The Nature of Christendom

"Christendom" is an evolving concept.  We look back on the growth of this phenomenon as Christianity slowly took over the Roman Empire from the bottom up -- by slave, often.  As it gradually took hold among the elites, a socially-corporate conception of the relationship of the Church and Civil Government began to form.  (But, the actual separation of Church and State, Pope and Emporer, was not lost in principle, and seldom in practice).

The extremely interesting and informative history of this "Christendom" continued until more or less the time of the "Enlightenment," as which point it is commonly assumed to have been fatally wounded.

However, I don't think we should have a disappointed view of developments.  It was said, I believe in the early 1980's, that the conversion rate to Christianity in China was 25,000 per day -- 7 days a week.  This is bound to have an influence, even though it by no means makes Christians come anywhere being any kind of corporate majority in that State.  After all, it's the "leavening" that Christ has ordained.  The wheat and the tares continue to grow together -- coming more and more into their respective fruitage -- until the end of the age, at which the vindication of the Sons of God -- whose prayers have been keeping the world running all the time -- will shine forth.

Therefore, as we contemplate the "look and feel" of the new Christendom, we need to recognize several things:

1)  The old Christendom has gifts to convey to us, and it just as well shows us its limitations.

2)  The political turmoil of the Magisterial Reformation itself shows one of the major limits of that Christendom, due to too much intertwining of Church and State.

3)  The Anabaptists also have gifts to give us, just as the Romanists and Orthodox do.
4) The Anabaptist emphasis on church discipline was a gift to the church, and attempts were made to take this over into the Reformed Churches.
5) However, discipline could never be practiced properly, as long as the church authority was preempted by civil authority, as it always was where the churches were not "free." (Only the Anabaptists were free.)

6)  The Anabaptist radical disowning of the civil order was wrong, but few of our modern Evangelical "anabaptists" want to do that any more.  They want a certain "Christendom," too!  Therefore, our "catholicity" must extend to them.

7)  Even the Lutherans, during and after the diet at Augburg, had to begin to recognize that the government could be as much of a hindrance as it could a help to the reformation of the church.  The effect of that event was that the government had to "back off" from the imposition of Romanism.  Empire-wide control had to cede to local control.  Even where local government was a help (such as in Electoral Saxony), it bred a dependence that Luther didn't like.
8)  In the Reformed areas, the governmentally-based city reforms still left the question of religion more open outside the city limits.  So, even there, there were limits on the influence of government on the church.

9)  For our part, it is not simply the "American" experience that Church and State need be separated.  This was also the experience of the Magisterial Reformation, when carried to its final point.  You can't have freedom in your church, even the freedom for discipline, much less theological reformation, when you have to tangle with the civil government or civil society about it.

Therefore, we have lessons to learn about the concept of "Christendom."  Yes, we need to recognize the fruits of the first one.  And, yes we also need not turn up our noses at every fruit of the "separation of church and state," whatever that is.  History moves on, and we need to continue to develop our understanding of what this means.  The experiment is not over.  We need to be open to the hand of God as worldwide Christendom still evolves, under the lessons of Scripture and experience.

And, these are just the practical arguments and lessons of history.  There are theological reasons why the first Christendom could not endure, and why the subsequent Christendom will look different.  That discussion appears in other posts in this blog!