AC XVI : One True God: On Islam, Secularism, and the Church
One True God: On Islam, Secularism, and the Church
Christians was content to compete in the marketplace of ideas and became stronger as a result. You cannot open a church in Mecca today, but you can open a mosque in Rome. As a result Western Christians are genetically more resistant to Moslem ideas. We have heard them for centuries. If a new crusade would ever be launched from Christendom, it would not contain bombs and bullets for we have justly given over the sword to the state, but in the form of books and ballots. Secularists and Islamic radicals are both monists. One reduces everything to this world and the other to the world to come. Christianity is simply more sophisticated, recognizing two great powers in the minds of men: church and state and allowing them to exist in synergy (never alone!) with each other. This is (in part) the ground for my confidence in our battle against both secularism and radical Islam. We are not afraid to fight for human justice and have grounds for doing so. We do not seek utopia, but the best possible civil society in this fallen world. However, we know better than to confuse a military fight with any crusade or jihad. We know that this is a power only exercised by the earthly sovereign, God’s appointed minister. We also know that this is not the most important realm. Christians are ultimately citizens of the Kingdom to come. Our religious leaders will argue and plead a case for humanity that is good, true, and beautiful. A crusade for that Kingdom can only be fought with weapons appropriate to it: levity, logic, and love.Okay, this is my last Augsburg Confession, article XVI post for a while. Espousing the virtues of success of Islam is a useful demonstration of what we have have given up in modern Christianity. As well, his discussion of home-schooling as modern monasticism is interesting as well.
