Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Political Theologies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
State Power ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
Two Kingdoms

Contemporary political theology often defines itself against Lutheran social ethics, which is portrayed as politically disengaged and overly deferential to state power. At the same time, contemporary political theology often embraces the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an exemplary political theologian. This incongruity is generally resolved by distancing Bonhoeffer from his tradition, at least on matters of political theology. But Bonhoeffer’s political theology was thoroughly Lutheran. Throughout the years of his political-theological engagement, from the Nazi rise to power in 1932–1933 to the drafting of Ethics and related writing in 1940–1943, he participated in ongoing conversations within Lutheran social ethics on the issues of, among others, the two kingdoms and the orders. In the process, he critically appropriated these elements of Lutheran thinking into an especially dynamic and christocentric framework that in turn informed his positions on various issues such as the church’s proclamation against the Nazi state and the ecumenical church’s witness for peace. Bonhoeffer is an example of Lutheran political theology, one that suggests the need to revise at least the more sweeping judgments about Lutheran theology as inherently incompatible with political engagement.

Toward Jerusalem: A journey of the eternal now (A Sermon)

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-107
Author(s):  
Richard Francis Wilson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The United States ◽  
Paul Tillich ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
As I Lay Dying ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Martin Luther King

This article is a theological-ethical Lenten sermon that attempts to discern the transcendent themes in the narrative of Luke 9-19 with an especial focus upon “setting the face toward Jerusalem” and the subsequent weeping over Jerusalem. The sermon moves from a passage from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying through a series of hermeneutical turns that rely upon insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Will Campbell, Augustine, and Paul Tillich with the hope of illuminating what setting of the face on Jerusalem might mean. Tillich’s “eternal now” theme elaborates Augustine’s insight that memory and time reduce the present as, to paraphrase the Saint, that all we have is a present: a present remembered, a present experienced, and a present anticipated. The Gospel is a timeless message applicable to every moment in time and history. The sermon seeks to connect with recent events in the United States and the world that focus upon challenges to the ideals of social justice and political tyranny.

Public Theology and Political Ethics

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Similar Profile ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Public Church ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
Two Kingdoms Doctrine

Abstract The article explains the fundamental features of the Lutheran two kingdoms doctrine and the Reformed doctrine of the Lordship of Christ and finds strong convergences of both in addressing political realities without leaving the Gospel perspective aside. Since Catholic concepts show a similar profile, an ecumenical public theology emerges. Six guidelines for a public church are presented to describe the consequences of a public theological approach to politics for the churches. Authentic faith witness is as much part of these guidelines as ‘bilinguality’, that is, the capability to talk the language of secular discourse and prophetic speech, which is put in relationship to the necessity of concrete daily political processes. Thus, in the end the article explains the profile of public theology in relation to liberation theology and political theology.

Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and Their Wittenberg Colleagues

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Wengert
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
Emerging Church ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
The University ◽  
Early Phases

The German Reformation, sparked by the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517, unfolded parallel to another intellectual phenomenon then sweeping centers of higher education throughout western Europe: the development of a new way to read classic literature of the humanities, philosophy, and theology, often called Renaissance humanism. At the University of Wittenberg, this resulted in the development of a sodality of professors in the arts and theology faculties, initially including Andreas Bodenstein (Karlstadt), Nicholas von Amsdorf, Martin Luther, and the court’s university advisor, Georg Spalatin, but quickly spreading to include, by the early 1520s, Philip Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, and Johannes Bugenhagen, among others. Any attempt to understand the early phases of Wittenberg’s Reformation without taking into account this sodality will ultimately fail to catch the breadth of this movement and the commitment of these teachers to one another and to their cause. After an early skirmish over theological method resulted in Karlstadt’s distancing of himself from the university, the other faculty members remained committed to reforming the curricula of the arts and higher faculties at the university along humanist, evangelical lines. This reform influenced the theology and practice of the emerging church in Saxony and elsewhere, witnessed among other places in the 1527–1528 Visitation Articles, and led to a uniquely Wittenberg reform, one that always blended the highest regard for good letters and the most ancient sources with a developing Lutheran theology.

Evangelicals and Politics: A Rethinking

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
David P. Gushee
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Southern Baptist ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Baptist Church ◽  
American Evangelicalism

I understand my primary task in this essay to be to take you inside the world of evangelical political reflection and engagement. Though I actually grew up Roman Catholic and attended the liberal Union Theological Seminary in New York, I am by now an evangelical insider, rooted deeply in red state mid-South America, a member of a Southern Baptist church (actually, an ordained minister), a teacher at a Tennessee Baptist university, and a columnist for the flagship Christianity Today magazine. Due to the blue state/red state, liberal/conservative boundary-crossing that has characterized my background, I am often called upon to interpret our divided internal “cultures” one to another. Trained to be fair-minded and judicious in my analysis and judgments (though not always successful in meeting the standards of my training), I seek to help bridge the culture wars divide that is tearing our nation apart.As one deeply invested in American evangelicalism, most of my attention these days now goes to the internal conversation within evangelical life about our identity and mission, especially our social ethics and political engagement. In this essay I will focus extensively on problems I currently see with evangelical political engagement, addressing those from within the theological framework of evangelical Christianity and inviting others to listen in to what I am now saying to my fellow evangelicals.

scholarly journals Sovereignty and Submission: Luther’s Political Theology and the Violence of Christian Metaphysics

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Timmann Mjaaland
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Difference ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Hidden God ◽  
Political Scene

The classical controversy between Carl Schmitt and Eric Peterson goes directly to the heart of the matter: What is ‘political theology’ about? Is it a descriptive or normative endeavour, oriented towards history or political influence on contemporary issues? This article explores these questions with reference to Protestant theology, in particular the writings of Martin Luther. Protestant theology has often emphasised the basic difference between the spiritual and political spheres, but I question the validity of this distinction with respect to Luther’s theology. When Luther enters the political scene, an apocalyptic understanding of friend and enemy tends to dominate his thinking. Furthermore, I discuss whether this is compatible with his metaphysical understanding of the ‘hidden God’ in his majesty, and hence, whether a metaphysical violence is deeply embedded in Luther’s theology, possibly even his understanding of ‘justification by faith’. Finally, I suggest a reconsideration of Luther’s political theology based on the questions raised by Schmitt and Peterson.

Political Theology of International Order

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bain
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
International Order ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Right Order

This book investigates presuppositions of international order that originate in medieval theology. Part I examines rival conceptions of order that emerged out of a medieval dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power. The theory of immanent order refers to an interconnected whole that imparts a rationally intelligible pattern of right order. The theory of imposed order refers to a contingent arrangement, established by will and artifice or the operation of an impersonal mechanism, which accommodates numerous patterns that can be made and unmade. Part II investigates the assimilation of medieval theological ideas in the thought of three emblematic thinkers: Martin Luther, Hugo Grotius, and Thomas Hobbes. This challenges the narrative of progressive secularization characterizing most international thought. Particular emphasis is placed on the transition from medieval to modern. The claim here is that continuity describes this transition as persuasively as the more familiar discourse of change. Part III uncovers a theological inheritance that shapes modern theories of international order. The language of system and society, as well as anarchy, balance of power, and contractual international law, reflects the intellectual commitments of nominalist theology. The conclusion explores the tension that arises from this theological inheritance in a world where God is only one of several postulates that can be called upon to fix the contingency of a constructed international order. The danger is that grounding international order in nothing more than human decision leaves what is made fundamentally indeterminate and precariously exposed to the whims of capricious power.

WAS MARTIN LUTHER AN APOLOGIST OF THE AUTOCRATIC STATE?

2019 ◽  
pp. 297-305
Author(s):  
Yuriy Ivonin
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The People ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Secular Power

In the History of Germany the role of Martin Luther as the prophet of autocratic State had already been prepared to the First World War. However, it became reality in the 1930-s. The development of territorial states was the main result of the Reformation. Luther’s Institution of the secular power was a part of his theory of two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Earth. The discussion about the strengthening of the role of the state and its control in all spheres of the society took place in the 1720-s – 1740-s. This situation was connected with the conflict between the princes and estates or commons. Luther was afraid of civil commotions, he was deeply conservative in relation to secular powers and persistently supported the Idea that the people needed to be subordinate to the secular power. Luther’s movement was a decisive step on the way to the formation of the early Modern Times Statehood. Luther’s first activities supported the commons’ self-government or the idea of communalism, but later, especially after the Peasants’ War 1524–1526, he feared the situations when princes and magistrates could not support the Reformation and therefore, he led the concept of the territorial State of the Early Modern Times and he could not become an apologist of the autocratic state.

Martin Luther and the Theology of the Two Kingdoms

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-103
Author(s):  
William Bain
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Political Order ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The Will ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Way Of Knowing ◽  
Two Kingdoms

This chapter explores the nominalist orientation of Martin Luther’s separation of sacred and secular, signified by his two kingdoms framework. The aim is to show that his thinking about the nature of God, character of creation, and authority of Scripture resonates with the theory of imposed order. Luther gives priority to the will, as against reason, which follows from his preoccupation with God’s freedom and power. This points to an inner unity in Luther’s thought, whereby his theology informs a parallel understanding of reality that emphasizes the contingency of singular things, a system of external relations, and explanation in terms of efficient causes. Luther’s importance in this context is not discerned in what he contributes to political theory; he transmits the nominalist way of knowing and explaining reality that others would use to theorize political order. Consequently, his separation of the earthly kingdom and the spiritual kingdom does not de-theologize politics as much as signal the ascendency of the theory of imposed order and its theological commitments. In this respect, he contributes indirectly to a way of thinking and speaking about political order that stresses the nominalist vocabulary of will and artifice.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document