Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Department

Theology

Keywords

Johannes Althusius, church and state, Reformed churches, common good, government

Abstract

In the midst of religious conflict in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a number of prominent Protestant theologians and lawyers wrote on the collective moral obligation to resist systemic injustice. My essay focuses on Johannes Althusius, who offers a theological account of the political com­munity and its obligation to preserve the ·common good and resist injustice. Thinking alongside Althusius, I will consider not only the conditions that may prompt acts of resistance but also the lawful means and ends of resistance. In other words, how might resistance be carripd out rightly? By whom? And to what end? Finally, I argue that we have good reasons to use Althusius's politi­cal thought to revive an account of resistance that is internal to the Christian theological tradition-an account that relies on a broader conception of divine justice, covenantal responsibility, and mutual accountability.

Source Publication Title

Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics

Publisher

Georgetown University Press

Volume

38

Issue

1

First Page

43

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