It was Erastus!
... who postulated that sneaky Protestant debaucle about the state being supreme over the Church. This seriously misled man was a Swiss theologian best known for a posthumously published work in which he argued that the sins of Christians should be punished by the state, and not by the Church withholding the sacraments. In short, he (and later his pal Grotius, the main exponent of "Erastianism") held that the state is supreme in and over ecclesial matters. This stuff was rejected by the good folks who compiled the Westminster Confession, but somehow, it seems to have leaked into a lot of contemporary Protestant thought.
I go nuts over these issues of political theology; I only wish that I had known the above when I wrote this...
I go nuts over these issues of political theology; I only wish that I had known the above when I wrote this...
posted by MM at 8:11 PM
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