Martin Luther’s Two Kingdoms for Post-Christendom Political Engagement

Abstract

Martin Luther’s two kingdoms has been overlooked by many as the church wrestles with what it looks like to engage with the post-Christendom political landscape. Much of this is due to the fact that a perverted version of Luther’s two kingdoms was used to justify acquiescence to the Nazi party in German. Luther’s actual two kingdoms theology calls for a critical engagement in politics that is motivated by love, operating through God’s two governments. Luther’s theology of the two kingdoms provides a way forward for political engagement after Christendom by avoiding the extremes of civic disengagement on the one hand, and a wholesale return to a Christendom synthesis on the other.