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From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought
A reference tool that provides an overview of the history of Christian political thought with selections from second century to the seventeenth century.
From the second century to the seventeenth, from Irenaeus to Grotius, this unique reader provides a coherent overview of the development of Christian political thought. The editors have collected readings from the works of over sixty-five authors, together with introductory essays that give historical details about each thinker and discuss how each has contributed to the tradition of Christian political thought. Complete with important Greek and Latin texts available here in English for the first time, this volume will be a primary resource for readers from a wide range of interests.
From the second century to the seventeenth, from Irenaeus to Grotius, this unique reader provides a coherent overview of the development of Christian political thought. The editors have collected readings from the works of over sixty-five authors, together with introductory essays that give historical details about each thinker and discuss how each has contributed to the tradition of Christian political thought. Complete with important Greek and Latin texts available here in English for the first time, this volume will be a primary resource for readers from a wide range of interests.
858 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1999
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About the author
Oliver O'Donovan
47 books58 followersOliver O'Donovan FBA FRSE (born 1945) is a scholar known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 1, 2015
This sourcebook is divided into five parts: The Patristic Age, Late Antiquity and Germanic Kingship, The Integration of Aristotle, Spiritual Polities and Dominum, and Renaissance and reformation. At the risk of sounding Hegelian (purely accidental) we see the O’Donovans guiding us through the struggles each age had to face in integrating biblical truth, not only with their present culture, but with the achievements of previous ages.
The Patristic Age
Christian thinkers had to wrestle with the uncomfortable fact that the NT praised Roman soldiers with the present reality of Rome’s attack on the faith. Further, military service, whatever conclusion one reached, challenged ideas of continuity.
Eschatology factored heavier in these accounts. As a separate community living in the time between the times, they awaited the arrival of Yahweh and the judgment of the age. This sheds light on the confrontational (spiritual, anyway) atmosphere: thinkers like Irenaeus and Cyril of Jerusalem saw a coming showdown with Antichrist (quoted in O’Donovan 41).
Several themes emerge in the Patristic Age, mainly the note of Evangelical Poverty. Property, as defined by Lactantius, is defined “precisely by the structures of community relations in which material goods are communicated” (O’Donovan 47). This means human existence has a fundamental sociality. For the most part, the fathers--and the tradition as a whole-avoid calling private property evil. But it is always deconstructed. They see property as already existing within community. It is to enable the trustee to better rule and share.
The Transition: Towards the end of the age both East and West will have been shaped by Justinian’s Law. The West would move to see links between Christology and political imagination (cf Kantorowicz)
Late Antiquity and Romano-Germanic Kingship
Germanic warrior-kings provided an alternative to the orientalizing-divinization cult. The ecclesiastical structure begins to see itself as more separate (and often superior) to the political order. Moreover, the episcopate is looked to as a model for rule. Not surprisingly, and perhaps contrary to earlier gains, there is a return to the idea of a theocratic priest-king (again see Kantorowicz).
Consistent with the warrior-king motif, and O’Donovan really doesn’t dwell overly much on it, is the idea of David as a type of later Christian kings.
Transition: Not exactly a transition moment, but of immense importance was Pope Gelasius’s idea of the “two swords,” dual rulership (179, “There are two by whom the world is ruled, priest and king”). Ambiguities in this model will create tensions when Aristotle comes on the scene.
The Struggle over Empire and the Integration of Aristotle.
Pope Gelasius’s formulation, for all of its difficulties, never united the two swords into one person. The temptation would later prove too great. The Papacy would develop the idea of plenitude potestasis, combining theology, law, and metaphysics into one. One result would be the increasing corporatization of the church, indeed a “corporation of corporations” (O’Donovan 235; again see Kantorowicz).
The corporatization of the church brought an old issue back to focus: what is the church’s relation to property? Augustinian reflection (eventually triumphing in Wyclif) had long placed restraints on the church’s vision. Christ and his disciples were poor, so the reasoning went, therefore his successors shouldn’t own kingdoms.
For all of Aristotelianism’s problems, Aristotle did allow theologians to advance fruitful ideas of community and rights. Thomas, in fact, would minimize the distance between pre-lapsarian and post-lapsarian communities.
Political Community, Spiritual Church, and Dominum
French royalism, following after numerous papal schisms, exposed the vain pretensions of a lordly church in a secular sphere. O’Donovan notes, “French royalist ecclesiology was a milestone on the way to the spiritualized church” (389). The key thinker to follow is John Wyclif, who is quite likely the unspoken champion of this volume.
Evangelical lordship is the “natural, nonproprietary use of necessary things universally open to human beings” (484). Following Augustine, Wyclif will argue that a just lordship of earthly goods involves a rightly-ordered love towards them, which depends on a true knowledge of them available only in Christ (485; cf. Augustine City of God, BK 19).
Does this mean that we can overthrow tyrants since they don’t have a Christological understanding of rightly ordered loves, and hence no just lordship? Not so fast, Wyclif would say, it is true they do not have just lordship, but we as those having true dominion in Christ bear witness that they have a “defective use of these goods” (Wyclif, 494). Tyrants posses “an unformed power” (Wyclif 510) but not true lordship. Rather, it is the believer who has the epistemological authority to judge the failures of church and state (O’Donovan 483ff).
Communication and Sharing
“God communicates them (spiritual gifts) to mankind with no alienation or impoverishment to himself the giver” (Divine Lordship, bk. 3 ch. 1. 70c).
Reformation and Beyond
Expanding exploration and new markets forced a rethinking of many theories, particularly those of ius naturale and ius gentium (O’Donovan 549). The idea of “covenant” began to play a more prominent role (per Knox and Junius Brutus) in how one relates to kings. On the Romanist and Anglican sides, develops in Thomism provided new reflections.
I think a lot of early Reformed covenantal approaches were quite strained. However, Althusius’s symbiotic-covenantal model was not only brilliant, it was quite exciting. He even summarizes and recapitulates the earlier medieval models as rule-by-communicacio.
Perkins has some great thoughts on equity: the mean between natural and divine law.
Finishing the moment is Hugo Grotius’s ideas of natural right. subjective right: right attaching to a subject (Irenaeus to Grotius, 797-799). A faculty is a right in the strict sense (entitles me to claim something as my own).
faculty::act
fitness::potency
Grotius reworks subjective rights, not as entitlement, but as “fitness” or “aptitude.”
Observations
It took me ten years to work through this book, but I think it was worth it. Occasionally O’Donovan might cook the evidence when it comes to political economy, and perhaps he doesn’t include all our favorite theologians, but given the limitations I don’t see how it could possibly be any better. Definitely recommended.
The Patristic Age
Christian thinkers had to wrestle with the uncomfortable fact that the NT praised Roman soldiers with the present reality of Rome’s attack on the faith. Further, military service, whatever conclusion one reached, challenged ideas of continuity.
Eschatology factored heavier in these accounts. As a separate community living in the time between the times, they awaited the arrival of Yahweh and the judgment of the age. This sheds light on the confrontational (spiritual, anyway) atmosphere: thinkers like Irenaeus and Cyril of Jerusalem saw a coming showdown with Antichrist (quoted in O’Donovan 41).
Several themes emerge in the Patristic Age, mainly the note of Evangelical Poverty. Property, as defined by Lactantius, is defined “precisely by the structures of community relations in which material goods are communicated” (O’Donovan 47). This means human existence has a fundamental sociality. For the most part, the fathers--and the tradition as a whole-avoid calling private property evil. But it is always deconstructed. They see property as already existing within community. It is to enable the trustee to better rule and share.
The Transition: Towards the end of the age both East and West will have been shaped by Justinian’s Law. The West would move to see links between Christology and political imagination (cf Kantorowicz)
Late Antiquity and Romano-Germanic Kingship
Germanic warrior-kings provided an alternative to the orientalizing-divinization cult. The ecclesiastical structure begins to see itself as more separate (and often superior) to the political order. Moreover, the episcopate is looked to as a model for rule. Not surprisingly, and perhaps contrary to earlier gains, there is a return to the idea of a theocratic priest-king (again see Kantorowicz).
Consistent with the warrior-king motif, and O’Donovan really doesn’t dwell overly much on it, is the idea of David as a type of later Christian kings.
Transition: Not exactly a transition moment, but of immense importance was Pope Gelasius’s idea of the “two swords,” dual rulership (179, “There are two by whom the world is ruled, priest and king”). Ambiguities in this model will create tensions when Aristotle comes on the scene.
The Struggle over Empire and the Integration of Aristotle.
Pope Gelasius’s formulation, for all of its difficulties, never united the two swords into one person. The temptation would later prove too great. The Papacy would develop the idea of plenitude potestasis, combining theology, law, and metaphysics into one. One result would be the increasing corporatization of the church, indeed a “corporation of corporations” (O’Donovan 235; again see Kantorowicz).
The corporatization of the church brought an old issue back to focus: what is the church’s relation to property? Augustinian reflection (eventually triumphing in Wyclif) had long placed restraints on the church’s vision. Christ and his disciples were poor, so the reasoning went, therefore his successors shouldn’t own kingdoms.
For all of Aristotelianism’s problems, Aristotle did allow theologians to advance fruitful ideas of community and rights. Thomas, in fact, would minimize the distance between pre-lapsarian and post-lapsarian communities.
Political Community, Spiritual Church, and Dominum
French royalism, following after numerous papal schisms, exposed the vain pretensions of a lordly church in a secular sphere. O’Donovan notes, “French royalist ecclesiology was a milestone on the way to the spiritualized church” (389). The key thinker to follow is John Wyclif, who is quite likely the unspoken champion of this volume.
Evangelical lordship is the “natural, nonproprietary use of necessary things universally open to human beings” (484). Following Augustine, Wyclif will argue that a just lordship of earthly goods involves a rightly-ordered love towards them, which depends on a true knowledge of them available only in Christ (485; cf. Augustine City of God, BK 19).
Does this mean that we can overthrow tyrants since they don’t have a Christological understanding of rightly ordered loves, and hence no just lordship? Not so fast, Wyclif would say, it is true they do not have just lordship, but we as those having true dominion in Christ bear witness that they have a “defective use of these goods” (Wyclif, 494). Tyrants posses “an unformed power” (Wyclif 510) but not true lordship. Rather, it is the believer who has the epistemological authority to judge the failures of church and state (O’Donovan 483ff).
Communication and Sharing
“God communicates them (spiritual gifts) to mankind with no alienation or impoverishment to himself the giver” (Divine Lordship, bk. 3 ch. 1. 70c).
Reformation and Beyond
Expanding exploration and new markets forced a rethinking of many theories, particularly those of ius naturale and ius gentium (O’Donovan 549). The idea of “covenant” began to play a more prominent role (per Knox and Junius Brutus) in how one relates to kings. On the Romanist and Anglican sides, develops in Thomism provided new reflections.
I think a lot of early Reformed covenantal approaches were quite strained. However, Althusius’s symbiotic-covenantal model was not only brilliant, it was quite exciting. He even summarizes and recapitulates the earlier medieval models as rule-by-communicacio.
Perkins has some great thoughts on equity: the mean between natural and divine law.
Finishing the moment is Hugo Grotius’s ideas of natural right. subjective right: right attaching to a subject (Irenaeus to Grotius, 797-799). A faculty is a right in the strict sense (entitles me to claim something as my own).
faculty::act
fitness::potency
Grotius reworks subjective rights, not as entitlement, but as “fitness” or “aptitude.”
Observations
It took me ten years to work through this book, but I think it was worth it. Occasionally O’Donovan might cook the evidence when it comes to political economy, and perhaps he doesn’t include all our favorite theologians, but given the limitations I don’t see how it could possibly be any better. Definitely recommended.
November 8, 2016
Didn't read every collection. But intros are incredibly helpful and excerpts are prudently chosen
November 12, 2018
Fantastic insight and read for any ministry major or theologian seeking insight into political theology or to deepen or broaden their horizons and viewpoints.
December 23, 2023
Old boy really managed to find the most boring pieces to keep in the collection.
Currently reading
February 26, 2024This is an amazing resource, but I'm probably going to be reading it for the next five years.
February 28, 2025
Read for school. Dense, but fantastic. A great sourcebook for those wanting to get a glimpse into different historical Christian opinions on politics and Christian engagement in society.
February 27, 2017
What a fantastic sourcebook. The introductions to each section are brilliant.
Want to read
July 7, 2011Just finished intro to section on the Patristic age in which the author outlines the different factors that influenced early Christian attempts to express a theology of politics:
1. Life pre- and post-Constintine
2. Importance of the issue of military service
3. Difference in East and West branches of the church and Empire (Monarchist tradition in East, Republican tradition in West)
4. Different pastoral situation addressed - eg defending against false charges of anti-social nature of church, compared to issues of dealing wih heresy (and the role, if any, played by the empoper in such dealings).
Chapter 1 - The Patristc Age
Justin Martyr (apologist) - "the religious authority of the word of God blends with the philosophical authority of the truth to provide a basis for the functioning of society and a criterion for the reasonable exercise of authority."
Iranaeus is against the idea of Empire.
1. Life pre- and post-Constintine
2. Importance of the issue of military service
3. Difference in East and West branches of the church and Empire (Monarchist tradition in East, Republican tradition in West)
4. Different pastoral situation addressed - eg defending against false charges of anti-social nature of church, compared to issues of dealing wih heresy (and the role, if any, played by the empoper in such dealings).
Chapter 1 - The Patristc Age
Justin Martyr (apologist) - "the religious authority of the word of God blends with the philosophical authority of the truth to provide a basis for the functioning of society and a criterion for the reasonable exercise of authority."
Iranaeus is against the idea of Empire.
Want to read
April 13, 2011This is a really great book a friend of mine gave me. It's simply a collection of excerpts from christian writers from the early days of christianity up through the Reformation on the subject of politics and government. It's a really great resource for people interested in christian history and political thought.
January 15, 2011
What a rich and provocative selection. All in all, not the most flattering portrait of church history--the compromise with power and violence has been the most consistent note in the tradition of Christian political thought. But the tools are certainly here to construct a just, godly, and Biblical model of society; they just need to be carefully sifted through, cleaned off, and sharpened.
May 17, 2013
The best book of its kind in the English language.
January 19, 2023
This book accurately and efficiently sums up the major thinkers and discussions of power throughout Christendom on earth. A little dense but totally worth it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews