It’s Not Rebellion; It’s Counter-Insurrection: Christian Freedom and Responsibility and the Necessity of Resistance

This paper brings The Freedom of a Christian in dialogue with Martin Luther's later socio-political works, Martin Luther's Warning to His Dear German People (1531) and the Circular Disputation on the Right of Resistance against the Emperor (1539), to establish a clear path unfolding within Luther’s socio-political treatises. Luther's highly nuanced position advocating for Christian resistance against temporal authority adheres to the paradox of Christian existence, “A Christian person is a free lord above everything and subject to no one; a Christian person is a devoted-peer servant of everything and subject to everyone,” and is wedded to the concept of “counter-insurrection" in defense of the divinely gifted Tribus Hierarchiis. In this way, Luther's conception of Christian freedom and responsibility does not betray his characteristic concern about chaos and disorder and allows for Christian socio-political resistance while staying within the confines of faith working itself out in the “law of love.”