Prologue: Story, identity, and making sense of the Bible

Part 1. A historical retrospective on the relation between the Bible and politics in the United States. Introduction ; The theocratic model of the Puritans ; The challenge of the prophetic-dialectical model ; The revolutionary period and the lure of the apocalyptic model ; Church and state in the founding documents ; The church-state partnership of the antebellum years ; The gilded age : the gospel of wealth and the social gospel ; Twentieth-century challenges ; The twenty-first century's perilous debut

Part 2. Politics in the Bible. Defining a suitable interpretive method ; Charismatic rule : Israel's first polity ; Monarchy : "like the other nations" ; Prophetic politics ; The politics of Amos : idolatrous nationalism and the collapse of moral leadership ; The politics of Hosea : moral bankruptcy and civil chaos ; Isaiah : the majesty of the Holy One as the nation's sole foundation ; Jeremiah : the suffering prophet ; Ezekiel : calamity, ritual cleansing, and restoration ; Isaiah 40-55 : exile and the renewal of hope ; Haggai and Zechariah : a temple-centered vision of restoration ; The Jewish commonwealth and a politics of accommodation ; Isaiah 24-27, 56-66, Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 9-14, Malachi : dissent and the dawning of apocalyptic politics ; Sapiential politics in Proverbs, Sirach, Job, and Ecclesiastes ; The apocalyptic politics of the book of Daniel and the Dead Sea scrolls ; Roman occupation and Jewish political responses ; The politics of the New Testament ; The politics of Jesus ; The politics of the Apostle Paul ; The church accommodates itself to a world not about to end ; The book of Revelation : a persecuted community seeks shelter in an apocalyptic vision ; The politics of the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles

Epilogue: What is the Bible's message for today?