Andy Crouch’s Theology of Power

My take on a very popular view of power among (ex)evangelicals

Photo by visuals on Unsplash.

In the book Reckoning with Power, I make the case for there being two powers at work in the world, not one. There is worldly power and then there is God’s power, and the two are starkly different.

God’s power works entirely differently than worldly power. Worldly power, as I define it, is power that is exercised in autonomy from God. Worldly power is “power over” and operates in human terms via position, coercion, subtle ideological means, etc., to get person B. to do what person A. (the one exercising power) wants them to do. Worldly power is always limited, can only preserve not redeem, and is open to abuse. Godly power is always power “with,” works by the Spirit, to draw people into His love. God’s power, released in Jesus, by the Spirit, never coerces. God’s power forgives, reconciles, heals, renews, transforms. God’s power is at work among us, not just in us, and works to redeem the world. Though completely different from worldly power, God’s power is nonetheless power, immeasurably great (Eph 1:19-23), able to accomplish more than we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20).

In Reckoning with Power, I review the field of culture studies, then peruse Scripture to make my case. I believe that making this distinction between Godly power and worldly power is essential to keeping pastors, leaders, Christians from abuse. It is also essential to discerning our expectations when Christians have no other choice but to use worldly power. It is useful in discerning how and when worldly power goes off the rails and ends up in abuse. It makes possible an immensely robust theology of power.

But over and over again, especially among evangelicals and post/evangelicals, we repeat arguments that make worldly power necessary ignoring the ways Godly power gets pushed aside. There are times when worldly power is necessary, but we extend these unique times into all the times. We are creatures of Christendom (epistemological) habits. We have no imagination for God at work in any other way. We therefore default to worldly power in often using apologies for Christian use of worldly power.

By the time I reach ch. 5 in Reckoning with Power, I start to dig into the theology of power that drives three of the more popular apologies for Christian over-use of worldly power. These treatments are subtle, compelling, and helpful in their own ways. But they can tempt us in sneaky ways to over-use worldly power and thereby marginalize godly power from our lives. These three apologies are by Andy Crouch, Diane Langberg and Dominique Gilliard. In the next three posts on this substack, I want to riff off of these three significant and popular treatments of power and where I see them as both helpful and where I see them as dangerous. So let’s dive into the first post on Andy Crouch

Playing God – The book

Andy Crouch’s book Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (page numbers in parentheses) puts forth a compelling argument for using power for the work of God’s justice. It is perhaps the most read and accepted treatment of power among thinking evangelicals. And so, when trying to understand how evangelicals/ex-evangelicals think about power, we start here.

The book’s stated goal is to rehabilitate power by arguing against those “naysayers” who see power as an all-encompassing corrupting force. In the process, and this is important for me, Crouch does not distinguish between two different powers. For him there are two ways the one power is used. For Crouch, we get power right not by distinguishing between two kinds of power and then posturing ourselves accordingly, but by discerning the right way to use the power we have. If we use our power in a way that honors God, out of relationship with God, ordered toward His purposes, justice can be accomplished. On the other hand, if we use this power unto ourselves, corruption and abuse happen. If we just refuse to use power at all, we are in essence refusing to live into God’s gift, being created in His image, with power.

It is an enormously influential and compelling account of power and a compelling explanation of how to use power for God’s justice in the world. It is a version of what I called in the book, “the standard account of power.” So what’s the problem?

Crouch’s Blurring of the Two Powers

For me the problem begins with the potential in Crouch’s delineation of power to blur the two powers: Godly power and worldly power, to in essence “play God” (in his words) with worldly power. For to use worldly coercive power in the name of God opens the way to abuse, because no one should challenge the use of power if the person is doing God’s work. It is the pathway to abuse. Furthermore, such a blurring does not recognize the limits of what worldly power can do, and thereby crowds out space for God’s power to heal and redeem the world. If indeed Crouch is doing this, his book tempts us to do the dangerous thing all over again: to use worldly power in the name of God.

Crouch starts the book by comparing power to electricity. Power, like electricity, is “a fundamental feature of life.” “All life requires power.” So, much like Reinhold Niebuhr, Crouch claims that power is power, it is ubiquitous, and cannot be avoided by anyone who wishes to live in the world. Power is part of creation, a gift given to us by God. And we must use this power as persons created in God’s image. This is the reality we are given.

In presenting reality in this way, like Niebuhr, Crouch makes any distinction between the two powers irrelevant for work in the world. In essence, he flattens the two powers into one and sets into motion the blurring of the two powers.

Crouch’s Interpretation of Genesis 1-3

Like many evangelicals, Crouch looks to Genesis 1 to establish power as the given we are created with. Humans are commanded to “fill the earth,” “subdue it,” and have dominion over every living thing. Crouch argues that, as ones created in God’s image, we must use this power not in “the struggle for mastery and domination” but in “collaboration, cooperation and ultimately love” for the flourishing of the whole earth. (p.48) As with many evangelicals, for Crouch the creation narratives of Genesis form the foundation for his theology of power.

Crouch describes the two contrasting ways one can use power as God’s “Let there be . . .” in Genesis 1 and Captain Picard’s “Make it so” in Star Trek. (p.33) Pickard exercises power by commanding those beneath him, telling them what to do. For anyone under Pickard, they are to execute his decision and be done with it. God’s command in Genesis, however, bequeaths power to others, making room for more power. “Let there be” opens up space for more power to be distributed. And so, the first way of exercising power creates as God does. The human, in the image of God, gives away power and cultivates the flourishing of life among people. The second way exercises power as autonomy, independence from God. This power leads to idolatry, narcissism, and abuse. Crouch complains that evangelicals jump too quickly to Genesis 3. They do not recognize the goodness of power as created in Genesis 1.(p.30)

For Crouch then there are two different ways to use the one power. But is Crouch missing what happened in Genesis 3 in regard to power? The great sin of humanity in the garden was the usurping of God’s power, setting loose the sin of “power over” (Gen. 3:16) and a spiral of that power into violence (6:11) that required the exit of humans from the garden itself, the place of God’s presence, godly power. Human agency, by usurping God’s power, in independence from God, brought forth a different kind of power, a power of violence to the world, a violence that God renounced (vv. 6–7). This “power over” must not now somehow be used on the basis of relation to God. It must be either rejected in toto or used as a compromised power in limited fashion in a fallen world. It cannot be used as an extension of God’s power to heal the world. This is what leads to abuse. It is why God “drove out the humans” out of the garden and placed cherubim and a sword flaming at the entry “to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:24).

To overlook Genesis 3, therefore, is to miss how to live after the fall. There is no getting back to good creation before the fall except through Jesus. We now must deal with a fallen power at work in the world that fundamentally alters how we live with power in the world. We must face the constant choice as we live in the world: whether to live in control of fallen and limited “power over” or to come “under” God’s incredible, life-giving “power with” and then cooperate “with” God.

Jesus and Power According to Crouch

In a small chapter on Jesus, Crouch says, “Jesus knows that, far from being powerless, he holds all things in his hands.” In commenting on John 13, where Peter protests Jesus’s washing his feet, Crouch curiously says that “Jesus wins.” Jesus overcomes resistance and secures obedience from Peter. But even though these things happen, Crouch does not recognize that the power Jesus exercises is a power of another kind. There is no coercion in this power. There is no “power over” in the power of God the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

In the entirety of this episode with Peter, Crouch says there is no point “where Jesus gives up power—instead, it is the culmination and demonstration of his power. What Jesus gives up in this story is not power but privilege and status.” According to Crouch, Jesus uses his power without apology to heal, forgive, proclaim, teach, and feed thousands, and yet he refuses to use the privilege that comes with those successes. (p.162-64) But Crouch fails to see that there is a completely different power at work in and through Jesus. It is indeed a renouncing of worldly power in toto. Crouch sees this as Jesus using the one power in a different way. Power is power and it is all the same for Crouch. It is just used differently by people who are in right relationship with God. And Jesus is the exemplar in this.

I contend, however, that this account of Jesus and His power blurs the two powers into one. It tempts us to believe that Christians, in right relation to God, can take up worldly power as their own to do the bidding of God’s purposes. It is what leads to abuse in the church and Trumpian Christian politics in the world.

Institutions and Power

Institutions are good, according to Crouch, when they create and distribute power. They make possible the wherewithal to create something good of the world. They make image-bearing possible. (170-175) Crouch admits there is an unequal nature to power (“power over”) that is exercised in institutions, yet it is for the good, the flourishing of people. He acknowledges this power can devolve into idolatry and injustice. So it must be up to individuals, acting as true image bearers of God, to use the power of an institution toward human flourishing or idolatry and injustice. (p.220)

And so for Crouch, it is important to get the right people in the positions of power: Christians who are in right relation to God. These are people who will exercise power as image bearers of God, doing the most good for God’s justice in the world. We need more Christians to exercise power out of a true relation to God.

And this is where the rubber meets the road, where the ultimate temptation is revealed. It is at this point that Christians are tempted to believe they know best how to run the world. Because of their unique relation to God, they can wield worldly power the best for His purposes. This is the gateway drug to the blurring of the two powers and to the abuse that most often follows. For Crouch this is the right side of power: Christians in right relation with God in control of power. But in fact, this is what the wrong side of power looks like.

Crouch is aware this power can be distorted and result in violence. Humans regularly get entangled in sin. The solution for Crouch is “the character solution.” Crouch believes the toxicity of those in power can be reordered mitigated by leaders submitting to the disciplines of a life with Christ that make them oriented to being “more deeply and truly image bearers” of God. Crouch cites disciplines like solitude, silence, and fasting, solitary disciplines that take us away from an audience that tends to pump up one’s ego and instead put us purely before God. For Crouch these are disciplines that “tame power” and keep it within the purview of its rightful relation to God. (237-240)

But can these disciplines work this way if they are infused with “power over” in the name of God? Will they not themselves become the means to further the leader’s goals in using “power over”? If we do not recognize two different powers at work, how can these disciplines shape a leader so that they come “under” God’s power?

Jayakumar Christian and Crouch’s Failure to See Godly Power at Work

Jayakumar Christian runs World Vision, India, an organization of thousands of employees. Crouch marvels as he works for justice at a simple desk, with limited use of phone, engaged with multiple relationships, patiently working to uncover truth. He is much loved by all the people around him as he patiently plods away at freeing child slaves from sweat shops and sex trafficking. He works very simply yet goes deep into systems of corruption and evil to unravel their power over people’s lives. For Crouch this is power at its best.

But a closer look at Jayakumar begs the question: Is this a man exercising “power over” or a man who has submitted to “under power,” God’s power at work in the world? Does the power at work in Jayakumar look like coercion/power over or, rather, the power unleashed in Jesus by his death, resurrection, and ascension as Lord of the world? This question eludes Crouch, but it must not elude us. Because it will make all the difference in our churches, the posture of our leaders, and the Christians we send into the world. It will enable us to avoid the blurring of the two powers. It will open space for God to work among us in His power, for us to be on the right side of God’s power.

Crouch fails to recognize how radically different the power of God is from the “power over” that dominates the world after the fall. But by proclaiming a new power at work in Jesus, we can challenge the use of “power over” at all times among Christian leadership. We can keep worldly power within its limits when we are in the world. And where we can make space for God’s presence to work, we must. For He alone, in His power, can convict of sin, pull us toward His love, draw us toward Him and one another, and work wonderous healing, reconciliation, and renewal of all things relational and systemic.

In Summary

Crouch’s account of power and the Christian use of it for the sake of justice, is a compelling account that resonates with evangelicals and ex-evangelicals alike. It gives us agency amidst the compelling demands of an unjust world and the urgency for Christian to join hands with the powers of the world to work for God’s justice. But it does not distinguish the difference between worldly power and Godly power. In so doing it does not recognize the limits of such worldly power to do the work of God’s justice. In so doing, it does not recognize the ways worldly power crowds out space for God’s power to work for the healing of the world. It does not recognize the possibilities for Christians using worldly power in God’s name to impose their will and perpetuate the ills of colonialist violence, in the patterns of Christian mission of the past. For all these reasons, Crouch’s theology of power is a partial one and ultimately an inadequate one for we who seek God’s Kingdom to take shape in the world in cooperation with the power of God in Christ at work in the world.

………

I realize this riff on Crouch begs many questions. It is in part a selection from ch. 5 of Reckoning with Power and depends a bit on the back chapters of the book. Nonetheless I hope it starts conversations in your churches, around tables, and among leaders. And Andy, if you’re interested, please drop me a line here, and we’d love to have you on the Theology On Mission podcast sometime soon to discuss these issues and more!!!