Yippy Skippy. Ignatius just re-released my favorite work of political philosophy, Hugh Rahner's
Church & State In Early Christianity (read the Introduction in full.) It was originally published at the height of the struggle between the Church and the Nazis.
It provides the living witness of the early Church to the solution of the ever-recurring problem touching us as citizens of a state and members of the Church because all persons, in addition to the complex of influences affecting their personality and status as citizens, are in the Church or are called to her. For the Church is the "Kyriaké", the queen just as Christ is the King. She must, therefore, proclaim to all generations and to all states the revelation that Christ the Redeemer has brought to mankind in his power and majesty, And the state is called to listen to the Church. But both those who make the proclamation and those who hear it must do so in a way that neither exceeds nor blurs the limits of the mutual autonomy that God the Creator has set for the state, and God the Redeemer for the Church. Because citizens of the state and the members of the Church are the same individuals, the problem of the just relationship between Church and state remains a difficult and vital question for all.
Since B16 recommended at Regensberg that Islam learn from Christianity's history, he should send all the mullahs a copy for Easter. Eid, I mean.
Let us listen to the song of Christian freedom, calling to us, ringing all about us from times past.
