“Princes are gods, and People are Satan”: the Political Theology of Martin Luther in the German Reformation
Resource
政治科學論叢, 17, 175-197
Journal
政治科學論叢
Journal Issue
17
Pages
175-197
Date Issued
2002-12
Date
2002-12
Author(s)
Chen, S.S.
Abstract
Martin Luther is as controversial as a personality as the founder of the German Reformation. Appearing as a liberal figure devoted to the confrontation with the Roman See, he released the Germans from the “yoke” of doctrinal dogmatism on the one hand and the complex liturgical ceremonialism on the other. He destroyed the Vatican Scholasticism and ecclesiasticism at the same time on the German territory. But such a stern, powerful champion of Christian liberty and innate conscience should have had no mercy at all towards those poor peasants who tried to transform thereligious movement into a social one. This article is intended as a tentative exploration on the Lutheran political theology with a focus on his apparent inheritance of the Biblical separation of the earthly and the sacred . Yet emphasis is placed upon the contradictions he was forced into when he called on the German nobilities for help in the spiritual matter and then again in the crackdown of the subsequent social unrests. It thus can be pointed out that Luther has been using the temporal arms whenever it is necessary and expedient, contrary to his avowed position of the doctrine of the two swords. And this may be seen less as an inconsistency in Luther's politics than a holistic envisioning of the world under God in his theology.
Subjects
馬丁路德；政治神學；政教關係；異端導正；農民革命；宗教改革；Martin Luther；political theology；church-state；reformation；peasant war
Type
journal article