Luther’s Political Teachings

Stone acknowledges that Lutherans, especially in the state churches of Europe, have often misapplied the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, construing it to mean uncritical acceptance of secular authority.  But, as he shows, this is not what Luther was teaching at all.  Among other things, it leaves out the implications of a related teaching about Christians’ life in the world:  the Doctrine of Vocation.

Read it all, but here is a sampling from Lyman Stone’s essay in First Things entitled Two Kingdom Theology in the Trump Era:

In the wake of the Peasants’ War, Luther set about creating an organized theology systematizing his belief that church and state must have some kind of separation. From this project arose the Two Kingdoms Doctrine, the belief that God rules alone in the “right-hand kingdom” and empowers humans to rule in the “left-hand kingdom.” In the right-hand kingdom is all spiritual righteousness: God alone establishes laws that pertain to spiritual righteousness, God alone can justify according to spiritual righteousness.

In the left-hand kingdom is all civil righteousness. Rarely does God throw lightning to smite the wicked. More often, humankind is ordered to exercise the role of civic stewardship we were given in Eden. So that we may accomplish this task, God has established three estates, in which all people exist and find their roles: state, church, and family. To Luther and many other reformers, we all have duties primarily as subjects of an earthly sovereign, subjects of a divine sovereign, and subjects of a household sovereign. Luther suggested that the roles of ruler, pastor, and parent were all ordained by God to carry out the stewardship of their respective estates. Each authority was to steward his or her part of the left-hand kingdom. The estate of the church, of course, was special: The pastorate was entrusted with the “Office of the Keys,” the authority and command to forgive sins, and thereby communicate the reality of the Kingdom of God into day-to-day life within the Kingdom of Man. . . .

Our place in life, the synthesis of our various duties, roles, and talents, is called our vocation. Luther practically invented the modern usage of the word “vocation.” Before Luther, the word had meant almost exclusively the spiritual calling to priesthood or monasticism. But for Luther, God works in the Kingdom of Man through vocation, through observable means or “masks,” just as He delivers the Kingdom of God to us by the observable means of baptism and communion. Since Luther first popularized this view of vocation, Lutheran pastors have consistently exhorted their flocks to perform their vocations as subjects, parishioners, and family members. This extension of spiritual and moral significance to mundane, secular work is what is meant by the “Protestant work ethic.”. . .

In this light, several facts become clear. Citizens have a different vocation than subjects. Modern governments place a duty and a burden upon citizens, demanding that they participate in governance. No modern American has a ruler, in the sense that the Christians did to whom Paul wrote his letters. All the scriptural teachings about governments apply, but the reality of democratic and participatory governments means that a vocation-centered theology cannot view Christians as merely the subjects of the state: By having voice, Christians are participants in the rulership of their state. As such, when considering what sins they should confess, they must consider sins of rebellion against lawful sovereigns and sins of misgovernment, that is, failures to discharge the duties of self-governing citizens.

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