HC2635: Two Kingdoms

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HC2635 Two Kingdoms
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• Matthew 2215-22 15 Then the Pharisees went and
  plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So
  they sent their disciples to him, along with the
  Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are
  sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance
  with truth, and show deference to no one for you
  do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell
  us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay
  taxes to the emperor, or not?" 18 But Jesus,
  aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting
  me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the
  coin used for the tax." And they brought him a
  denarius. 20 Then he said to them, "Whose head
  is this, and whose title?" 21 They answered,
  "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give
  therefore to the emperor the things that are the
  emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
  22 When they heard this, they were amazed and
  they left him and went away.

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This saying opened up a new section in the
history of the relationship between politics and
religion. . .It is precisely this separation of
the authority of the state and sacral authority,
the new dualism that this contains, that
represents the origin and the permanent
foundation of the western idea of freedom. From
now on there were two societies related to each
other but not identical with each other, neither
of which had this character of totality. The
state is no longer itself the bearer of a
religious authority that reaches into the
ultimate depths of conscience, but for its moral
basis refers beyond itself to another community.
This community in its turn, the Church,
understands itself as a final moral authority
which however depends on voluntary adherence and
is entitled only to spiritual but not to civil
penalties, precisely because it does not have the
status the state has of being accepted by all as
something given in advance.i i. Joseph
Cardinal Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism Politics,
tr. Robert Nowell (New York Crossroads, 1988),
160f.
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Augustine, City of God

• Civitas terrena Civitas diaboli
• Origin in fratricide (Romulus kills Remus)
• Roman pietas based on avarice, ambition, pride
  (Sallust)
• Self-love peace
• Civitas terrena et civitas caelestis(Niccolo
  Polano ca. 1460, Paris )

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The Christian position implied two classes of
duties, spiritual and secular, which might on
occasion come into apparent opposition but which
could not be ultimately reconcilable, and
similarly it implied two institutional
organizations which remained distinct, though
each needed, and in all normal cases received,
the support and aid of the other. George
Sabine, A History of Political Philosophy (3rd
ed.), p. 186
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Papal Position
God

• God

Pope
king
People
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To the Pope is said in the person of the
prophet I have set you over the nations and
over kingdoms to root up and to pull down and to
waste and to destroy and to build and to plant.
Jer. 1.10 To me also is said in the person of
the Apostle I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. . . Thus, others were called
to a part of the care, but Peter alone assumed
the plenitude of power. You see then who is this
servant set over the household, truly the vicar
of Jesus Christ, successor of Peter, anointed of
the Lord, a God of Pharaoh, set between God and
man, lower than God but higher than man, who
judges and is judged by no one. Innocent III
(1198-1216)
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Temporal Authority To What Extent Should It Be
Obeyed (1522)

• Extent of temporal authority
• Limits of temporal authority
• Christian mission of the magistrate

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The church cannot coerce

• Among Christians there shall and can be no
  authority rather all are alike subject to one
  another, as Paul says in Romans 12 Each shall
  consider the other his superior 12.10 And
  Peter says in I Peter 5, All of you be
  subject to one another.
• LW 45, 117

10
The state cannot exercise spiritual authority
over souls

• If anyone attempted to rule the world by the
  gospel and to abolish all temporal law and sword
  on the plea that all are baptized and Christian,
  and that, according to the gospel, there shall be
  among them no law or swordor need for
  eitherpray tell me, friend, what would he be
  doing? He would be loosing the ropes and chains
  of the savage wild beasts and letting them bite
  and mangle everyone, meanwhile insisting that
  they were harmless, tame, and gentle creatures
  but I would have the proof in my wounds.
• LW, 45, 91

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Politics and Religion

• The Devil never stops cooking and brewing these
  two kingdoms into each other. In the Devils name
  the secular leaders always want to be Christs
  masters and teach Him how He should run His
  church and His spiritual government. Similarly,
  the false clerics and schismatic spirits want to
  be the masters, though not in Gods name, and to
  teach people how to organize the secular
  government. Thus the Devil is very busy on both
  sides, and he has much to do.
• LW 13, 194

12
The burden of two kingdoms in each individual life

• From all this we gain the true meaning of
  Christs words in Matthew 5 39, Do not resist
  evil, etc. It is this A Christian should be so
  disposed that he will suffer every evil and
  injustice without avenging himself neither will
  he seek legal redress in the courts but have
  utterly no need of temporal authority and law for
  his own sake. On behalf of others, however, he
  may and should seek vengeance, justice,
  protection, and help, and do as much as he can to
  achieve it. Likewise, the governing authority
  should, on its own initiative or through the
  instigation of others, help and protect him too,
  without any complaint, application, instigation
  on his own part. If it fails to do this, he
  should permit himself to be despoiled and
  slandered he should not resist evil, as Christs
  words say. LW, 45, 101

13
Regnum mundi/Regnum Christi

• Self-glory
• Lust for domination
• Loving ones own strength
• Pride
• Worldly wisdom
• Cain (the oldergood assumes evil)

• Glory of God
• Serving in love
• God is ones strength
• Humility
• Divine foolishness
• Abel

14
Heinrich Bornkamm, Luthers Doctrine of the Two
Kingdoms, Facet Books (Fortress, 1966), 35

• The emphasis place by so many Luther
  interpreters upon the point that the Christian as
  Christian is drawn out of the secular kingdom,
  and that his actions are grounded by a completely
  different law, does provide a needed reminder of
  Luthers radical understanding of the Sermon on
  the Mount and a safeguard against assimilating
  the Christian into citizenship in the world.

15
On behalf of others, however, he may and should
seek vengeance, justice, protection, and help,
and do as much as he can to achieve it. LW
45, 101
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Reason and Natural Law

• A good and just decision must not and cannot be
  pronounced out of books, but must come from a
  free mind, as though there were no books. Such a
  free decision is given, however, by love and by
  natural law, with which all reason is filled. . .
• LW, 45, 128

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Story of Duke Charles of Burgundy

• Observe No pope, no jurist, no lawbook could
  have given him such a decision. It sprang from
  untrammeled reason, above the law in all the
  books, and is so excellent that everyone must
  approve of it and find the justice of it written
  in his own heart. . .Therefore, we should keep
  written laws subject to reason, from which they
  originally welled forth as from the spring of
  justice.
• LW, 45, 129

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Unity of God
Natural law
Christs preaching
believers
Non-believers
The Secular World (Regnum mundi)
The secular political realm (regnum mundi)
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Larvae Dei

• What else is all our work to Godwhether in the
  fields, in the garden, in the city, in the house,
  in war, or in governmentbut just such a childs
  performance, by which He wants to give His gifts
  in the fields, at home, and everywhere else?
  These are the masks of God, behind which he wants
  to remain concealed and do all things.
• LW, 14, 114

20

• But this would be the best, and also the only
  remedy remaining, if kings, princes, nobility,
  cities, communities themselves began and opened a
  way for a new start i.e., reformation, so that
  bishops and clergy, who now are afraid, would
  have reason to follow.
• LW, 44, 91

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God did not wish the rational being made in his
own image to have dominion over any but
irrational creatures, not man over man, but men
over beasts. City of God xix, 15
22

• Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575)
• Magdeburg Confession (1550-51)
• Schmalkalden December, 1530
• Imperium in imperio

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Augsburg Interim (1548)

• Catholic doctrine plus concessions
• Clerical marriage
• Communion in both kinds
• Restatement of doctrine of justification
• Pope as supreme bishop

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Leipzig Interim (1548)

• Luther caused break with Rome
• Lutheran doctrine with Catholic features
• Latin in services
• Observance of Catholic fast and feast days
• Recognition of seven sacraments

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Magdeburg Confession Instruction and Warning

• When high authority unjustly presumes to
  persecute with force not only the persons of
  those subject to its rule, but also their divine
  or natural rights and when it suspends and
  destroys true doctrine and worship, the less
  magistrate is under divine obligation to defend
  itself and those subject to it as best it can
  against that authority.

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And truly God claims, and would have us grant
him, omnipotencenot empty, idle, and almost
unconscious sort that the Sophists imagine, but a
watchful, effective, active sort, engaged in
ceaseless activity. Not, indeed, an omnipotence
that is only a general principle of confused
motion, as if he were to command a river to flow
through its once-appointed channels, but one that
is directed toward individual and particular
motions. . .governing heaven and earth by his
providence. Institutes, I/xvi/3
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Münster 1535

• Jan Matthys of Haarlem
• Jan Beuckelsz
• King Jan van Leyden

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Lambert Church, Münster
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. . .if we are cruelly tormented by a savage
prince, if we are greedily despoiled by one who
is avaricious or wanton, if we are neglected by a
slothful one, if finally we are vexed for pietys
sake by one who is impious and sacrilegious, let
us first be mindful of our own misdeeds, which
without doubt are chastised by such whips of the
Lord. By this, humility will restrain our
impatience. Let us then also call this thought to
mind, that it is not for us to remedy such evils
that only this remains, to implore the Lords
help in whose hands are the hearts of kings, and
the changing of kingdoms. IV/xx/29 Daniel
97 7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee,
but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day
to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near,
and that are far off, through all the countries
whither thou hast driven them, because of their
trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
Proverbs 211 The king's heart is in the hand
of the LORD, as the rivers of water he turneth
it whithersoever he will.
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For if the people, the wholly private class,
are entitled to elect magistrates, if there are
magistrates of the people such as ephors,
tribunes, demarchs, and the French Estates
General, then the people themselves must make
politics their business, at least in periodic
elections. And if God has made politics the
peoples business in their wayif God has given
the people authority to defend themselves by
electing magistrates to represent themthen who
can say he has not given them whatever authority
is necessary for their own defense. Ralph C.
Hancock, Calvin and the Foundations of Modern
Politics, 72-73.
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• . . .however these deeds of men are judged in
  themselves, still the Lord accomplishes his work
  through them alike when he broke the bloody
  scepters of arrogant kings and when he overturned
  intolerable governments. Let the princes hear and
  be afraid.
• IV/20/31

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• . . obedience to secular rulers is never to
  lead us away from obedience to him to whose will
  the desires of all ought to yield, to whose
  majesty their scepters ought to be submitted.
• IV/20/31