The Mystical as Political: An Enquiry into the Relationship between Church and State

Contemporary scholars like to paint the first Christians as political revolutionaries, and the later Christians as mere state collaborators and compromisers. Is this really the case? Drawing on early Christian texts, including Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History, Saint Augustine’s The City of God, and other Patristic and modern works, we will explore the history of the role of the Church in government. The modern liberal idea of a strict separation of church and state is a newcomer. Christians before us had other ideas about how the religious experience, including mystical and liturgical experience, might and ought to shape secular society. We will explore the tensions that have always existed between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, not only as they now clash and now converge in the political scene, but also in our own hearts. What role, if any, should our Christian faith have in government? Are religious views merely private, and should Christians be silent in politics? This retreat takes its name from the book The Mystical as Political by Aristotle Papanikolaou, and is offered in celebration of Saint Constantine, Emperor, whose feast day is June 3.