Page 255 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik XIV (2018), številka 28, ISSN 2590-9754
P. 255
synopses, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
Bohemian Brethren nobility accepted military command responsibilities. The position
of the aristocracy and intelligentsia among the Bohemian Brethren also changed. If both
groups had previously been more or less merely a “tolerated” estate, without any import-
ant voice within the church, which did not demand any higher humanistic and theologi-
cal education even from its priests, with the advent of Bishop Jan Avgusta (after 1537) aris-
tocrats and intellectuals became leading representatives of the church in Bohemian soci-
ety. On account of the Turkish danger at the gates of Central Europe (after 1529, when Su-
leiman the Magnificent besieged Vienna), the Bohemian Brethren theologians stopped es-
pecially pointing out the pitfalls that lurked with every political engagement of individu-
al important aristocrats among the Bohemian Brethren. It was these who cooperated in
the First Smalkaldic War on the Protestant side, which Emperor Charles V defeated in the
Holy Roman Empire. Thus the Bohemian king Ferdinand I implemented numerous mea-
sures against the church, including reviving the St James mandate of King Vladislaus Jagi-
ellon of 1508. All these interventions against the Bohemian Brethren were a warning for
the future, since they clearly underlined the uncertain political and social position of the
Bohemian Brethren against the Bohemian king as the Utraquist church.
Keywords: the Bohemian Brethren, theology, Luther, Jan Augusta, Ferdinand I, the
St James mandate
UDC 274.5-1
Peter Kuzmič
The Church and the Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God and the Church of Jesus Christ are two key New Testament
concepts. While the Church cannot be identified with the Kingdom, for the latter is a
larger and more comprehensive term, the two are nevertheless in close correlation and
cannot be separated either. Speaking of the Kingdom as related to the Church means
primarily to speak of the reign of Christ over and through the community called by his
name. That reign of Christ in the present has two most important points of reference.
The first is a foundational one, the past Christ-event, encompassing the Incarnation, the
earthly life and ministry of Jesus, and their culmination in his substitutionary death and
victorious resurrection. The Kingdom came in the person of Jesus, and the Church is the
result of that coming of the King. The second point of reference is still in the future and
will find its fulfillment in the return of Christ, which will bring about the completion of
the Kingdom and the absorption of the Church into it. It is within this two-advent struc-
ture of salvation history that the Church exists “between the times.” It has always to look
back, as it is built on the foundation laid by Christ and the apostles while it should also
look forward, fully cognizant of the fact that while it “builds”, it is his Church and he will
253
Bohemian Brethren nobility accepted military command responsibilities. The position
of the aristocracy and intelligentsia among the Bohemian Brethren also changed. If both
groups had previously been more or less merely a “tolerated” estate, without any import-
ant voice within the church, which did not demand any higher humanistic and theologi-
cal education even from its priests, with the advent of Bishop Jan Avgusta (after 1537) aris-
tocrats and intellectuals became leading representatives of the church in Bohemian soci-
ety. On account of the Turkish danger at the gates of Central Europe (after 1529, when Su-
leiman the Magnificent besieged Vienna), the Bohemian Brethren theologians stopped es-
pecially pointing out the pitfalls that lurked with every political engagement of individu-
al important aristocrats among the Bohemian Brethren. It was these who cooperated in
the First Smalkaldic War on the Protestant side, which Emperor Charles V defeated in the
Holy Roman Empire. Thus the Bohemian king Ferdinand I implemented numerous mea-
sures against the church, including reviving the St James mandate of King Vladislaus Jagi-
ellon of 1508. All these interventions against the Bohemian Brethren were a warning for
the future, since they clearly underlined the uncertain political and social position of the
Bohemian Brethren against the Bohemian king as the Utraquist church.
Keywords: the Bohemian Brethren, theology, Luther, Jan Augusta, Ferdinand I, the
St James mandate
UDC 274.5-1
Peter Kuzmič
The Church and the Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God and the Church of Jesus Christ are two key New Testament
concepts. While the Church cannot be identified with the Kingdom, for the latter is a
larger and more comprehensive term, the two are nevertheless in close correlation and
cannot be separated either. Speaking of the Kingdom as related to the Church means
primarily to speak of the reign of Christ over and through the community called by his
name. That reign of Christ in the present has two most important points of reference.
The first is a foundational one, the past Christ-event, encompassing the Incarnation, the
earthly life and ministry of Jesus, and their culmination in his substitutionary death and
victorious resurrection. The Kingdom came in the person of Jesus, and the Church is the
result of that coming of the King. The second point of reference is still in the future and
will find its fulfillment in the return of Christ, which will bring about the completion of
the Kingdom and the absorption of the Church into it. It is within this two-advent struc-
ture of salvation history that the Church exists “between the times.” It has always to look
back, as it is built on the foundation laid by Christ and the apostles while it should also
look forward, fully cognizant of the fact that while it “builds”, it is his Church and he will
253
