Friday, August 29, 2025

It is the 29th of August 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Yesterday I used a very big word. Not to impress or confound, but because- whether spellcheck likes it or not: Confessionalization” is the important term we use for an important part of Reformation studies- the question of “so what”?

We can divide the Western church into three major periods- the Christendom model after Constantine, followed by Confessionalization: the division of the Reformation and a new model of aligning the state with a particular Christian confession (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholic, etc). This, in part, led to the disastrous Thirty Years' War and other Wars of Religion.  

And so that leaves us with the modern era- the liberal democratic state (don’t hear those in partisan terms as much as you hear it to mean: no more kings, or bishops running the state, and there is something like a contract between the ruling and the ruled)

So how did we get from there (Confessionalization- and warring princes over theological issues) to here? The shortest answer I could give you is a name- one you know, but maybe didn’t realize played such a big role in church state issues. He was John Locke, born on this day in 1632 in Somerset, England.

Yes, he has something to say about “innate ideas” and the “blank slate” (or tabula rasa. He is also the father of modern empiricism and is the philosopher behind the evolution of the English state into the Glorious Revolution, which sets the foundation for the American Revolution.

He was born into an England torn apart by Confessionalization- his parents were Puritan sympathizers but knew it was safer to stay in the Church of England. A kid during the start of the English Civil Wars, his father served as a lawyer to the Parliamentarians- he would retain his pro-Parliament, anti-Royalist views his whole life.

We won’t track his philosophical thought and biography per se- but this background, the tumultuous 1600s, was fertile ground for new thoughts about the place of the state, God, and the people.

In 1685, while in exile in Holland (James II was back on the throne and Locke was known to be anti-monarch), he wrote his “Letter Concerning Toleration.” It was published anonymously in 1689 (a year after the Glorious Revolution and James's fleeing). The context was the Test Act- in order to be in public office, you had to receive communion in the church of England.

For Locke, the main issue was a confusion of “realms”- the state’s realm was the protection of the person and goods and property, while the church’s realm was in heavenly things. Locke wrote that there is a “temporal political kingdom" and “an eternal spiritual one”.  This isn’t a new idea- See Augustine and Luther, especially-  but Locke’s bringing it into the context of the Revolutionary age would help make this the standard in the modern West.

His “The Reasonableness of Christianity” is his most significant work of theology. Published in 1695, he argues that “reason”- the “rational aspect of the soul” can understand and interpret the Bible. Locke’s theology is peculiar- Diego Lucci, who has written a recent book John Locke’s Christianity (Cambridge 2020), called Locke’s faith a “unique, heterodox, internally coherent version of Protestant Christianity”.

He was heterodox, by Protestant standards, for his teaching on the fall of humanity- he didn’t believe it resulted in eternal punishment for Adam’s progeny. And while Locke was interested in the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) he wasn’t so keen on Sola Fide (Faith Alone) as he held to a generally Arminian view- semi-Pelagian perhaps (all this means is that he thought humans had more power in deciding their fate, and earning it, than most in the history of the church).

Regardless of his heterodoxy- we might not have him lead a Bible study- but his political thought- grounded in his Protestant theology- is the foundation of the modern state. Today, we remember John Locke on the anniversary of his birth, on the 29th of August in 1632. 

 The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and 1 Peter 4:

7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 29th of August 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man sometimes called “unique, heterodox and internally coherent, he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who remembers John Locke from Lost; he lived in Tustin, where I lived when I watched that show… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.