Setting the Stage

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-100
Author(s):  
Steven K. Green
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the legal controversies and cases that provided the background for the modern Court’s early church–state cases. It pays particular attention to the activities and litigation involving Jehovah’s Witnesses—canvassing and flag-salute controversies—and how those cases impacted the justices’ thinking about church and state. Although representing distinct constitutional issues, the Witnesses’ free exercise and free speech claims laid the groundwork for the Court’s Establishment Clause decisions. The chapter then examines Protestant–Catholic relations during the war years and the church–state controversies that arose in its immediate aftermath. These events set the stage for the Court’s holdings in Everson and McCollum.

Yesus Sebagai Yang Sulung Lebih Utama Dari Yang Diciptakan

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-85
Author(s):  
Yosef Yunandow Siahaan
Keyword(s):  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Main Topic ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Throughout the history of the church, from the early Church to the present, Christology has become the main topic of discussion, and it has often led to debates and even polemics for both the Church and those outside the church. The point of a long debate in the field of Christology is about Jesus as a creator or only as a creation. This study investigates this by using theological research, this study uses the exegesis method. The text that will be executed to provide evidence that Jesus was the Creator or creation is Colossians 1:15-20. Jehovah's Witnesses say that this text shows that Jesus was God's First creation. Whereas true Christians actually view this text as saying that Jesus is the Creator. The research used the exegesis method. The results show that Christ is the agent of creation. In building the understanding of the eldest word (Prototokos), it is not allowed to use the isolated text method. There are at least 2 meanings of this word, the first literal meaning is as the first born according to the order of time, and the second, the figurative meaning The eldest means the main, superior. Of course when looking at the context in Colossians 1:16-17, then Christ is not the first born according to chronological order, and comes from creation. Rather, He is the Creator, so it is not surprising that He is supreme or superior to all creation. Abstrak Indonesia Sepanjang sejarah gereja mulai dari Gereja mula-mula hingga kini Kristologi menjadi topik utama diskusi bahkan tak jarang menimbulkan perdebatan bahkan polemik baik bagi Gereja maupun kalangan di luar gereja. Yang menjadi titik perdebatan panjang dalam bidang Kristologi adalah Mengenai Yesus sebagai pencipta ataukah hanya sebagai ciptaan. Penelitian ini menyelidiki hal tersebut dengan menggunakan penelitian Teologi, penelitian ini menggunakan metode eksegesis. Teks yang akan dieksegesa guna untuk memberikan bukti Yesus adalah Pencipa atau ciptaan adalah Kolose 1:15-20. Saksi-saksi Yehuwa mengatakan bahwa teks ini menunjukkan bahwa Yesus adalah ciptaan Pertama dari Allah. Sedangkan Kristen sejati justru memandang teks ini mengatakan bahwa Yesus adalah Pencipta. Penelitian menggunakan metode eksegesis. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan Kristus adalah pelaku penciptaan. Dalam membangun pemahaman kata yang Sulung (Prototokos), tidak boleh menggunakan metode teks terisolasi. Paling tidak ada 2 makna dari kata ini, yang pertama makna literal adalah sebagai yang lahir pertama menurut urutan waktu, dan yang kedua, makna figuratif Yang sulung berarti yang utama, unggul. Tentu ketika melihat konteks dalam Kolose 1:16-17, maka Kristus bukanlah sang pertama lahir menurut urutan waktu, dan berasal dari ciptaan. Melainkan Ia adalah Pencipta, sehingga tidak mengherankan bahwa Ia adalah yang utama atau paling unggul di atas segala ciptaan.

Secularism and US Religion Jurisprudence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Corbin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
Free Exercise Clause ◽  
Constitutional Jurisprudence

Religious surveys are finding greater percentages of Americans who self-identify as secular. At the same time, religious exemptions under the Free Exercise Clause have become more difficult to obtain. However, religion jurisprudence in the United States has not become more secular for two reasons. First, this greater unwillingness to grant constitutional exemptions reflects a shift in constitutional jurisprudence from “separationism” to “neutrality.” Rather than building a wall between church and state, the Establishment Clause is now interpreted to impose fewer restraints on state-sponsored religion. Second, statutes like the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and its state counterparts have not only reestablished separationist era levels of protection for religious liberty but increased them. The result is a religion jurisprudence where religion is accommodated more than ever, while the state has more leeway to advance religion. This combination has unfortunate consequences for both secular people and core secular values, such as antidiscrimination.

scholarly journals The Specifics of the Christology of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Sect

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Герасим Дьячков
Keyword(s):  
Church Of Christ ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Ecumenical Council ◽  
The Church

Следуя по пути, проторенному святыми отцами, «богословски философствуя», автор анализирует основные положения христологии секты «Свидетелей Иеговы», опровергая их истинами православного учения о Христе, сформулированного святыми отцами и выраженного в догмате IV Вселенского Собора. Для иеговистов, ложно мудрствующих о Христе, оказывается неприемлемой также тайна Святой Троицы, открывающаяся лишь в Церкви Христовой. Автор останавливается на защите православной триадологии от их нападок, подвергает богословко-филологическому анализу именование Бога «Иеговой». Для «Свидетелей Иеговы» Христос - не Бог, а человек - посредник между Богом и «свидетелями», то есть членами секты, в установлении теократического царства, прообразом которого было земное царство израильское. По сути проповедь иеговистов оказывается проповедью атеизма, ибо, по их учению, Бог не спасает, а спасение - только в человеке Иисусе. Христология иеговистов примитивна, их аргументы лишены богословской глубины, тем не менее, проблема защиты христологического догмата Халкидонского Собора от нападок иеговистов и всех отрицающих тайну Пресвятой Троицы и Боговоплощения актуальна во все времена, поскольку речь идет не только об опровержении их заблуждений, но, главным образом, об утверждении жизненно важного сотериологического тезиса: Бог вочеловечился, чтобы человек обожился. Following the path trodden by the holy fathers, “philosophizing theologically,” the author analyzes the main provisions of the Christology of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect, refuting them with the truths of the Orthodox teaching about Christ formulated by the holy fathers and expressed in the dogma of the IV Ecumenical Council. For Jehovah's Witnesses, who falsely speculate about Christ, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is revealed only in the Church of Christ, is also unacceptable. The author dwells on the defense of Orthodox triadology from their attacks, subjects the naming of God "Jehovah" to a theological and philological analysis. For Jehovah's Witnesses, Christ is not God, but man - the mediator between God and the “witnesses,” that is, members of the sect, in the establishment of the theocratic kingdom, the prototype of which was the earthly kingdom of Israel. In fact, the preaching of Jehovah's Witnesses turns out to be the preaching of atheism, for, according to their teaching, God does not save, and salvation is only in the man Jesus. The Christology of Jehovists is primitive, their arguments are devoid of theological depth, nevertheless, the problem of protecting the Christological dogma of the Council of Chalcedon from the attacks of Jehovists and all those who deny the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation is relevant at all times, since it is not only about refuting their delusions, but mainly , on the statement of a vital soteriological thesis: God became human so that man might be deified.

scholarly journals What Can We Expect of Law and Religion in 2020?

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Leslie C. Griffin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
Free Exercise Clause ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Government

The United States is in a religion-friendly mood—or at least its three branches of government are. The Supreme Court is turning away from its Free Exercise Clause analysis that currently holds that every religious person must obey the law. At the same time, the Court is rejecting its old Establishment Clause analysis that the government cannot practice or support religion. The old model of separation of church and state is gone, replaced by an ever-growing unity between church and state. This Article examines how much union of church and state this Court might establish.

The Church and the Tax Law: Keeping Church and State Separate

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-53
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Tax Benefits ◽  
Financial Transactions ◽  
The Church

ABSTRACT In a democracy characterized by the separation of church and state, what role does the federal government play in regulating the activities and the financial transactions of churches and other religious nonprofit organizations? What are the current federal requirements regarding tax exemption for churches, tax deductibility of donations to churches, and political activity by churches, and are these requirements justified? Rather than interfering with the free exercise of religion, does the federal government actually come closer to violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment by providing inappropriate tax benefits to churches and clergy? This paper discusses tax laws and federal court decisions relating to these and other issues.

The Persecutions: some Links between Judaism and the Early Church

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. C. Frend
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The West ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
The Common ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Church

Each generation of historiographers has had its own interpretation of the persecutions. In their hour of triumph in the years following the Council of Nicaea, Christians in both halves of the Roman Empire looked back to these events as the heroic age of the Christian faith. The sufferings of the Church were linked to the sufferings of the children of Israel and this time, too, anti-Christ and his abettors, the pagan emperors, their officials and the mobs had been worsted. Like the Egyptians they had perished miserably. But, as so often happens, victory dissolved the common bonds which united the victors. In the next centuries the relations between Church and State in the East and West were to follow different paths. In the East the ‘martyrdom in intention’ of the monastic life tended to replace the martyrdom in deed in opposition to the emperor. In the West, the martyr tradition was to underline that same opposition. Tertullian, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory VII, Boniface VIII embody a single trend of ideas extending over a thousand years.

21st Century Christian

2006 ◽  
pp. 106-128
Author(s):  
Susan Ella George
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Present Context ◽  
Human Construction ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Buildings

This chapter makes a focus on in the 21st century. We start with a focus on the ideology that was Christendom, tracing its origins, rise, and decline, in order to appreciate the present context. We find that Christendom represented a political alliance between church and state that, in many ways, compromised the church, and represented a secular invasion into it. The persecutions of the early church were abated, although the influences of the Roman Empire and imperial court remain to this day in church buildings, in the distinction of clergy from laity, in the passive nature of worship, and in many other ways. In accordance with those theologians who find religion to be a “human construction,” Christianity in Christendom is, in many ways, the ultimate defiance, inhibiting both “faith” and God’s self-revelation.

The Problem of the Empire in Augustinus Triumphus and Late Medieval Papal Hierocratic Theory

Traditio ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 325-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
William. D. McCready
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Current Events ◽  
John Xxii ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Christian Perfection ◽  
The Church

Although they were primarily interested in the theoretical issues at stake, the late-medieval papal publicists who dealt with the relationship between church and state were aware of and influenced by important current developments. Augustinus Triumphus makes surprisingly few references to current events. However, he treats at some length the question of whether or not the pope must reside in Rome — because of some of the criticisms that had been directed against his residence in Avignon. He discusses the question of whether or not the pope can resign his office — because this had been an issue of some concern ever since the resignation of Celestine V. Furthermore, he treats in some detail of the issue of Christian perfection — how it was realized by Christ and the early church, and how it can be realized in the contemporary church — because of the storm that had surrounded the protests of the Spiritual Franciscans. In view of all this it is undoubtedly the case that he and like-minded political theorists devoted the time they did to the church-state issue, not merely because there were interesting theoretical issues at stake, but because it was a vexing problem for the society in which they lived. This society had witnessed two major confrontations between the spiritual and temporal authorities: the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France in the early part of the fourteenth century, and the conflict between John XXII and the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria in the third decade of the century, and all of this had not been without its influence on the papal theorists.

Religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Zick
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Public Forum ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
Free Exercise Clause ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Speech Clause ◽  
Important Shift

Chapter 4 addresses the relationship between the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. It explains that although these provisions have a collaborative and synergistic history, beginning in the 1980s, the Free Speech Clause began to dominate the relationship. This important shift also affected, to some extent, interpretation of the First Amendment’s other religion clause, the Establishment Clause. The course of the free speech/free exercise relationship has also complicated several free speech doctrines, including those relating to public forum, content neutrality, and government speech. In addition to explaining these relational dynamics, the chapter advocates reinvigorating the Free Exercise Clause and reconnecting it with the Free Speech Clause in ways that recover the mutually facilitative relationship that once existed between the two. To illustrate, the chapter considers the respective functions of the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses as they relate to claims involving worship in public buildings and application of anti-discrimination laws to religious speakers.

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