Two Kingdoms & Two Cities: Mapping Theological Traditions of Church, Culture, and Civil Order (Emerging Scholars)

The recent emergence of “two kingdoms” and “two cities” approaches to Christian social thinking is shown to have a key—and often unacknowledged—connection to Luther’s reshaping of the Augustinian paradigm. The project works for a better understanding of Luther’s own thought to help understand the convergences and divergences of Christian political theology in the twentieth century and today.In particular, Luther’s two-kingdom thinking issued forth in a strong distinction of law and gospel that was also worked out in twofold pairs of Israel and church, general and special revelation, creation and redemption, and especially the outward and inward life. The work traces this legacy through acceptance and modification by Niebuhr and Bonhoeffer, Lutheran and Catholic neoconservatives, Reformed two-kingdom proponents, Augustinian liberals, and finally Oliver O’Donovan. The conclusion reflects on both the historical narrative and its connection to an account of modern liberalism, as well as a theological reflection on hermeneutical decisions of the “twoness” of Christian theology. The recent emergence of “two kingdoms” and “two cities” approaches to Christian social thinking are shown to have a key—and often unacknowledged—connection to Luther's reshaping of the Augustinian paradigm. The project works for a better understanding of Luther's own thought to help understand the convergences and divergences of Christian political theology in the twentieth century and today. In particular, Luther's two-kingdom thinking issued forth in a strong distinction of law and gospel that was also worked out in twofold pairs of Israel and church, general and special revelation, creation and redemption, and especially the outward and inward life. The work traces this legacy through acceptance and modification by Niebuhr and Bonhoeffer, Lutheran and Catholic neoconservatives, Reformed two-kingdom proponents, Augustinian liberals, and finally Oliver O'Donovan. The conclusion reflects on both the historical narrative and its connection to an account of modern liberalism, as well as a theological reflection on hermeneutical decisions of the “twoness” of Christian theology. The recent emergence of "two kingdoms" and "two cities" approaches to Christian social thinking are shown to have a key and often unacknowledged connection to Luther's reshaping of the Augustinian paradigm. The project works for a better understanding of Luther's own thought to help understand the convergences and divergences of Christian political theology in the twentieth century and today. In particular, Luther's two-kingdom thinking issued forth in a strong distinction of law and gospel that was also worked out in twofold pairs of Israel and church, general and special revelation, creation and redemption, and especially the outward and inward life. The work traces this legacy through acceptance and modification by Niebuhr and Bonhoeffer, Lutheran and Catholic neoconservatives, Reformed two-kingdom proponents, Augustinian liberals, and finally Oliver O'Donovan. The conclusion reflects on both the historical narrative and its connection to an account of modern liberalism, as well as a theological reflection on hermeneutical decisions of the "twoness" of Christian theology Additional praise for Two Kingdoms & Two Cities 1 Two Kingdoms & Two Cities 3 Two Kingdoms & Two Cities 5 5 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 Abbreviations 13 Introduction 15 Luther’s “Inward/Outward” Two Kingdoms 23 Niebuhr, Bonhoeffer, and a “Dialectical” Two Kingdoms 57 Lutheran and Catholic Neoconservatism and a “Paradoxical” Two Kingdoms 83 Reformed Two-Kingdom Theology and a “Parallel” Two Kingdoms 111 Neo-Augustinian Liberalism and an “Eschatological” Two Kingdoms 143 Augustine and a “Christendom” Two Cities 171 Oliver O’Donovan and A Doctrine of the “Two” 201 Conclusion 237 Bibliography 259 Index 271