Advent, tyranny and freedom

‘Free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny.’ These words come from the much-loved Advent carol, ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’. We sing it most years, and it has always moved me. The Lord Jesus comes to set me free.

Tyranny, though. Doesn’t that sound a little odd? I have the vote, a standard of living and access to medical care that, frankly, would make a medieval despot go green with envy, and that’s not counting the amusements open to me through the Web. Isn’t tyranny to do with oppression: no free speech, poverty and being devalued by whoever rules?

Actually, not quite. Tyranny can take those obviously oppressive forms. But Christian theology at its best has a more nuanced and wider view. At the heart of tyranny lies the idea of lawlessness: a rule or authority that does not properly recognise the laws that should properly confine it. Read more