Essays on Church, State, and Politics - (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics) by Christian Thomasius (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The works found in Essays on Church, State, and Politics, which originated as disputations, theses, and pamphlets, were direct interventions in the unresolved issue of the political role of religion in Brandenburg-Prussia, a state in which a Calvinist dynasty ruled over a largely Lutheran population and nobility as well as a significant Catholic minority.

Christian Thomasius (1655-1728) was a German philosopher and legal theorist.

Ian Hunter is Australian Professorial Fellow at the Centre for the History of European Discourses, University of Queensland, Australia.

Thomas Ahnert is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Edinburgh.

Frank Grunert is Scientific Collaborator at the Institut für Deutsche Philologie, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich.

Review Quotes

Essays on Church, State, and Politics collects six texts of classic literature by German jurist, philosopher, reformer, and early advocate of separation of church and state, Christian Thomasius (1655-1728). Translated into English for the first time, Essays on Church, State, and Politics argues forcefully for religious tolerance while lauding the role of sovereign power to preserve secular peace. Chapters further discuss natural law, the condition of the universities, the extent and limits of princely power, and the questions of whether heresy and witchcraft should be considered crimes. A powerful advocational text of why the state should withdraw from judging morality yet maintain its right to oversee matters influencing social peace, Essays on Church, State, and Politics is overall as relevant today as it was virtually three hundred years ago.

The Midwest Book Review
August 2007