“God is Hidden in the Earthly Kingdom:” The Lutheran Two-Kingdoms Theory as Foundation of Scandivanian Secularity

Abstract

Martin Luther's signature "two kingdoms" teaching of the sixteenth century was an early and innovative theory of secularization that lies at the heart of historical Scandinavian culture. Defying the organic medieval models of Western Christendom, Luther separated the heavenly and earthly kingdoms, the saint and the sinner, faith and reason, church and the state, Gospel and the Law, as well as the spiritual and secular uses of law, government and authority. Though God is separated from day-today life, Luther wrote, God is still hidden in the earthly kingdom" and can be seen through various "masks," "mists," and "mimes." Though the visible church is separated from the state and other institutions, religion remains pervasive in the common callings of every person to be God's prophet, priest and king in every vocation and location of life. Luther's two kingdoms theory is a complicated and controversial part of this thinking, but it is worth re-exploring today as pluralistic Scandinavia faces strong new pressures of both sacralization and secularization and seeks to discern anew "the hidden sacraliity of the secular.

The dawn of the secular state? Heritage and identity in Swedish church and state debates 1920–1939

“…This perspective was further developed by, among others, bishop Einar Billing, into the ecclesiological concept of the Folk Church, the 'People's Church' or 'Church for the People', a concept that still has a central role in the self-image of the Church of Sweden (Eckerdal 2012). This perspective can also be understood as based on the earlier Lutheran doctrine of the Two Realms, according to which the Church as an institution was part of the earthly realm -not the heavenly -but where all earthly government was exercised by divine right and the Church had the specific responsibility of guiding every Christian in living according to divine law, regardless his or her vocation or social status (Lange 2014, Witte 2014). …”