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Ralph Hancock
Jean Jacque Rousseau observed how Christianity created a separation of the theological from the political. Separation of church and state remains a contentious political and philosophical problem. Reconciling the possibilities of something beyond this world with the demands of the natural and political worlds is an important challenge for political thought. Augustines City of God addresses this rivalry. The superiority of the spiritual over the secular characterized Medieval thought. Papal Supremacy was articulated in Bonifaces bull Unam Sanctum. The Protestant Reformation would address the tensions emanating from this articulation.
Luther was born to a newly prosperous peasant family in Eisleben, Saxony in 1883. Luther joined the Augustinian order at the age of 23, but his decision only increased his existential anxiety as he became more and more aware of his sinfulness. Luther became aware of justification by faith alone through reading St. Paul culminating in an epiphany in the tower library of the monastery. Luthers anxiety was reduced by this realization.
Luther attacks Aristotle as an enemy of grace in his Disputation against Scholastic Theology (1517). Aristotles teachings about the cultivation of moral virtues created a space in Christian theology for a moral economy where humans were able to contribute to their own salvations. This teaching was viewed by Luther as an impossible burden given the fallen nature of human beings. One manifestation of this teaching was the existence of indulgences. Luther condemned these practices by posting 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Castle (October 31, 1517).
Luther argued in Concerning Christian Liberty that faith was radically free from dependence on works or anything external. By nature, human beings are enemies of God and cannot selflessly love God. Only through Jesus Christ are our sins covered with his righteousness enabling us to love God. This did not negate the commandment to do good works, but merely cautioned against the sin of imagining they were efficacious in bringing about salvation. A life of selfless service could best be cultivated through awareness of absolute dependency on Gods grace.
Ecclesiastical authority is narrowed by the priesthood of all believers. Christians are exalted in creation and are born to rule. Christian grace and liberty are eclipsed by existing religious order. Christians are subject to principalities and powers and should do every good work.
Luthers political theory evolved with circumstances. His articulation of beliefs had radical implications. He encouraged the German nobles to begin dismantling the Roman power structures in his Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.
Luthers teaching collapses the traditional hierarchy between spiritual and secular functions. This caused some to embrace the full implications of the end of hierarchies including the apocalyptic genius Thomas Muntzer (1489-1525). The ensuing led Luther to take a conservative position in his work, Against the Murdering and Thieving Hordes of Peasants (1525) His earlier On Secular Authority: How Far Does Obedience Owed to it Extend (1523) offered a more measured analysis of the issues raised by his theology.
Three Walls of the Romanists, From An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning Reform to the Christian Estate
First, when pressed by temporal power, they have made decrees and said that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but on the other hand, that the spiritual is above the temporal. Second, when the attempt is made to reprove them out of the Scriptures, they raise the objection that the interpretation of Scriptures belongs to no one except the pope. Third if threatened with a council, they answer with the fable that no one can call a council but the pope.
On the Secular Authority: How Far Does the Obedience Owed to It Extend?
If someone wanted to have the world ruled according to the Gospel, and to abolish all secular law and the Sword, on the ground that all are baptized and Christians and that the Gospel will have no law or sword used among Christians, who have no need of them in any case, what do you imagine the effect would be? He would let loose the wild animals from their bonds and chains, and let them maul and tear everyone to pieces, saying all the while that really they are just fine, tame, gentle, little things. But my wounds would tell me different. And so the wicked under cover of the name of Christians, would misuse the freedom of the Gospel, would work their wickedness and would claim that they are Christians and [therefore] subject to no law and no Sword
Medieval Christianity subordinated the political to the spiritual, but as in Aquinas, saw some good in the political. Luther argued the political was worthless for the spiritual, but argues for the political on what it provides for nonbelievers. Secular needs become authoritative for Christians as someone elses needs. It is a Christian act, and an act of love, to kill enemies without scruple, to rob and to burn, and to do whatever damages the enemy, according to the usages of war, until he is defeated (On Secular Authority, Part 3)
Luther concludes against the use of force to suppress heresy. The radical separation of the secular and the spiritual has reconciled them. The world is too wicked to deserve princes much wiser and more just than this. Frogs must have storks.
If you do not resist [the secular ruler] and let him take away your faith or your books, then you will truly have denied God. Luther did not countenance revolution or regicide, but only passive resistance to rulers who overstepped their boundaries. Luther has difficulty coming up with a consistent theoretical position on the right of resistance. He permitted nobles to resist the Emperor, but he did not give private individuals such a right.
The ruler should use reason to decide upon the appropriate application of law. Unfettered reason is greater than all of the law books. Reason is constrained to secular needs and blocked from higher philosophical or priestly purposes.
Martin Luther: The Mutual Emancipation of the Spiritual and the Secular
Political authority is secured through the Christian duty to love others. Abstraction of duty from purpose is Luthers way of doing full justice spiritual transcendence and material necessity.
John Calvin ( 1509-1564) was born in Northern France and began his studies of Theology in Paris and was later sent to Orleans and Bourges to study law. Calvin, though inspired by Luther, was more restrained, nuanced, and organized. Calvin authored the Institutes of the Christian Religion, which served as a Protestant counterpoint to the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas. Calvin had a complex relationship with Geneva, the center of the international Calvinist movement.
Christian freedom is freedom from the impossible burden of righteousness of works. Freedom from works liberates the believer to obey God voluntarily. Believers are not bound to external practices and should not give ground to superstitious beliefs though they should avoid giving unnecessary offense. Believers should not erroneously transfer the doctrine of spiritual liberty to the secular realm. Calvin reinforces Luthers divide between the spiritual and the secular.
Calvin rejects sophist or scholastic philosophers who perceive any merit in human laws contributing to the forming of the human soul. Here I only wished to observe, that the whole man, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is so deluged, as it were, that no part remains exempt from sin. Thus Paul says that all carnal thoughts and affections are enmity against God, and consequently death (Rom. 8:7) The soul has no power to aspire toward good. Free will is a fiction.
The salvation of the soul has nothing to do with human acts but is predetermined by God. The damned are similarly selected by God. This doctrine may be repugnant to reason, but it preserves Gods glory and preserves the humility of the believer.
Government is ordained by God and is the highest and most sacred station in mortal life. Calvin follows Aquinas in affirming how the political is essential to our humanity. How is human depravity reconciled with Calvins high estimate of the dignity of the political?
Political order is included under Gods providential order. Calvin has a robust if nontraditional understanding natural law. Natural gift of reason remains partially in tact. No man is devoid of the light of reason. Shame and honor curves the consequences of human depravity. Human virtue does not improve the condition of the soul. Politics is about self-preservation and counteracts lustful and haughty appeal to justice, honor, or freedom. Revealed authority is essential for preserving order. Human callings are all equally valid as people pursue their humble mundane tasks.
Godly Kings and princes should sustain religion by laws, edicts, and judgments. Calvin joins spiritual and secular functions though he does not do it through the medieval concept of hierarchy of purposes. The sting of government can remind people to fear God. Calvin prefers a mixed form of government eschewing the extremes of monarchy and democracy.
Monarchy has a tendency toward tyranny. Aristocracy has a tendency to the interest of a few. Democracy has a tendency toward sedition. A mixed regime is best to check the vices of human beings. Our duty is to obey and submit to legitimate authorities.
Calvin emphasized obedience. Calvin endorses popular magistrates protecting the people from the tyranny of the King. Calvin opens the door for a citizen to resist a king with reference to Daniels refusal to obey an impious decree. Later Calvinist, argued for the limited authority of monarchs (John Ponet, 1514-1556) and even the lawfulness of forcible resistance ( Christopher Goodman, 1520-1603). The more militant implications of Calvinism came to fruition in Britain. Calvin opens the door to resisting tyrants through his arguments for individual resistance, the popular basis of lesser magistrates authority, and the covenanting tradition. Luther focused believer on the inward joys of faith, whereas Calvin pointed the believers energies to the outer world.
Freedom of conscience from Rome and tying it to holy scripture may have strengthened the emerging nation-states. The success of American democracy is traced to the moral freedom inherited from Christianity. The themes of the Reformation remain relevant for modern thinkers as they confront modernity and its heritage.