The Temporal and Spiritual Kingdoms: Tyndale’s Doctrine and its Practice

Keywords

Tyndale's doctrine, royal supremacy, caesaro-papism, erastianism

Abstract

Scholarship on Tyndale's political thought has pursued two commonplaces: Tyndale follows Luther in erecting a separation between the temporal and spiritual kingdoms, [1] and Tyndale's thought encouraged the royal supremacy, caesaro-papism, erastianism [2] These two views, however, seem to conflict. How could a distinction of temporal and spiritual government motivate the state to subsume the Church? How does a theoretical separation of Church and state entail their practical union? Tyndale's text open this and other gaps; establish separations and then cross them, in many ways. deconstruct oppositions upon which they are predicated, yet those moves do not disable the text but rather generate its authority and its historical impact.

Original Publication Citation

“The Temporal and Spiritual Kingdoms: Tyndale’s Doctrine and its Practice.” Reformation 1 (1996): 118-28.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1996

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

English

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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