Can we redeem Constantianism?

At Sub Ratione Dei, R. Gillingham is working on a series with the provocative title, Working With/For Babylon, Or, Can Constantianism Be Redeemed? So far, he has posted on the Schleitheim Confession and the Constantinian Temptation. The series is a critique of the views presented by Dan on his very stimulating blog, On Journeying with those in Exile, particularly the following two theses:

Thesis 1. Following the examples of Jesus and Paul, Christians should not seek to wield ‘power-as-force’ over those who are not members of the Church.


Thesis 2. Therefore, Christians should seek change within the world through the Church, which practices ‘power-as-invitation’, not through the government which practices power-as-force.

Gillingham calls these theses Schleitheimic, and will seek to critique the views of the Schleitheim Confession (and modern proponents, like John Howard Yoder) in the rest of the series. I am sure this will prove to be an excellent series worth engaging. While I find myself more-or-less in agreement with the Schleitheim Confession, I look forward to seeing how the dialogue progresses.

Here is the projected index of posts:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sounds wonderful! Thanks for the heads up.
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the plug, now i really feel under pressure to make sure I get working on this.

While I am criticising Dan unlike some reactions to the intitial post, mine is a very friendly one. I hold Dan in very high regard and think the Schleitheimic to be a a very important emphasis as a corrective to the "Constantinian Temptation".