Talk:Christian republic

Christian republic
I feel that this could be a worthwhile article, but it needs much expansion. I put the NPOV sticker on the article because it seems to me that the person who created this stub did it with the expressed purpose of making a political statement. I did not take it off, because it is not in and of itself a POV statement, but because it makes up half of the stub, it is inappropiate. By the way, this is coming from a lefty that basically agrees with the statement, but NPOV needs to be observed.--Bjeversole 23:34, 5 April 2006 (UTC)


 * This isn't a political statement. A "Christian Republic", by the name itself, is a Republic with a state religion of Christianity. It logically follows that if a republic is "Christian", its state religion is Christianity. Secondly, prior to editing, the article claimed that secular state advocates claimed the United States of America was being transformed into a Christian Republic. These are neutral facts, not political statements. And, I have a comment on the editing. The revisor claims that Sweden is a Christian republic. This is totally false. Sweden is a Constitutional monarchy. Canadianism 23:01, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Until 2000, Sweden had the localized Lutheran Church as a state church. The Church of Sweden has now been relegated to the status of a national church. Finland's former state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, was changed into a national church (along with the Finnish Orthodox Church, which was given the same position) through the church law of 1870, the constitution of 1919 and the law on religious freedom of 1922. --BillyTFried 20:58, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I edited it some to discuss the Republican period of England, Savonarola, etc. I'm thinking some should be said on Christian Republican thinkers like Thomas More or John Milton and maybe even a tie-in to Dominion Theology.(My efforts at quitting have failed miserably)--T. Anthony 14:45, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Defining the concept
Right now the article contains criticisms of the idea by distinguished political philosophers but lacks any proper definition and references to people or movements that have advocated a Christian republic. Nor does it give examples of attempts to establish one. I don't have the necessary sources to hand - it's probably 40 years since I had to address the topic, probably in a first year undergraduate lecture. It needs somebody who can give the necessary citations.

The ideal of the Christian republic incorporates elements of all of the following important concepts in political thought.


 * That man is or should be governed by a set of natural or God-given laws
 * Government by a priest class or acknowledged people of faith - a theocracy
 * Within a Christian context, that God's purpose can be directly understood from a proper study of scripture and can be applied to all areas of our lives, and may often tend toward fundamentalism
 * The idea of a state religion or church
 * The idea of republicanism

Examples of those who have advocated such a form of government and tried to establish one can be found in England during the English Civil War and Commonwealth. There are other examples in 16th and 17th century Europe. The idea fell out of favour in the 18th century and the founders of the American and first French republics expressly rejected it, but it lived on in Europe particularly within the Christian Democracy movement though this was not necessarily republican. AJHingston (talk) 00:35, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Question about a reference + 1 example
Hi, while translating this article for the French WP, I found something a bit surprising in the references: the sentence "Robert Neelly Bellah has observed..." is not sourced with Bellah, but with Cristi. This may be right (Cristi 2001 speaking about Bellah 1992, why not?) but this may also be an error. Since I have no way to check by myself, can anybody confirm?

BTW, have you heard about the "Christian republic" in Fribourg/Freiburg (Switzerland) (1881 - 1914 or 1921)? Some details (in English) there. Fanfwah (talk) 15:34, 1 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Interesting on several levels. I wonder whether the term Christian Republic was used at the time in Freibourg, and what the politicians understood by it if they did. Certainly it seems likely to have connections with the Christian Democracy movement elsewhere in Europe. The article at memo.fr is not ideal because it does not make clear whether the cantonal parliament thought that they were intending to have a Christian Republic or whether that is just a name given later. Switzerland is a good example where the ideas of a Christian Republic were discussed and attempts made to set them up. For example, I would think that Huldrych Zwingli wanted the Reformed Cantons to be governed as what we would describe as Christian Republic(s), and there were probably clear examples of them in Switzerland over the years. Rousseau was, after all, arguing against political ideas which were circulating in his time, just as Locke was in England. Examples of support for the idea in Italy are also interesting, and Girolamo Savonarola is important because he seems to have used the term as well as attempting to set one up, and may be the first. AJHingston (talk) 16:40, 1 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Concerning the "Fribourg case": other sources like this article of the Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse don't make clear whether the name "Christian republic" has been used during the period or just later by historians; it seems it has corresponded to an intent to "realize the social reign of Jesus Christ", especially through the educational system (cf. this lecture).
 * Besides this, the question about Bellah/Cristi references is still open! Fanfwah (talk) 09:58, 2 March 2011 (UTC)