Notes Toward a Model of Church & State

This topic calls for a much more extensive discussion, but I thought it might help us to begin with some basic observations on how Christians over the centuries have sought to deal with the question of church and state relations, keeping in mind that the definition of church and of state have both changed to some degree with varying periods and denominations. John Witte Jr. has described them as:

1. Two ways: the earliest Christian treatment of the relationship of the two tends to view them as two separate communities: the Christian one on the pure and righteous road; the political one corrupt and hostile.
2. Two cities: The influential 5th century view of Augustine that the Christian has two citizenships--in the temporal political order of this world (i.e. the City of Man) and in the eternal community of the Church (i.e. the City of God).
3. Two powers: The patristic and early medieval view that church and state are two different authorities with differing concerns and jurisdictions.
4. Two swords: While this metaphor is employed quite early in Christian history, it becomes more predominant in the 12th and 13th centuries. The power of the king and the power of the pope are different political powers, and depending on the source arguing, one sword can be treated as superior to the other. The systems of canon and civil law develop out of this distinction.
5. With the rise of the Protestant Reformation, these four models take on differing forms in Reformational thought. The Anabaptist tradition returns to a form of the two ways, stressing that the state is part of the fallen world and must be avoided as much as possible. Anabaptist Christians are enjoined to obey the state, pay taxes, refuse to go to war or swear oaths, and to avoid any litigation.
6. The Luthern position adopts the two cities model in what H. Richard Niebuhr has called "Christ and Culture in Paradox." The Luthern Christian is a citizen of both the political, legal power, which is guided by law and can bear the sword of violence, while he or she is also a citizen of the Church, which is guided by the gospel and by grace.
7. Calvinism, Whitte believes, returned to a two powers model where church and state are treated as two differing jurisdictions, while the Church plays a deeply influential role in how the Christian commonwealth chooses to act politically.
8. The Anglican position is more like that of the two swords, though now the English monarch replaces the pope and unites (or almost unites) the two swords into one commonwealth.
9. Early Enlightenment views, such as those of Locke, return to a modified form of the two powers, but now by treating a church as a voluantary organization, the church is increasingly privatized by not having a role in public matters of note. Of course, Locke himself assumed that both powers would remain vaguely Christian; however, this was not to be the case as matters treated as private became mattters of indifference.