ABSTRACT
These are not easy questions to answer, and there is no simple formula for how to apply the Bible to political life. Nevertheless, if we are not simply to succumb to cynicism and assume that all interpretation is a matter of justifying our own previous political commitments, we need to identify some good practices, in the form of considerations that any interpreter or community of interpretation should keep in mind when approaching the Bible for political guidance. In what follows, I will ask and attempt to answer some basic questions about what texts to use, how to interpret them, and who should do the interpreting. In each section I offer some suggestions for good practices and comment briefly on the virtues necessary to sustain those practices.
