Separation of Church and State

Separation of Church and State

One of the greatest legacies of the Middle Ages is the separation of Church and state: where these are seen as distinct entities that play different roles in society. The separation of Church and state was initiated by Augustine, at a time where Christians generally held the view that the Roman Empire was God's chosen way to spread Christianity throughout the world.

After centuries of oppression, Christianity entered a season of prosperity with the conversion of the Roman Emperors. At the end of the fourth century, Christianity had such a high position in society that Christian scholars had accepted the Roman Empire was the secular model of the Christian religion.

Augustine was the first the challenge this view, and contended that the Church and state should be separate entities. Although he spent his early life mostly in agreement with his Christian contemporaries, Augustine became aware of sin and its negative effects on Roman society. He regarded problems such as warfare and slavery as results of human sinfulness, and could therefore not condone the idea that the state was in any way a reflection of the teachings of the Church.

Having observed this for some time, Augustine came to the conclusion that no society on earth is God's reflection of his doctrines for human order or individual righteousness. Instead, Augustine came to believe that society had the role to contain disorder and human misdeeds. Society was to control conflict and provide space for the possibility of moral living in the world.

Original sin is the disruption of original harmony on earth, and is reflected in the tension and disorder in the earthly "City of Man," as Augustine called it in his book City of God. The book describes the tension between the earthly City of Man and the heavenly City of God. The first represents the Roman Empire and indeed all human establishments on earth. They are imperfect and filled with sinfulness and disorder.

On the other hand, the City of God is described as the perfect harmony that was originally established on earth. Freed from original sin, the City of God is the perfection of harmony between God and human beings. In his book, Augustine then finally dispels the idea of the Roman Empire being the earthly establishment of God's kingdom. It was simply too imperfect. Hence, he promoted the separation of Church and state as entities with two distinct purposes on earth.

Because of this separation, Augustine holds that Christians cannot feel fully at home in any society. Because these societies are imperfect, they are but temporary homes for Christians. Because they are imperfect, no society has the purpose of eternal salvation. Furthermore, Christian hope does not rely on any form of society or political program.

Human imperfection for Augustine meant that the Gospel was a permanently unsettling force to prevent total Christian identification with the social order. For these reasons, the heavenly Jerusalem as described by Augustine cannot exist on earth. Hence, the concept of Christendom as a society that exists on earth, but separate from society is manifest in the Church.