Church and State
An important
but often overlooked aspect of Christianity before Christendom is that the
church and the political sphere were separate, and this separation, beginning
before Christendom, has persisted all through the period of Christendom and out
the other side. This requires some explanation, as the reader may receive with
skepticism the idea that the church and the political sphere have been
separate, so a counter-example may serve best.
The founder
of Islam, Mohammed, was not just a religious leader, but he was also a military
and political leader. As a political leader, under Mohammed, there was no
distinction between civil law and religious law, but both ran together in what
would come to be called Sharia, or Islamic law. In the Islamic world today,
tension still exists over whether or not Sharia should be the official law in
Islamic countries. Christianity did not develop in this way at all. Jesus and
his disciples were never political leaders. The early church established church
leaders in the form of deacons, elders, bishops, etc., but those individuals
were not political leaders. The church established church laws, but those laws
were entirely separate from the laws of civil society. There is no Christian
equivalent of Sharia. The separation between civil and church leadership has
continued throughout history. Christendom has had kings, tsars, presidents and
prime ministers to lead the civil society, while the popes, priests, elders and
pastors led the church. The two spheres often got tangled together, sometimes
with one more or less dominating the other, but the two spheres – church and
state – have always been conceptually separate.
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