Martin Luther's Essay Concerning Governmental Authority

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One of the greatest debates of history has been regarding how much separation there should be between church and state. Prior to the Reformation, the church had a significant amount of power in regard to the government and society. There was a lot of corruption and greed, as the people of the church were able to find ways to abuse this power for their own profit. This corruption was a major reason for the rise of Martin Luther and it set the basis for the Protestant Reformation as a whole. He was able to completely change the trajectory of the Christian religion. Luther recognized the corruption and excessive power within the church, and he believed it was neither good for the Christians of the church or for the rest of the people of society …show more content…

In terms of keeping these two realms separate, Luther firmly believed that they could both stay side by side and flourish wonderfully without any qualms. He moved on to describe the two types of governing authorities. The government of the earth; the temporal power, had the responsibility to take care of issues concerning worldly things like property and crime. Without the power of the temporal authority, the crimes committed by non-Christians would be out of control. It was a system necessary to keep relative peace on earth. God, on the other hand, dealt with peoples’ souls and faith, as he controlled the spiritual realm of the church. Luther found it pivotal that these two realms should not cross over each other, especially in terms of the temporal authority making laws over a person’s …show more content…

This depended on the work of the temporal authority. Though Luther did not believe in the non-Christian population being ruled under a Christian methodology, Luther did believe that the temporal authority of the state should be doing the work of God. “In short, since Paul says here that the governing authority is God’s servant, we must allow it to be exercised not only by the heathen but by all men” (Luther 80). Luther showed here that the governing authority was a tool for God’s use. Luther believed that the government was an institution and a servant of God; something to further his bidding. He went on to further express what that should mean to Christians. “Therefore, you should esteem the sword or governmental authority as highly as the estate of marriage, or husbandry, or any other calling which God has instituted” (Luther 81). So, he also believed that it should be highly respected by Christians as it was an institution of God. Luther believed that it was the requirement of a Christian to help with the bringing of justice against those who had done wrong. He did not, however, think that they should do so when a wrong is done against them personally, but rather when a wrong is committed against their neighbor. “You should help him that he may have peace and that his enemy may be curbed, but this is not possible unless the

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