- Title
- What shall we do with ungodly rulers?: on Calvin, theology and politics
- Creator
- Boer, Roland
- Relation
- Australian EJournal of Theology Issue 14
- Relation
- http://aejt.com.au/2009/issue_14/?article=197646
- Publisher
- Australian Catholic University
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2009
- Description
- This essay focuses on the famous last section of John Calvin’s Institutes (4.20.32), where for all his efforts to stipulate obedience to rulers, he closes with the realization that one is duty-bound to disobey any ungodly and tyrannical ruler. Through a close reading of the literary structure of Calvin’s argument, I follow his struggle concerning this issue, moving through his assertions that one must obey at any cost, through recognizing that God and/or his appointed agents may punish and overthrow tyrannical rulers, to his direction not to obey any ungodly ruler. This last topic is the most absorbing of all, for it reveals Calvin struggling with a tension between radical and conservative elements within his theology.
- Subject
- Calvin; theology; politics; ungodly rulers; tyrannical rulers
- Identifier
- uon:7498
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/807790
- Identifier
- ISSN:1448-6326
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