The Iron Sceptre of the Son of Man: Romanitas As a Note of the Church

by Alan Fimister

Three days before His Passion, Our Lord warned the High “the Kingdom of God is taken from you and given to a nation that will bear the fruit thereof.” What is this nation? Who are the people of the Messiah? What is the Kingdom inherited by the saints of the Most High, and why does the Messiah rule the nations “with an iron sceptre”? The Church Fathers, East and West, are clear in their the people of the Messiah are the Romans. Although in its pagan form it is Babylon and the Beast, the Roman Empire is translated by the power of the Cross from the temporal to the spiritual order and becomes what the Apostle calls “the restrainer”: the power that holds back the coming of the Antichrist. The removal of this restrainer signals the commencement of the final persecution of the Church and the end of all mortal things.

Guided by the teachings of the Fathers, St Thomas Aquinas, and St John Henry Newman, The Iron Sceptre of the Son of Man explores the essentially Roman character, the Romanitas , of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and demonstrates how a true understanding of this fifth Note of the Church can guide us in the most vital and perilous of all discernments.

Alan Fimister is Assistant Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Director of Graduate Theology at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut. He is the author of Robert Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe (2008) and, with Fr Thomas Crean O.P., A Manual of Political Philosophy (2020). He is the Director of the Dialogos Institute. A native of Newcastle upon Tyne, he is married and has three children.

Genres: Religion, Catholic, Philosophy

200 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2023

Reviews

[Lawrence Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you would like to know how the coronation of Charlemagne as Roman emperor led to the French Revolution…

[James Hazeldean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy read by any means, but a brilliant scholarly analysis of the Roman Imperium, and how it was translated into the Catholic Church. Hence why we call it the Roman Catholic Church, all members are Roman by the order of Grace.

It delves also into the causes of the east west schism, noting that the core is the eastern rejection of this translation, instead maintaining the traditional Roman understanding of the arrangement between the powers temporal and spiritual. They reject Saint Augustines works in the City of God, with the Heavenly Jerusalem in the next life, and instead hold it to be Constantinople.

[Jacksonian · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the more prophetic exegetical parts can be a bit hard to wrap one's head around, the point is clear: the Church is Roman. The Early Christians thought so, to be sure. The Church, a society of criminals (sinners), with an Augustan, republican polity, centered in the Eternal City, is as Roman as could be.

All this was to be expected from a book of its title, but a welcome surprise was the discussion on Romanitas as it was present in the East and West (and hints at reconciliation). Not certain I agree with his pessimism towards an imperial revival, but alas.

[T. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fimister attempts to prove the 'Church is Roman' from obscure prophesies in Scripture which can be interpreted countless ways. His arguments are hard to follow since his thoughts seem scattered. He also goes on irrelevant digressions from the topic at hand. I read about half of the book before giving up. I'm disappointed, I expected more.

[Henry]

Great book, including lots of good exegesis.