The Right Relationship Between Church and State

A Thomistic Approach to the Separation of Powers...

The perennial question concerning the relationship between Church and State has occupied Christian thought from the earliest centuries, but it finds its most systematic articulation in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, whose vision continues to shape the Western understanding of the balance of powers.

In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas uses Sacred Scripture and Tradition to develop a systematic argument concerning the relationship between Church and State and how it pertains to the dual order of man’s end, and this continues to resonate with theologians and political theorists alike who seek to respond to the modern challenges of secularism, liberalism, and separation of Church and State.

The Scriptural Basis for State Power

One of the first explicit expositions of Christian political thought is found in St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He writes, “let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God”. And yet, St Paul reminds his Roman audience that the State’s authority, though real and binding, is not absolute. The ruler who acts as the personification of the state remains a servant of the people and common good, not a sovereign in the ultimate sense. The ruler’s power is willed – either passively or actively – insofar as he cooperates with the natural and supernatural law. St Paul goes so far as to affirm that the State’s power extends to the power of life and death, stating the ruler “beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God’s minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil”.

Thus, from the beginning, Scripture affirms the legitimacy of State power and the obligation of all citizens to obey the state. When the State acts in accordance with the natural and divine law, it fulfills its proper function as both guardian and enforcer of the temporal common good, but when it departs from these immutable laws, the State forfeits its legitimacy.

The Relationship between Church and State

As part of his political theory, St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between imperfect happiness attainable in this life through the exercise of virtue (eudaimonia), and perfect happiness which consists in the eternal vision of God (beatitudo).

The State is fundamentally subordinate to the Church insofar as the State which provides for and sustains man’s natural end is subordinate to man’s supernatural end which is provided for and sustained by the Church. Aquinas illustrates this hierarchy by analogy – just as the body is ordered to the soul, so temporal power is ordered to spiritual power. Thus, while the State governs temporal affairs in accordance with particular and natural law, it must not act or legislate contrary to the higher law of God, nor impede the Church in her mission of salvation as this would render the laws unjust and illegitimate.

However, Aquinas argues that the Church must never seek to usurp the role of the State in directly governing the temporal domain as this represents an abuse of power and jurisdiction of the Magisterium.

While the temporal is subordinate to the spiritual, the Church violates the natural order by interfering in political decisions entrusted to the State. In reality, the Church’s authority is that it guides the State in ensuring that legislators always work towards the common good, and do not contradict natural or divine law by placing impediments to man in his pursuit of his natural and supernatural ends.

Granted, the Church may correct, admonish, apply pressure, excommunicate, and in extreme circumstances even withhold obedience when the State legislates against the natural and supernatural law, but it does not dictate the technical administration of civil society, such as matters of economic policy, taxation, or military organization, which properly belong to the State. However, in civil matters pertaining to faith and morals, the family, and justice, the Church maintains its responsibility in proclaiming the Gospel – even at the expense of persecution.

In this way, Aquinas maintains the superiority of the spiritual order and the legitimate autonomy of the temporal order, preserving harmony without Church and State collapsing one into the other.

Modern Developments to Thomistic Thought

In his papal encyclical Vehementer Nos, Pope St Pius X argues in a manner deeply consonant with Thomistic thought that while Church and State are distinct in their proper ends, they are not therefore separate in the sense of being unrelated or independent. Just as in Thomistic philosophy the soul and body are distinct principles yet united in one human nature, so too the spiritual and temporal powers, though distinct in authority, are ordered harmoniously under God, who is the source of both. The State, as a creature of divine providence, cannot act as though it were morally neutral or autonomous from God, but must acknowledge and honor Him as the highest good, shaping its laws and institutions in accord with the moral order revealed by the Church.

He states:

“That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him”.

Pope St Pius X insists that by relegating religion to the private sphere and severing it from public life it is fundamentally unjust as it compromises the rightful unity of man’s dual ends, effectively undermining the very foundation of justice and social order – which is God. He argues that although the State cannot usurp the Church’s authority by legislating morality (i.e. making it illegal to miss Sunday Mass), it must nevertheless order its constitutions and laws according to the natural law while publicly acknowledging God as the supreme good, the ultimate source of authority, and the final end of all human society.