Modern Age - Fall 2017 - 14

Modern Age

*

Fall 2017

quiescent. Yet if you believe, as Elaw did, that this life is a passing
shadow and that humanity's only true happiness lies in God, how
could temporal slavery or freedom compare with the momentous and eternal question of salvation or damnation?
Elaw is a clue to a hidden strand of Protestant apoliticism. Once
again, this goes back to Luther, although Luther himself was only
reviving a strand of Christian political theology that goes back
to St. Paul. Luther's view on princes, in Temporal Authority, was
hardly idealistic:
They can do no more than strip and fleece, heap tax upon tax. . . .
Since the beginning of the world a wise prince is a mighty rare
bird, and an upright prince even rarer. They are generally the biggest fools or the worst scoundrels on earth.

But this was not a call to arms. In Luther's view, God permits these
scoundrels to rule because "the world is too wicked, and does
not deserve to have many wise and upright princes." Anticipating Madison, Luther argued that it was only because of human
sin that God had instituted government at all, in order to impose
some minimal restraint on human evil and make some limited
semblance of peace and order possible. His point, deeply counterintuitive to most modern sensibilities, is that government is not
very important. It is necessary in a humdrum way for as long as
this passing world endures, but Christians should not pay much
attention to it. Their hearts should be set instead on the kingdom
of Christ, where there is no law, and no coercion, and which is not
passing away.
The distinction between this apoliticism and the ethic of mere
submission to rulers can seem a fine one. The two approaches
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Modern Age - Fall 2017

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