Gregory VII won his battle, but lost the war. Joseph Strayer ( On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton Classic Editions) ) notes that “by separating itself so clearly from lay governments, the Church unwittingly sharpened concepts about the nature of secular authority. . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s often noted, but during this Advent the point struck home with particular force: John begins his gospel with the incarnational gospel that the “Word became flesh and tabernacled ( skenoo ) among us.” God the Word descends from heaven to pitch His tent with men. But that . . . . Continue Reading »
Figgis notes that all the great questions of political theory from the late middle ages to Locke and beyond were first formulated with reference to the church: “Whatever we may think now, there is no doubt that such words as king, republic, aristocracy, and the maxims of the civil law, were . . . . Continue Reading »
Figgis again, speaking of the theory of the conciliarist movement: “Speculation on the possible power of the Council, as the true depositary of sovereignty within the Church, drove the thinkers to treat the Church definitely as one of a class, political societies. If it cannot be said that . . . . Continue Reading »
Dumont argues that the Gelasian “two powers” theory is often misread. The theory is not a simple hierarchy, the state subordinated to the church, but a ” hierarchical complementarity .” Priests are indeed superior to kings, but they are “subordinate to the king in . . . . Continue Reading »
No discussion of Yoder would be complete without yet another review of the question of pacifism. But this is no tangent from the present discussion. God calls kings to inhabit His city. He promises that they will respond. When they do, do they remain kings? Can they be disciples of Jesus while . . . . Continue Reading »
The following two posts excerpt from my response to Mark Thiessen Nation and Vigen Guroian, who critiqued my Defending Constantine at a session at the recent AAR national meeting in San Francisco. My response can be summed up with two questions, one for Vigen and one for Mark. To Vigen, my question . . . . Continue Reading »
Twice in the opening question of the Summa , Thomas justifies some institution or practice in the church with a reference to the need for saving truth to be communicated to the uneducated many. Are sacred doctrine, and revelation, necessary? Yes, and partly because “the truth of God such as . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 2009 article responding to Richard Hays’s pacifist reading of the New Testament ( Studies in Christian Ethics ), Nigel Biggar argues that Hays’s Anabaptist reading of Romans 13 is “incoherent.” Hays argues that while the use of force in punishment is ordained of God, . . . . Continue Reading »
Make allowances for Schmemann’s settled anti-Western bias, but there is still a lot to be said for his account of the rise of secularism in the West. Its roots lie in the abandonment of the eschatological character of early Christianity: “It replaced the tension, essential in the early . . . . Continue Reading »
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