This would make an excellent basis for small group Bible Studies. Rating: 4 —RE Calvin Media Foundation 2008, color, ASIN:1433504960, $29.99 [DVD 261.8]… (meer)