Program / Course 19: Modern Challenges / Lesson 6.1
What you will learn
- Outline the main phases of the relation between church and state from the early church to the modern period.
- State the charge that Christianity has served political power in terms its critics would accept.
- Describe the examples that support the charge and the examples that cut against it.
- Explain how the traditions have thought about authority, obedience and resistance.
The big idea
Critics say that Christianity, whatever its teaching, has repeatedly served the interests of kings, empires and nations, blessing wars, conquest and the established order. The record gives the charge real support. It also shows Christians resisting power, from the martyrs to the abolitionists, and the church has often acted as a rival to the state. The honest conclusion is that Christianity has been both a servant and a critic of power, and each generation must ask which role it is playing.
Key terms
- Constantinian shift
- The change after Constantine (reigned 306 to 337) by which Christianity moved from a persecuted minority to a favored and then official religion of the empire.
- Caesaropapism
- A system in which the ruler controls the church. The term is often applied, with debate, to the Byzantine empire.
- Symphonia
- The Byzantine ideal of harmony between church and emperor, each with its own sphere.
- Investiture Controversy
- An eleventh and twelfth century conflict between popes and emperors over who could appoint bishops.
- Divine right of kings
- The doctrine, strong in the seventeenth century, that a monarch’s authority comes directly from God and is not subject to earthly challenge.
- Just war
- A tradition, developed by Augustine and Aquinas, that sets conditions under which war can be morally permitted, such as just cause and right authority.
- Established church
- A church officially recognized and supported by the state, as in England or in Orthodox countries historically.
Background
For its first three centuries the church was a minority, suspicious to the state and periodically persecuted. The martyrs refused to burn incense to the emperor, and Christians were accused of atheism for rejecting the gods. After Constantine’s conversion, Christianity was favored, and under Theodosius I in 380 it became the religion of the empire. This brought protection and also entanglement. Bishops were given privileges, and emperors summoned councils and enforced their decisions.
In the West, after the fall of Rome, the church became a major institution beside the kings. Popes and emperors quarreled over authority for centuries. In the East, the emperor remained a powerful figure in church affairs. The Reformation produced state churches, Lutheran and Reformed in some places, and Anglican in England, as well as dissenting groups, such as the Anabaptists, who held that the church should be separate from the sword. The American and French revolutions reshaped the arrangement again.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The critic’s case
The critic points to a series of episodes. Emperors used the faith to unify their realms. The Crusades, launched in 1095, joined religious zeal to territorial and political aims, and the sack of Constantinople by Western crusaders in 1204 was a disaster for Christian unity. The Spanish conquest of the Americas was blessed by clergy, though some, such as Bartolome de las Casas, protested. Churches in the nineteenth century defended slavery and colonial rule. In the twentieth century, some churches supported or tolerated regimes of the right and the left.
He says that these were not accidents. Religion supplies legitimacy, and rulers value it. The Christian answer must admit this, and ask what happened and why.
Step 2: The counter-record
The same history shows Christians resisting power. Ambrose of Milan in 390 confronted Emperor Theodosius over a massacre at Thessalonica, and the emperor submitted to penance, according to the church historians. Medieval bishops and popes limited kings, and the church provided one of the few independent institutions in Europe. Las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria argued for the rights of the Indians. Quakers and evangelicals led the movement against the slave trade. Christians were among the leaders in resisting Nazism and in the civil rights movement and the end of apartheid, as seen in Bonhoeffer, King and Desmond Tutu.
These cases do not cancel the first. They show that the church was neither simply the tool of power nor simply its critic.
Step 3: What the traditions teach about authority
The New Testament has two strains. Paul tells Christians to be subject to the governing authorities, which are ordained of God (Romans 13:1). Peter says that one must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29), and the book of Revelation pictures Rome as a beast. The tradition has tried to hold both. Augustine taught that earthly cities are marked by pride and that the city of God is a pilgrim among them. Aquinas said that an unjust law is no law in the full sense. The Reformers disagreed about when resistance is lawful, and some Calvinists held that lesser magistrates may resist tyrants.
The Anabaptists and later the Mennonites and Quakers held that Christians should not use the sword at all. Others held that Christians have a duty to take part in government. These disagreements continue.
Step 4: Facing the charge
A sober answer has three parts. First, concede the cases where the church was complicit, naming them without evasion. Second, distinguish the teaching from the conduct. The charge that the church has served power is a charge against the church’s practice, and the Gospels themselves condemn the use of religion for power (Mark 10:42 to 44). Third, ask what the alternative would be. A religion with no public influence would also be accused of irrelevance, and every large institution deals with power.
Critics reply that the persistence of the pattern shows a structural problem with state-linked religion. Some Christians agree and argue for a stricter separation of church and state, or for the church as a minority community. The question is open among believers.
- Which episode is being discussed, and what do the best historians say about it?
- Who was resisting, and what did they appeal to?
- Did the church teaching permit the act, or was it contradicted by it?
- Is the charge about particular people or about Christianity as such?
- What would a more faithful church have done?
- What power does my own church hold, and how does it use it?
Examples
A church that blesses
A national church holds a ceremony in which flags are blessed before a war, and its leaders say that God is on the side of the nation. A critic says that religion is being used as a tool. A Christian can agree that it is, and add that the prophets condemned this. (A constructed example.)
A church that resists
A bishop refuses to be silent when the government jails opponents, and he is warned. He continues to preach about justice. This type of resistance, the Christian says, comes from the same faith. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Critics of religion
Critics from Marx onward argue that religion’s long association with rulers is no accident, and that churches rarely oppose power until it is safe to do so. Some, like the historian Edward Gibbon, argued that Christianity weakened Rome. Others hold that it was used to strengthen it. They ask Christians to look first at their own record.
Catholic
Catholic teaching holds that the church is independent of the state and also that the state has its own just authority. Popes have apologized for historical wrongs, including John Paul II’s apologies in 2000 for sins of the church’s sons and daughters, among them the use of violence in the service of the truth. Catholic social thought teaches the principle of subsidiarity and the dignity of every person against any state.
Orthodox
Orthodox churches, many of which lived under foreign or hostile rule, have a long experience of being used by states and of suffering from them. Orthodox writers admit that close ties with the Russian empire and some modern states have damaged the church’s witness. They point to the martyrs of the twentieth century, and to ideal of symphonia as a goal that is rarely attained.
Protestant
Protestants hold a range from state churches to the free church tradition. Anabaptists argue that the Constantinian shift was a fall, and that the church should again be a voluntary community. Reformed and Lutheran thinkers defend a role for Christians in public office, while holding that the church must preach against injustice. Many American Protestants hold that the separation of church and state protects faith.
Why it matters
The suspicion that Christianity is a tool of power is among the most common objections that people raise. A student who knows the facts can respond without defensiveness and without surrender. The same knowledge helps the church examine its own present entanglements.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Christianity was always allied with the state.
Correction: For three centuries it was persecuted, and in every period there have been Christians who resisted the state, including those who paid with their lives.
Misunderstanding: The Crusades were purely religious wars.
Correction: Historians show that motives were mixed, with religious zeal, political ambition, land and trade. They remain a grave moral failure by the standards of the Gospel.
Misunderstanding: Christians have never apologized for the church’s wrongs.
Correction: Several churches have made formal apologies, such as the Catholic Church in 2000, and many Protestant and Orthodox bodies have done so on specific matters.
Misunderstanding: Romans 13 means Christians must obey any government.
Correction: Most Christian traditions read it together with Acts 5:29 and with the prophets, and teach that obedience is limited by conscience and the law of God.
Knowledge check
What is the charge that Christianity serves political power?
It is the charge that religion supplies legitimacy to rulers and has repeatedly blessed wars, conquest, slavery and the established order. Critics point to the alliance of church and empire after Constantine, the Crusades, colonial conquest and churches that defended injustice. The charge has real support in the historical record.
Give two examples of Christians resisting political power.
Ambrose of Milan confronted Emperor Theodosius over a massacre in 390 and the emperor did penance. Christians such as Wilberforce and the Quakers led the movement against the slave trade, and in the twentieth century Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu opposed Nazism, segregation and apartheid. Las Casas also defended the rights of the native peoples of the Americas.
How do Romans 13 and Acts 5:29 relate in the tradition?
Romans 13:1 teaches that Christians should be subject to governing authorities, and Acts 5:29 records that the apostles said they must obey God rather than men. Most traditions hold both: government is a good under God, and obedience is limited where it would require disobedience to God. Disagreement concerns how and when resistance is justified.
What are three parts of a sober answer to the charge?
First, admit the cases where the church was complicit, plainly and by name. Second, distinguish the teaching of the Gospels, which condemn the abuse of power, from the conduct of churches. Third, point out that Christians have also resisted power and that the question of how a church should relate to the state is still debated among believers.
Think it through
- Which historical episode is hardest for you to explain, and why?
- How would you tell the difference between a church serving a nation and a church serving God?
- Does the Constantinian shift seem to you a gain or a loss?
- In what ways might your own church be tied to power today?
Independent assignment
One case, two accounts
In your notebook, choose one episode, such as the Crusades, the conquest of the Americas, or the church under a twentieth century dictatorship. Write 400 to 600 words giving the critic’s account and the best defender’s account, using at least two sources from the library or others you find. Then write 200 words saying where you think the truth lies. Do not send it.
Further study
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Read the chapters on Constantine, the medieval church and the Reformation.
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God Read selectively for the contrast between the two cities and the discussion of just war.
- Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes) Use for the history of the church’s relation to culture.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church Read the chapters on Byzantium and on the church under communism.
- Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
- Acts 5:29 We ought to obey God rather than men.
- Mark 10:42 They which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them.