What shall we do with ungodly rulers?: on Calvin, theology and politics

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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