Prophetic Politics

PROPHETIC POLITICS
his prophesying (that is, with a narrative), can only evoke the metatexts and metanarratives
of prophesy and guide his or her story recipients to associate his/her narrative
with the prophetic genre.
When one considers the idea in relation to American prophets, it is necessary to
keep in mind the American tradition of laymen working as preachers, organizing revivals
and generally spreading the Gospel. Indeed, most of the very efficient revivalists
were not clergy, but average people. There was a deep dislike of the
separation of clergy and laity, especially in the cases that involved the composition
of the ministry. (Herberg, 1960: 106) Revivalism is not unique to the Americans but
its popularity and power owed much to the fact that it depended on public speech
in plain language and extemporaneous speech. (Boorstin, 1965: 318) Religion and
the word of God were democratized in America. ‘If God spoke through the common
man, the voice of the people was the voice of God.’ (McLoughlin, 1978: 86) This is
a two-sided argument; anybody, layman or priest, can adopt the prophetic role without
connection to the church but additionally, the politician can glean the word of
God by listening to the people.
De Tocqueville writes that it is not necessary for God himself to speak in order for
the people to discover the true signs of His will. The examination of the ‘usual course
of nature and the continuous tendency of the events’ (2000: 6–7) is enough to reveal
God’s will. The important point is that the prophet does not need to hear the
voice of God to interpret it. He can use his powers of deduction and by close observation
of the world around him mentally compose the picture of what God’s plan
includes. The vision of the political prophet has to be narrated so as to derive from
an intelligent interpretation of God’s will. This is a more suitable method of prophesying
to our contemporary conjunction. Rationality or at least the appearance of
it is crucial in carrying out policies and one of the greatest challenges of prophetic
politics is to combine the notions of God’s will or plan with such rational guidelines
of policy that even an atheist could accept the reasoning behind them. But if the divine
inspiration is depicted to have been communicated by means of reason instead
of ‘a voice from the burning bush’, the prophetic policymaking creates a narrative
which is more inclusive in its nature.
Prophets often arise from the margins of society and Gutterman sees even the
Biblical prophets as outsiders of their societies and cultural contexts in a position
where they can criticize the social order and attempt to further equality and justice.
(Gutterman, 2005: 43) I argue that the prophet can be a central figure of the society
as well if he chooses to only narratively situate himself outside the realm of politics.
In fact the most interesting political prophets are those who have an authority
bestowed on them by their elevated socio-political status. This gives them a dominant
narrator’s position and helps the process in which their stories cue their listeners
more efficiently to engage in their storyworlds. A successful prophet is a leader
Perspectives Vol. 167, No. 2 2009
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