The relationship of church and state Karl Barth’s lecture held in Sárospatak in 1936

Abstract

In 1936, Karl Barth (1886–1968) did not visit Hungary in a theological vacuum: his teachings that rejuvenated Reformed theological thought had already been known in Hungary and Transylvania, and its reception had begun already in the early 1930s. He was elected honorary professor of the Reformed Theological Academy of Sárospatak, and the distinguished Swiss theologian, obviously alluding to the historical background of the Barmen Declaration, gave his inaugural lecture on the relationship between the state and the church. The title of his lecture – People’s Church, Free Church, Confessing Church – already indicated that Barth believed these to be three forms the Church can take in its relation to the state. He also stressed that the Church’s relationship with the state is always determined by the latter’s behavior. The Church responds to the decisive actions of the State, and this response must necessarily come from its essence, that is, its righteousness van only be determined in the context of its mission and its relationship with Christ.