Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 24:1 (Sep 2017)
Article: The Left Wing Of The Reformation And Their Understanding Of Church In Relation To The State
Author: Peter Penner

Conspectus 24:1 (September 2017) p. 359

The Left Wing Of The Reformation And Their Understanding Of Church In Relation To The State

Peter Penner1

Abstract

The time of the Reformation has determined today’s relationship between state and church. This is true, even though the society has gone through several stages of development and an individual’s relation in a democratic context has also changed toward both, the state and the church. The article raises the question of on how especially early Anabaptists have positioned themselves in their relation to the state, calling for a clear separation between church and state. For centuries, this has resulted in persecutions of this group. Today, most of their positions on the separation of church and state are lived reality. In praxis and even in today’s democratic contexts, this is difficult, as the case from the warzone of south-east Ukraine shows.

Conspectus 24:1 (September 2017) p. 360

1. Introduction: Anabaptist Movement In Time (From Reformation To Present)

While the Christian world celebrates 500 years of Reformation, the Anabaptists started this year with a ‘Decade of Renewal’. An international group of Anabaptists met in February in Augsburg, a symbolic place, and initiated a set of activities spread over 10 years (‘Renewal Decade’ 2017). By 2027, after they will have met at different locations of the Anabaptist movement, like Zürich and other places, they will return to Augsburg. In 1527, Augsburg hosted the so-called Martyr’s synod. This Anabaptist synod was held 3 years prior to the pronouncement of the Augsburg confession (Confessio Augustana) 4 articles of which spoke out against the Anabaptists (‘Augsburg Confession (1530) – GAMEO’). The Augsburg Martyr’s synod has received its name because most members of the 50 teams of those who went out from the Synod to preach the Gospel were killed before Luther gathered those who formulated the Augsburg Confession in 1530. One of them was an Anabaptist leader from Strasbourg, Michael Sattler (Winter 1991:55). The original document which ordered his killing was signed by Martin Luther personally, even though friends of Luther, reformers from Strasbourg, tried to stop Luther doing it.

So the ‘Decade of Renewal’ for the present Anabaptist churches and groups means to remember the efforts of the early radical Reformation movement, and invites them to reconnect to the present discussion on the relationship of church and state. It also means to recognize some positive achievements as well as some mistakes in the area of understanding Scripture, church and society. Anabaptists have suffered much, and often were victims. But victims are not always without fault, and a ...