The Calvinist International
As we have noted in the past, Calvin allowed for the suppression of heretics for political reasons, but he did not believe that the faith could be coerced. One reason that it can not be coerced is that, for Calvin, worship must be offered willing. A worship give out of fear or force is of […]
My recent essay on the extant tensions between political liberalism and Christianity, published in the October issue of the Australian cultural and political journal Quadrant, is now available online. In it, I attempt to demonstrate the historical links between Christianity and liberalism, vis-a-vis Larry Siedentop. The article is also my effort to persuade a secular audience about the necessity […]
John Calvin observes in commenting on Psalm 72 that it contains a prophecy that the kings of the earth will be “vanquished” and, having been “subjugated,” they will become subjects to Christ as King. On v. 10 (“The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents”), he writes: By the words מנחה, minchah, […]
Several months ago I posted a series of selections from commentaries on Psalm 148:11-12. Augustine alludes to this passage in City of God 2.19 to note that he believes it would be salutary for men of all kinds and conditions–indeed, for all men–to hear and heed the Christian proclamation. And not just salutary for their everlasting […]
Oliver O’Donovan wonders in the second chapter of The Desire of the Nations about the directionality of the analogy or metaphor of the statement “Yhwh is king”: does kingship here really tell us something about God, or is it merely a metaphor, reflecting human speculation about God but not unveiling anything of political importance about His […]
Herewith another passage from City of God Book 5 that is relevant to a post from a couple of weeks ago, and that probably, therefore, should have been included in that post–so take this as a supplement to that. In this passage, we get a nice summary of his views on virtue, religion, time, and eternity […]
The other day I was reading through parts of the eighteenth Topic, or Locus, of Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology–specifically, the 34th question on “The Political Government of the Church”–and came across a paragraph that seemed important in the argument but that I simply could not get to compute (operator error, perhaps?). I’m not sure how […]
W(h)igging Out? In discussions of political theology, one sometimes encounters the claim that the so-called “Constantinianism” of the magisterial Reformers was a kind of unthinking holdover from an earlier era; the implication seems to be, in other words, that their assumptions were perhaps not Christian enough, and were certainly not reflective enough. This post is […]
In Romans 13:4, Paul calls the magistrate a “minister of God” (KJV), a Dei…minister (Vulg.); the ESV translates the relevant phrase as “God’s servant.” Calvin agrees, echoing the language of the Vulgate in the Institutes’ prefatory address to King Francis and adding that the magistrate should acknowledge such to be the case: “Siquidem et verum regem […]
Justinian’s political theology is sometimes referred to as “dyarchy,” in which there are, or seem to be, two powers (on this ambiguity see below) ordained by God in human life, the the priestly and the imperial, sacerdotium et imperium (one cannot say the “sacred” and the “profane” for reasons which will become clear in what follows). […]