I'm not sure why, but it continues to amaze me. A re-worked
form of Dominionism is rapidly extending to Evangelical communities in Europe.
The Lausanne Movement has really done its work.
Modern Dominionist teaching insists that Medieval Catholicism
split the sacred and the secular. They will point to the fact that to be 'holy'
one had to become a cleric or live in a monastery.
This is a misrepresentation of the truth. Roman Catholicism
did have orders or magnitudes of what was understood to be the holy life and
yet it would be wrong to relegate the rest of society to being merely secular.
That's not how Catholics viewed it. This was Christendom after all. Western
Civilization was itself viewed as a holy construct, a manifestation of, if not
an equation with the Kingdom of God.
Protestantism reworked this and actually made it worse. They sacralised
everything, every iota of society and life. Everything became part of the
Kingdom of God and had to be transformed. This would lead to the sacralisation
of economics, the state, warfare etc...
This is not to say that Rome didn't have its way of
sacralising these things as well but... their system had greater nuance and
allowed for ambiguity with regard to the various facets of social and
individual life. Rome certainly had the Crusades and notably organisations like
the guilds were also wed to Roman Catholic practice and ritual. Kings ruled by
the 'grace of God' and were crowned by clerics.
This reality is often misrepresented by the apologists of
Sacral Protestantism and its monistic philosophy. While absolute dualism is to
be rejected, the Bible clearly presents numerous aspects of duality in the
Christian life and how we (as individuals and as the Church) relate to the
world. Protestantism has all but eradicated these distinctions. Rome had a
deformed view of these things but at least retained some sense of duality.
This is one of the great tragedies of the Magisterial
Reformation. Many of the older groups of proto-Protestants who comprised the
Medieval Underground resisted the Sacral/monistic impulses of Rome. There were resistant
forces even within the fold of Roman Catholicism... the Spiritual Franciscans
and others who also resisted the secularising of the Church and its embrace of
power and riches.
And yet the Reformation took Rome's monistic tendencies and
absolutised them.
The Reformation all but ended the old duality and the necessary
(and Biblical) tension. The various Medieval Bible-minded groups were swallowed
up into the Reformation stream. It was like a Second Constantinian Shift. Everything
from military campaigning to commerce and even usury were transformed into acts
of worship. The so-called 'advance' of Western Civilisation became equated with
the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Many abominations resulted from this
hellish doctrine and it eventually undermined and destroyed itself... or at
least is in the process of doing so.
Catholicism itself went through a process of Reform and by
the 19th century had reworked its social doctrine and understanding
of politics and economics. While it still retains some sense of duality, it
could be argued this is less so than in the past. In many ways it adopted
(again with more nuance) a variation of the Protestant ethos and form.
The Anabaptists came out of the Reformation as the lone voice
representing the older view. Sadly they fell into many other errors. There have
been sparks of light since the 16th century. Various groups have
attempted to recapture this understanding of the Church and the Kingdom but confused
allegiances, the complexity of modern life, modern economics in the industrial
and technological eras and the nature of warfare and society itself have driven
many into the sacralist fold or at the very least have led to grievous
distractions.
The Evangelical Church that arose in Europe in the 19th
century was born of a Berean spirit and being a remnant community functioned by
means of a separatist ethos. These were Free Churches that had no interest in seeking
ecclesiastical Establishment or reviving the sacral project. They survived and
even to a degree flourished, but in the 1960's and 1970's the American
Evangelicals arrived, bringing the monistic doctrines of Dominionism and a new
vision/paradigm for Christendom. Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer and others set
out to transform Evangelicalism both in America and Europe. The results have
been mixed and I doubt Graham or Schaeffer (were he alive) would be very happy
with the direction things have gone.
Yet, as the linked article makes clear their influence is
still being felt and is spreading.
See also:
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