Sacralism is the confluence of

church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

wherein one is called upon to change the other. It also denotes a perspective that views church and state as tied together instead of separate entities so that people within a geographical and political region are considered members of the dominant ecclesiastical institution.

Concept

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

saying that has often been used to describe the principle of sacralism is ''

cuius regio, eius religio () is a Latin phrase which literally means "whose realm, their religion" – meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. This legal principle marked a major development in the collective (if not individual ...

'', or "who has region, decides religion." The idea was that the ruler of each individual area would decide the religion of those under his control based upon his own faith. Another conceptualization refers to sacralism as a view that each fundamental relations that one occupies should be seen under the aspect of the sacred. A critical description cite sacralism as the use of the concept of "the will of God" to legitimate oppression and violence. There are sources that consider it as a form of fundamentalism.

Examples

Christian sacralism is, according to Verduin, the

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

product that resulted from the colossal change known as the

Constantinian shift ''Constantinian shift'' is used by some theologians and historians of antiquity to describe the political and theological changes that took place during the 4th-century under the leadership of Emperor Constantine the Great. Rodney Clapp claims th ...

that began early in the fourth century AD, when Christianity was granted official tolerance in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

by the

Emperor Constantine Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

, and was completed by the

Emperor Theodosius Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

's declaration in 392 outlawing paganism and making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. The so-called Constantinian formula was described as a system that required the rule-right expressed in the State coalesce with the rule-right that comes to expression in the Church. This resulted in the so-called age of Christian sacralism when Roman citizens who did not necessarily subscribe to the faith are coerced into it for fear of social discrimination and outright persecution. It is suggested that the Christian sacralism still had pagan roots and that theologians merely embraced it using precepts from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. For instance, theologians established that Christ authorized the use of two swords: the sword of the clergy, which is the sword of the Spirit; and the sword of the soldiers of the state or the sword of steel. Christian sacralism lasted until the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

when Christians gradually moved away from sacralism. Sacralism is common in countries predominantly inhabited by followers of Islam. These have a tendency to comingle religion with politics and law, with the result viewed by Muslims as a compact and positive unity of all aspects of life. Sacralism has also been applied in the area of

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the Scientific method, scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities betwe ...

. There are modernists, for example, who approach world affairs from a range of analytical languages that have their origin within European Christendom. Thinkers who subscribe to the sacralist view also argue that the whole mind is capable of knowing and have put modernism in the context of their faith.{{Cite book, last=Pettman, first=Ralph, title=World Affairs: An Analytical Overview, publisher=World Scientific Publishing Company, year=2010, isbn=978-981-4293-87-7, location=New Jersey, pages=26 The idea is that aspects of modernism have arisen in a particular sacral environment.

References

External links

Dr. Martin Erdmann journalist and theologian. Book: Building the Kingdom of God on Earth
(English)
Dr. Martin Erdmann journalist and theologian. Book: Der Griff zur Macht - Dominionismus der evangelikale Weg zu globalem Einfluss
(German)
Dr. Martin Erdmann Video-Channel "Sacralism"
(German)
collection of articles on the subjects dominionism, sacralism and theocracy - Rachel Tabachnik, Dr. John MacArthur, Dr. Martin Erdmann, Rudolf Ebertshäuser, Sarah Leslie, Discernment Ministries Inc. u.v.m
(English + German) Political science terminology Religion and government

Concept

Examples

See also

References

External links