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4024 results in Texts in political thought

Page 182 of 202

  • 10 - Hans Hut, On the Mystery of Baptism

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 152-171

  • Summary

    On the mystery of Baptism, both the symbol and the essence, a beginning of a right, true Christian life.

    John 5[:39], “Search Scripture, for you think you have life in it, and it is Scripture that testifies about me.”

    I wish the pure fear of God, the beginning of divine wisdom, to all brothers and sisters in the Lord, who make up genuine Christendom, the community of God, the only spouse and bride of Christ, united by the movement of the holy spirit in the bond of love. And I wish grace and peace in the holy spirit to all who yearn for the rigorous justice of the crucified son of God with saddened hearts and depressed spirits, and to all those who wish to be fed by this justice. Amen.

    Since the last and most dangerous age of this world is now upon us, we see — and realize with seeing eyes — how everything that the prophets, patriarchs, and apostles prophesied from the beginning and proclaimed for the future, is now coming about again and will be restored, as Peier prophesied to us in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 3[:17–26]). The whole world — God have mercy on us — shows absolutely no judgment concerning this prophecy, especially those who teach other people and understand less about it than apes, although they want to be masters and teachers of Scripture.

  • 8 - Anonymous, To the Assembly of the Common Peasantry

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 101-129

  • Summary

    To the Assembly of the Common Peasantry which has come together in revolt and insurrection in the high German nation and many other places. Concerning whether their rebellion takes place justly or unjustly, and what they owe or do not owe the authorities etc., based on holy divine Scripture. Issued and discussed with good intention by your brothers in upper Germany, etc.

    Now is the hour and time of the wheel of fortune. God knows who will remain on top.

    “What increases the Swiss? The greed of the lords.”

    Grace be with you and the eternal peace of God, from the father and our lord, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to save us from this present evil age according to the will of God, our lord. May he be praised for ever and ever. Amen.

    Dear brothers in Christ, you know that the Lord says, “Render unto Caesar diat which is Caesar's, ” etc. Cling to this saying in Matthew chapter 23 [rather, Mt. 22:21], just as Christ himself also gave the tax money to the emperor, Matthew 17 [:24–27]. Look now, my dear brothers, the lord of heaven and earth, the true God, subjected himself to worldly authority, and voluntarily made himself liable to taxation, to give us an example to imitate. “The servant should never be above his lord.” Because of this commandment, we cannot excuse ourselves from die terrible punishment, as St. Paul said to die Romans in chapter 13[:2–6], “He who resists the authorities opposes die order of God … and he will incur judgment … For die authorities do not bear die sword in vain.

  • c - The Memmingen Federal Constitution

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 239-242

  • Summary

    This Christian union and association has been founded in order to praise and honor eternal, almighty God, and, by appealing to the holy gospel and the divine word, also to contribute to justice and divine law. It has not been founded in contempt of anyone or to deprive him of his rights, be he a spiritual or a secular lord. And it has been founded especially to increase brotherly love.

    [1] First, the honorable territorial community of this Christian association insists that the spiritual and temporal authorities are responsible for acting according to divine law, and for not violating this law in any way, but obediently maintaining it.

    [2] Again, it is the honorable territorial community's will and conviction that the common peace should be maintained and that no one should violate the rights of another. But if it should occur that someone causes another to take up arms and rebel, others should not in any way assemble and form factions. And the nearest person, regardless of his social standing, should have authority to make peace among them and to request that from now on one bid the other to make peace and restrain themselves, etc. And if this peace that has been requested is not maintained, the one responsible for violating it should be punished accordingly.

  • Part One - Abstract Right

  • Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel
  • Edited by Allen W. Wood
  • Translated by H. B. Nisbet
  • Book:
    Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right
    Published online:
    11 May 2019
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 65-72

  • Summary

    The will which is free in and for itself, as it is in its abstract concept, is in the determinate condition of immediacy. Accordingly, in contrast with reality, it is its own negative actuality, whose reference to itself is purely abstract – the inherently individual [in sich einzelner] will of a subject. In accordance with the moment of particularity of the will, it has in addition a content consisting of determinate ends, and as exclusive individuality [Einzelheit], it simultaneously encounters this content as an external world immediately confronting it.

    Addition (H). When I say that the will which is free in and for itself, as it is in its abstract concept, is in the determinate condition of immediacy, this should be understood as follows. The completed Idea of the will is that condition in which the concept has fully realized itself and in which its existence [Dasein] is nothing but the concept's own development. Initially, however, the concept is abstract – that is, although all its determinations are contained within it, they are no more than contained in it: they have being only in themselves and have not yet developed into a totality in their own right. If I say that I am free, ‘I’ is still this being-within-itself [Insichsein] without any opposition. In morality, on the other hand, there is already an opposition; for in this sphere, I am present as an individual will, whereas the good is the universal, even though it is within me.

  • Section 1 - The Family

  • from Part Three - Ethical Life
  • Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel
  • Edited by Allen W. Wood
  • Translated by H. B. Nisbet
  • Book:
    Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right
    Published online:
    11 May 2019
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 199-219

  • Summary

    The family, as the immediate substantiality of spirit, has as its determination the spirit's feeling [Empfindung] of its own unity, which is love. Thus, the disposition [appropriate to the family] is to have self-consciousness of one's individuality within this unity as essentiality which has being in and for itself, so that one is present in it not as an independent person [eine Person für sich] but as a member.

    Addition (H,G). Love means in general the consciousness of my unity with another, so that I am not isolated on my own [für mich], but gain my self-consciousness only through the renunciation of my independent existence [meines Fürsichseins] and through knowing myself as the unity of myself with another and of the other with me. But love is a feeling [Empfindung], that is, ethical life in its natural form. In the state, it is no longer present. There, one is conscious of unity as law; there, the content must be rational, and I must know it. The first moment in love is that I do not wish to be an independent person in my own right [für mich] and that, if I were, I would feel deficient and incomplete. The second moment is that I find myself in another person, that I gain recognition in this person [daß ich in ihr gelte], who in turn gains recognition in me. Love is therefore the most immense contradiction; the understanding cannot resolve it, because there is nothing more intractable than this punctiliousness of the self-consciousness which is negated and which I ought nevertheless to possess as affirmative.

  • a - The Eleven Mühlhausen Articles

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 227-230

  • Summary

    Mid-September 1524

    In the name of Jesus. In order to praise God, the community of Mühlhausen, [including the congregations] of St. Nicholas, St. George, St. Margaret, the linen weavers of St. Jacob, and many other craftsmen of the city, have taken action themselves and derived their decisions from the word of God. Where this resolution contradicts God's word, however, it should be changed and improved.

    [1] An entirely new council should be established. The reasons for this are so that it will act according to the fear of God, so that old hatreds and despotism are ended, and in order to insure that those who do evil, and those who allow and approve it, receive the same punishment- Romans 1[:32], Luke 19[:20–27] on the willful servant – so that there is no confusion in the community about those who are outside it and those who are inside it. From this [confusion], harm to the community can result, for it is difficult to accept as judges those who are themselves guilty.

    [2] Judgments should be made according to the [standard of] justice in the Bible or holy word of God. This is so that the poor man is treated like the rich, as in Zechariah 17 [rather, Zech. 7:10], Leviticus 19.[:15] and 26[:3], John 7[:24], Matthew 5[:19], and Luke 18[:2–8].

  • Section 1 - Purpose and Responsibility

  • from Part Two - Morality
  • Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel
  • Edited by Allen W. Wood
  • Translated by H. B. Nisbet
  • Book:
    Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right
    Published online:
    11 May 2019
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 143-146

  • Summary

    The finitude of the subjective will in the immediacy of action consists immediately in the fact that the action of the will presupposes an external object [Gegenstand] with various attendant circumstances. The deed posits an alteration to this given existence [Dasein], and the will is entirely responsible for it in so far as the abstract predicate ‘mine’ attaches to the existence so altered.

    An event, or a situation which has arisen, is a concrete external actuality which accordingly has an indeterminable number of attendant circumstances. Every individual moment which is shown to have been a condition, ground, or cause of some such circumstance and has thereby contributed its share to it may be regarded as being wholly, or at least partly, responsible for it. In the case of a complex event (such as the French Revolution), the formal understanding can therefore choose which of a countless number of circumstances it wishes to make responsible for the event.

    Addition (H). I can be made responsible for whatever was contained in my purpose, and this is the chief consideration as far as crime is concerned. But responsibility involves only the wholly external judgement as to whether I have done something or not; and the fact that I am responsible for something does not mean that the thing [Sache] can be imputed to me.

  • f - Michael Gaismair's Territorial Constitution for Tyrol

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 254-260

  • Summary

    First, you will swear to bring together body and goods, not to separate from one another, but to work and live with one another, though at all times acting after consultation with, and being obedient to your superior authorities. And in all matters you swear not to pursue selfish interests, but radier to pursue first of all the honor of God and then the common good, so that almighty God will be gracious and assist us (as he has often promised all who are obedient to his commandments). We should rely completely on God, for he is entirely truthful and deceives no one.

    Second, you swear to expel all godless people, who persecute the eternal word of God, burden me poor commoner, and impede the common good.

    Third, you swear to establish, and then live completely according to, laws which are wholly Christian, and which in all matters are founded only on die holy word of God.

    Fourth, all privileges should be eliminated, for they are contrary to the word of God and falsify justice, in that no one should have an advantage over others.

    Fifth, all the encircling walls around cities, castles, and fortifications in the territory should be torn down. And thereafter there should no longer be cities but only villages, so that there are no differences among people in the sense that one is higher than another or able to do wrong to another.

  • Introduction

  • Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel
  • Edited by Allen W. Wood
  • Translated by H. B. Nisbet
  • Book:
    Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right
    Published online:
    11 May 2019
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 25-64

  • Summary

    The subject-matter of the philosophical science of right is the Idea of right – the concept of right and its actualization.

    Philosophy has to do with Ideas and therefore not with what are commonly described as mere concepts. On the contrary, it shows that the latter are one-sided and lacking in truth, and that it is the concept alone (not what is so often called by that name, but which is merely an abstract determination of the understanding) which has actuality, and in such a way that it gives actuality to itself. Everything other than this actuality which is posited by the concept itself is transitory existence [Dasein], external contingency, opinion, appearance without essence, untruth, deception, etc. The shape which the concept assumes in its actualization, and which is essential for cognition of the concept itself, is different from its form of being purely as concept, and is the other essential moment of the Idea.

    Addition (H). The concept and its existence [Existenz] are two aspects [of the same thing], separate and united, like soul and body. The body is the same life as the soul, and yet the two can be said to lie outside one another. A soul without a body would not be a living thing, and vice versa. Thus the existence [Dasein] of the concept is its body, just as the latter obeys the soul which produced it.

  • 5 - Andreas Karlstadt, Whether One Should Proceed Slowly

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 49-73

  • Summary

    Whether one should proceed slowly, and avoid offending the weak in matters that concern God's will

    Andreas Karlstadt 1524

    I, Andreas Karlstadt, wish my especially beloved brother in Christ, Bartel Bach, city secretary of Joachimstal, the art of knowing God through our lord Jesus Christ.

    Dear brother, in reply to my description of some changes that have taken place here [i.e. Orlamünde], you wrote me that, as far as you are concerned, you would like to proceed slowly. And through this writing you gave me to understand, without saying it, that one should not proceed quickly or suddenly but slowly in order to avoid offending the weak. You are simply doing what the whole world does now, which is to cry, “The weak, die weak! The sick, the sick! Not so fast! Slowly, slowly!” For this reason I am not angry with you. Nevertheless in this matter you are saying, “Slowly! The sick!,” with a great many people. Only you are saying it more politely and with greater sophistication. Accordingly I must tell you that neither in this case nor in other matters concerning God should you regard how the great masses speak or judge. Rather, you should look straight at God's word [i.e. Scripture]. For it has long been clear that die princes, for whom the scribes write, and die great mass of the people have erred formerly and are capable of error.

Hegel: Elements of the Philosophy of Right
  • Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel
  • Edited by Allen W. Wood
  • Translated by H. B. Nisbet
  • Published online:
    11 May 2019
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991
  • This book is a translation of a classic work of modern social and political thought, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Hegel's last major published work, is an attempt to systematize ethical theory, natural right, the philosophy of law, political theory and the sociology of the modern state into the framework of Hegel's philosophy of history. Hegel's work has been interpreted in radically different ways, influencing many political movements from far right to far left, and is widely perceived as central to the communication tradition in modern ethical, social and political thought. This edition includes extensive editorial material informing the reader of the historical background of Hegel's text, and explaining his allusions to Roman law and other sources, making use of lecture materials which have only recently become available. The new translation is literal, readable and consistent, and will be informative and scholarly enough to serve the needs of students and specialists alike.

  • 12 - Balthasar Hubmaier, On the Sword

  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    The Radical Reformation
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991, pp 181-209

  • Summary

    On the sword. A Christian explanation of the Scriptures which are cited very earnestly by some brothers against government – that is, that Christians should not occupy positions of power or wield the sword.

    Dr. Balthasar Hubmaier of Friedberg. 1527

    To the noble and Christian lord, Sir Arkleb of Bozkowic and Tzernehor at Trebitz, Chancellor of the Margravate of Moravia, my merciful lord. I wish you grace and peace in God.

    Noble, merciful lord, your grace probably knows well that all those who accept, love and preach the holy gospel in these last and dangerous times must not only be deprived of goods and tortured in body (Matthew 5[:11f.]); even their honor, which people regard as the most precious jewel on earth, must also be wounded and violated by the godless. Precisely these things are the weapons of hellish Satan, through which he unceasingly tries to suppress, root out and hinder evangelical teaching and truth. But he will not succeed. His head must be crushed because of that. Especially now, the servants of the devil must call all Christian preachers rebels, demagogues, and heretics on the grounds that they repudiate authority and teach disobedience. But this is not a cause for wonder. The same thing also happened to Christ (Luke 23,[:2], Jeremiah 38[:4], 1 Kings 18), although he publicly taught that one should “render to Caesar that which is Caesar's” (Matthew 22[:21]), just as he paid the tax for himself and for Peter (Matthew 17[:24]).

The Radical Reformation
  • Edited by Michael G. Baylor
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    25 October 1991
  • This 1991 book is a collection of writings by early Reformation radicals which illustrates both the diversity and the areas of agreement in their political thinking. The texts are drawn from the period 1521–7, centring on the German Peasants' War of 1524–6. The thinkers represented - Muntzer, Karlstadt, Grebel, Hut, Denck, and others - differed on important theological issues, yet all rejected the magistral reformation as serving the interests of society's elites. They advocated a strategy of Reformation from below, a sweeping transformation of society to the benefit of the lay commoner and the local community. With the start of the Peasants' War, radicals divided over the issue of the legitimacy of force. This division shaped the ways in which they confronted the failure of the Peasants' War and the alternate strategies for survival developed in its aftermath. Appended to the texts are a number of political programmes of the Peasants' War. These documents illustrate ways in which the radicals contributed to the uprising, and how the war itself led to greater clarity in the political theory of the radical Reformation.

  • 7 - On recognizing men's natural equality

  • from BOOK I
  • Samuel Pufendorf
  • Edited by James Tully, McGill University, Montréal
  • Translated by Michael Silverthorne, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book:
    Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    26 July 1991, pp 61-63

  • Summary

    1. Man is an animal which is not only intensely interested in its own preservation but also possesses a native and delicate sense of its own value. To detract from that causes no less alarm than härm to body or goods. In the very name of man a certain dignity is feit to lie, so that the ultimate and most effective rebuttal of insolence and insults from others is ‘Look, I am not a dog, but a man as well as yourself.’ Human nature therefore belongs equally to all and no one would or could gladly associate with anyone who does not value him as a man as well as himself and a partner in the same nature. Hence, the second of the duties of every man to every man is held to be: that each man value and treat the other as naturally his equal, or as equally a man.

    2. This equality among men consists not only in the fact that the physical strength of adult men is nearly equal to the extent that even a relatively weak man can kill a stronger man by taking him by surprise or by use of cunning and skill in arms, but also in that one must practise the precepts of natural law towards another and one expects the same in return, even though he may be better provided by nature with various gifts of mind and body; his superiority does not give him licence to inflict injuries on others. On the other hand neither the scanty provision of nature nor the niggardliness of fortune in themselves condemn one to have less access to the enjoyment of the common law than others. But what one may require or expect from others, the same, other things being equal, they should have from him; and any law [jus] that a man has made for others, it is particularly fitting that he follow himself. For the Obligation to cultivate social life with others lies on all men equally; and it is not allowed to one more than any other to violate natural laws where another person is concerned.

  • 13 - On the right of life and death

  • from BOOK II
  • Samuel Pufendorf
  • Edited by James Tully, McGill University, Montréal
  • Translated by Michael Silverthorne, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book:
    Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    26 July 1991, pp 158-162

  • Summary

    1. The sovereign civil authority has a twofold right over the Citizens’ lives: a direct right in the suppression of crime, and an indirect right in the defence of the State.

    2. Force on the part of an external enemy has often to be met by force; or we may need to use violence in claiming our right. In either case the sovereign authority may compel the Citizens to perform this kind of service, where it is not a question of deliberately sending them to death but only of exposing them to the danger of death. The sovereign authority has the duty to give them training and preparation to conduct themselves with vigour and skill in such dangers. No Citizen through fear of this danger may render himself unfit for military service. Once inducted, he will in no circumstances desert his post through fear but will fight rather to the last breath, unless he believes it to be the will of his Commander that he should save his life rather than hold his position, or that the position is less important to the State than the lives of the Citizens involved.

    3. Executing its right directly the sovereign power may take away Citizens’ lives for atrocious crimes and as a punishment (though punishment also falls upon a man's other possessions). At this point a few general explanatory remarks on the nature of punishment are necessary.

    4. A punishment is an evil one suffers, inflicted in return for an evil one has done; in other words, some painful evil imposed by authority as a means of coercion in view of a past offence.

  • For although punishment often takes the form of action, yet these actions are designed to be laborious and painful to die doer and so to inflict on him a kind of suffering.

  • Punishment is to be inflicted on men against their will. Otherwise it would not achieve its goal, which is to deter men from wrongdoing by its harshness. Nothing a man gladly accepts has this effect.

  • Evils inflicted in war or in self-defence in fighting are not punishments, because they are not by authority.

  • Nor is what one suffers when wronged a punishment, because it is not inflicted in view of a past offence.

Page 182 of 202