Christian Resistance Theory: John of Salisbury

Lex iniusta non est lex - St. Augustine

A few days ago I promised some further comments on Christian resistance theorists from the Middle Ages.  Oftentimes when I make comments such as the one I made in the previous post, I get blank stares and embarrassed silence, especially from fellow clergy.  The assumption seems to be that since Jesus promised us tribulation in this world, a passive, pacifist response is what is required from all Christians who suffer persecution.  No Christian, and certainly no clergyman according to this view, should ever defend the argument for the propriety of armed resistance against tyranny.  As Archbishop Foley Beach recently put it in a comment designed to honor Martin Luther King, "Violence is not the answer. Violence only leads to more violence. It is non-violence which brings lasting social change".

As you can see in the linked blog article, my answer to that was, "Archbishop Beach's comment is flat wrong when viewed in a biblical and Christian-historical contexts.  Plus, it's just flat wrong empirically.  The Orthodox Serbs and Greeks will tell you that their violent resistance against the Ottoman Turks brought lasting social change to their lands." I'm sure Archbishop Beach would also agree with the proposition that violence was indeed the right answer to Adolf Hitler.  (I choose to give His Grace the benefit of the doubt and speculate that his words represented a "throw-away" comment designed to say something politic about MLK on his national day of celebration.)

Moreover, the Christian resistance theory that was developed by certain theologians in the West, and more or less embraced in the East, was developed by clergy, mainly bishops.  One such bishop was the Anglo-Saxon John of Salisbury, Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Chartres, and author of an important political treatise, Policraticus, in which the bishop, echoing the political thought of Manegold of Lautenbach and foreshadowing that of Thomas Aquinas, argued for the right to revolution against tyranny, a proposition that stands at the center of American political theory.

My good friend David Kopel, with whom during my gun rights activism days I co-authored a law review article on the right to keep and bear arms, penned this article about John of Salisbury.  I highly recommend it to all my Christian friends, especially my fellow clergy who think that Christian theology justifies the proposition, "Violence is never the answer."