Abstract

The interface between the church and state, also called the social mission of the Church, remains a contentious question. It is traceable right back to the days of Jesus himself. For instance, when he was faced with the question about taxation Jesus expressly said: “give to Caesar what is Caesar ’s, but give to God what is G0d’s” (Mk 12: 17; Mat.22: 21). In this reply Jesus shatters the concept of religious and civil inseparability. The political and religious spaces are not identical. The earliest Christian prayer of the church for the state, i.e. the letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians: 60:4-6, articulates a deep conviction that God bestows earthly power and authority on civil leaders. Also expressed in the prayer is the clear awareness that in certain instances political leaders have the propensity to pose and demand submission that stands in opposition to the will of God. Indeed apostle Paul calls for obedience to imperial authorities for there is no authority except from God. Like Clement of Rome, Paul holds the position that God is responsible for the establishment of every kind of authority (Rom. 13:1). The same understanding is found in Peter 2:13-15. However, there is a cloud of ambivalence in the sense that one also notices hostility to the state by Christians (John 18:36). In moments of conflict. for example, Peter and John draw a line between allegiance to the state, on one hand, and to the commands of God, on the other (Acts 4:19). For them and for the Christians, obedience to the commands of God takes precedence. Since 1891 the Catholic Church has worked out a concise position on the question regarding the interface between the church and state. This is expressed in what is popularly called the Catholic social teaching. Chapter one of this study discusses this teaching within the broad tradition of social ethics. However, unlike other trends within social ethics, the Catholic social teaching is characteristically deontological and the onomous. ln Chapter two. the study has taken the discussion of the Catholic social teaching further. Here focus has been on the specific principles, themes and questions that constitute its preoccupation. Chapter three makes an observation that in Malawi, the Catholic Church started to make use of this teaching to address matters of social concern in the early 1960s.

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School	: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Issued Date	: 2006

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