“Luther battled for a theological revaluation of the secular. Work is divine service.” p. 365

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #Secular #ChristianExistence #ChristianLife

“Occasionally Luther points out that the two governments depend on each other: worldly government creates the precondition for the church’s development of its own activity. The preaching office, on the other hand, serves the authorities by keeping the public peace. But for Luther this includes as an essential component a protest against inappropriate behavior by the political powers. It is true that the world cannot be ruled ‘according to the Gospel and Christian love,’ but preachers certainly have the duty of appealing to the consciences of the authorities: it is necessary to speak the word of God to the ‘clodhoppers!’ So Luther certainly approves of political preaching.” p. 334

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #TwoKingdoms #TwoGovernments #Politics #PoliticalPreaching

“Paul Althaus says accurately that, while Luther did not subscribe to the idea that ‘property is theft,’ still he finds that ‘property becomes theft if the excess beyond one’s personal needs is not used to benefit one’s neighbor. If a Christian sees someone who has nothing to put on, ‘he says to his money: ‘Out you come, Squire Guilder! There is a poor, naked man who has no coat; you must serve him. There is a sick person with no refreshment: out you go, Squire Annaberg; out you go, Squire Joachimsthal, you have to go and help him!’ Without exerting pressure in a legal or moral sense Luther makes it clear that it is God who desires to work and give aid through my money.” p. 327

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #Money #Neighbor #LawofLove

"In any case, the term ‘two-kingdoms doctrine’ was created in 1922 by Karl Barth and was immediately used as a polemical weapon."

#oof #HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #TwoKingdoms #TwoGovernments #ChurchandState

My Reich for this to be comprehended like especially 100 years ago.

“Luther himself does not speak about a doctrine of two kingdoms or two governments, but he does talk about two ‘kingdoms’ and two ‘governments’…” p. 315

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #ChurchandState #TwoKingdoms

“Luther had no primary interest in the church as institution. At the center of his theology stood the question of the glory of God and the salvation of humanity. Only from that perspective could the church acquire its value. It was a derived entity, but precisely as such it had its specific significance. His love for the true church corresponded to his battle against the Roman church.” p. 300

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #Church #Salvation #GodsGlory

“The church is thus no clublike gathering of the like-minded. The church is begotten, formed, nourished, brought up, pastured, strengthened, equipped, and adorned solely through the Gospel—’the church’s whole life and being consists in the word of God.’ Wherever the Gospel is spoken, there is the church, and thus it is by no means tied to particular places (such as Rome). ‘Where the word is, there is the church.’ It depends on the word, not the word on it; this is true also of the church as institution: the Gospel is above the church, not the church above the Gospel.” p. 280

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #Church #Gospel #WordofGod

“Probably because of the omnipresence of the church as institution, which in Luther’s view had very little to do with the Gospel, he did not especially treasure the idea of ‘church.’ He called it an ‘obscure’ word, that is, one that has nothing to say, as well as ‘not German,’ that is, a foreign word. He preferred to speak of the Christian community or assembly, of the holy Christian church, of the holy Christian people of God, ‘the whole Christian church on earth,’ as in his explication of the third article of faith in the Small Catechism. For him, the church was a ‘crowd, assembly of people who are Christians and holy.’” p. 280

#HansMartinBarth #TheologyofMartinLuther #Church