A Covenantal Politics

Two magisterial Protestant traditions took shape in the sixteenth century: Lutheran and Reformed. Whereas Lutherans took more of a Cuius regio, eius religio ["whose realm, his religion"] approach, deferring to the magistrate on religious matters, the Reformed did not. In resisting Catholic rulers or establishing new Protestant ones, Reformed theologians took up important political questions including the power of the magistrate (in warfare or law, for example), the responsibilities of the Christian citizen, and what is now called "church-state relations." Robust humanist learning and theological inquiry combined in a fiery furnace of persecution to forge rich political theory influencing the continent and Great Britain and foundational in the American colonies -- both Anglican and Puritan. It is hard to imagine church-state relations in the colonies, or the religious fervor of the War for Independence, apart from Reformed Protestantism.