Hitler, Principalities, and Church

Stringfellow equates the biblical “principality” to modern-day “ideologies” or “institutions” or “images”. He talks about the principality of Hitler’s “image” eventually possessing him—where Hitler surrendered to his image in the struggle for control. Public image is a principality that can become demonic in proportion. He also talks about how invitations to serve an institution are often invitations to bondage. He calls them “angelic powers”. He asserts that demonic doesn’t mean evil, but that it refers to death and fallenness. “No man escapes enduring the claims for allegiance and service of the principalities. For a man to live in the state of fallenness is to endure these very claims”. “A profound concern for self-survival is the governing morality of every principality… by this a man is judged” (An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens In a Strange Land, p. 63).

I’m thinking a lot about this idea these days as it relates to the church. When the church becomes self-possessed… overly concerned with its image, influence, and effectiveness, and when it becomes obsessed with its own survival, it is possessed by a power. And the invitations to serve this institution are invitations to bondage.

As a Christian, church-member and pastor, this is of GREAT concern to me!