Lutherna View of Church and State

LESSON TWO

A LUTHERAN VIEW OF CHURCH AND STATE

I. The Church: From Persecuted to Persecuting

A. Early church and Rome

1. Periodic and sometimes intense persecutions.

2. Edward Gibbon, quoted by CTCR on page 12:

“The policy of the emperors and the senate, so far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.”

3. Tolerance masked Caesar’s de facto sovereignty.

4. Caesar: ultimate authority for life in this world.

5. Conflict: Ethelbert Stauffer, quoted by CTCR on page 12:

“The Roman authorities were fundamentally tolerant in religious matters. Every people of the empire could have its own beliefs, and every individual could strive for salvation in his own way. No religious community was suppressed so long as it fell in with public order. Only the worship of the emperor was obligatory on all, for it was grounded on imperial law, and the Roman authorities permitted no laxity in matters of law. The worship of the emperor was therefore not fundamentally a matter of belief, but one of order and discipline.”

B. Early Christians

1. Ro 13:1-7

2. Not all religions are equally true, false or useful.

a. Is 44:6-11,24

b. Jn 14:6

c. Ac 4:10-12

d. Php 2:9-11

3. Christian faith has many implications for temporal life.

a. Ro 12:1,2

b. Ro 14:7-9

c. 1Co 5:9,11

d. Gal 2:20

e. Gal 5:16-25

f. Eph 4:17-5:20 (particularly 4:17,19,22-24,29,31,32 and 5:1,3,4)

g. Php 3:17-21

h. Col 1:10-12

i. Col 3:1-17 (particularly 3:5,612)

j. 1Pe 1:13-16

4. Early Christians were therefore threats to established social order.

C. Constantine

1. Response to a vision; vow to conquer under the sign of the cross.

2. Became Roman emperor.

3. Christianity became officially established religion of empire.

4. Door opened to extensive corruption of church’s life.

D. Collapse of Roman Empire

1. Church literally stepped in to hold European civilization together.

2. Augustine

a. Approved use of civil power in service of church by a Christian ruler.

b. Refused to make exercise of civil power a proper concern of the church.

3. Other theologians and popes not so careful.

4. Medieval church preoccupied with legal and ecclesiastical structure.

E. Papal power

1. High-water mark achieved by Innocent III (1198-1216).

2. Judging all and judged by no one.

3. Revival of Roman law and Aristotelian philosophy in 12th century.

a. Attempts to limit power of pope.

b. Confrontations between church and states.

4. Most serious medieval attempt to limit power of pope was “conciliar theory”.

a. Provided religious legal justification for independent power of church councils.

b. Council of Constance: AD 1414-1417

(1) Were 3 duly elected popes (Rome; Avignon; Pisa)

(2) Declared itself to be supreme authority within church.

(3) Power short-lived (approximately half a century)

(4) Calvinists later appealed to this as model.

c. Theory involved 2 fundamental distinctions

(1) Between church headed by pope and universal church headed by Christ.

(2) Between letter of church law and its spirit (or true intention)

5. Papacy increasingly viewed as just another temporal power.

6. Spiritual authority was compromised.