MARK RAEBURN JOHNSTON

25

possibility and compassionate service This is in contrast to the idea of discipline in the

secular realm Secular punishment is often framed in terms of justice and recompense

The tensions between competing cultures that of the secular against the sacred of the

kingdoms of this world against that of the Kingdom of God places an important

burden upon both the Church and the society it inhabits to discern the appropriateness

of punishments and disciplines that reinforce the identities of each But the exercise of

ecclesiastical discipline within secular society poses serious challenges to an

understanding of the role of the Church 61

The great divide between the Church as a community of faith62 entrusted with

the divine mandates of revelation and that of our postmodern society is magnified

61 In any discussion where faith and discipline intersect secular society tension between the Church and state has existed These tensions must be addressed The uneasy coexistence of the sacred with the secular has often been the focus of scholarly study and debate-Cf Augustine The City of God (trans) Henry Bettenson (London Penguin Books 2003) especially Books III IV IXX XI Commenting on Augustine Ray Petry writes ldquoIn this human scene men were constantly frustrated by their inability to distinguish between the two cities one of God and the other of the Devil These would remain comingled in part until the all-revealing Day of Judgment The Bishop of Hippo pointed out to his people the necessity of watching for distinguishing signs In so doing he called upon them to build their lives according to the standards of the ultimate rather than those of the temporary world order He made clear his own devotion to the City of God However much the predestined community during its pilgrimage on earth might be mixed with the citizens of another community it had its final destiny in the kingdom beyond Augustine admonished all men to follow the behests of the ultimate city as it made its demands upon them in the temporal realmrdquo Cf Ray C Petry Christian Eschatology and Social Thought A Historical Essay on the Social Implications of Some Selected Aspects in Christian Eschatology to AD 1500 (New York Abingdon Press 1956) 108 This becomes the basis for many other writings such as popular evangelistic author Charles Colson who wrote ldquoThe real tragedy is that both sides are so deeply entrenched that neither can listen to the other Invective and name calling have replaced dialogue Nothing less than obliteration of the enemy will suffice either Christianize or secularize America Many citizens feel that they must choose sidesrdquo Cf Charles Colson Kingdoms In Conflict (Grand Rapids MI Zondervan 1987) 46 62 Bonhoeffer speaks of the inner dialogue that finally defines the community of faith ldquoThe concept of Christian community appears as determined by its inner history It cannot be grasped by itself but only in a dialectic of history In itself it is broken Its inner history becomes clear in the concepts of the primal state of sin and revelation all of which are fully understood only when seen as aiming at community It is therefore impossible to present the concept of the church without placing it in this inner dialectical history Cf Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Communion of Saints A Dogmatic Inquiry into the Sociology of the Church (New York Harper amp Row 1963) 38 Within the lsquopost-modernrsquo Church the boundaries of Church and State remain areas of contention Cf David F Ford ldquoHoly Spirit and Christian Spiritualityrdquo The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology (ed) Kevin J Vanhoozer (Cambridge England Cambridge University Press 2003) 288 ldquoPost-modernity has usually been suspicious of institutions and even of communities acutely alert to the ways in which they can be structured and legitimated in the interests of the powerful and can be oppressive to many of their own members or to outsiders Religious institutions and communities have usually been seen among the least satisfactory in these respectsrdquo

26

when those claims argue for the prominence of ecclesiastical authority above the

authoritative claims of the state Within the United States civil authority is most often

considered to be the sole arbiter of punishments63

The state turns to those systems of correction and punishment made legitimate

by judicial systems codified into law The members of the Church who are ldquocalled outrdquo

from secular society maintain an additional burden for discipline through their own

faith-based beliefs and practices Church members are also responsible to civil society

and are subject both civil law and ecclesiastical law The New Testament instructs

believers to ldquoobey civil lawsrdquo as a part of their greater testimony for the Kingdom of

God64 However this does not mean that the members of civil society are necessarily

subject to the laws of the Church

Besides following the convictions of their faith believers willingly subject

themselves to the laws of their communities in accordance with scripture teachings to

obey secular authorities These adherents of faith will follow an ethos peculiar to their

63The ldquoAge of Enlightenmentrdquo (mid-Sixteenth-mid-Seventeenth Centuries) comprised an awakening era where values guided by human reason sought to throw-off the oppressive mantles of religious authority Cf Richard Hooker The European Enlightenment Seventeenth Century Enlightenment Thought (Washington Washington State University 1996) ldquoThe basic tenets of the ldquoAge of Reasonrdquo as it was sometimes called included the following A) The universe is fundamentally rational and can be understood through the use of reason alone B) Truth can be arrived at through empirical observation the use of reason and systematic doubt C) Human experience is the foundation of human understanding of truth authority is not to be preferred over experience D) All human life both social and individual can be understood in the same way the natural world can be understood once understood human life both social and individual can be manipulated or engineered in the same way the natural world can be manipulated or engineered E) Human history is largely a history of progress F) Human beings can be improved through education and the development of their rational facilities and G) Religious doctrines have no place in the understanding of the physical and human worldsrdquo I have opened this chapter with the quotation of Thomas Paine taken from his epochal The Age of Reason which argued for the removal of any overt religious influence upon the free-thinking society of man In the opening chapter of his book Paine confessed a belief in one God while simultaneously professing ldquoI do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church by the Roman Church by the Greek Church by the Turkish Church by the Protestant Church nor by any church that I know of My own mind is my own churchrdquo Cf David F Ford ldquoHoly Spirit and Christian Spiritualityrdquo The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology (ed) Kevin J Vanhoozer (Cambridge England Cambridge University Press 2003) 288 ldquoPost-modernity has usually been suspicious of institutions and even of communities acutely alert to the ways in which they can be structured and legitimated in the interests of the powerful and can be oppressive to many of their own members or to outsiders Religious institutions and communities have usually been seen among the least satisfactory in these respectsrdquo 64 Titus 31