Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HOP Vol XX Special Number

1968 No 2- 33 ~

(07675)

In the wake of radical secularization, the secular theories of the State have also undergone a great transfcarnation. The state theories with backgrounds in transcendent, metaphysical principles have been relegated into the background,, This also means that the ideological character of the secular teachings about the State are of no primary importance« What are of primary significance are the aims of the state, the ethical quality cf the Statens programme concerning the totality of society and the effectiveness in achieving its humanistic objectives* These are also the things which determine the conditions of the Christian's obedience and of his service in the life of the State« On this basis it has become possible that - also in keeping with the general trend of the development of theological thinking - the Hungarian Evangelical churches at a time of radical social change and also in a socialistic state order, may seek ard find their ethical tasks* They have been able to emancipate themselves cf the peculiar state theory of the past social system and have discovered in the new type of the socialist state the ordinance of God and the instrument of His grace which He is using to raise the whole human society to a higher level of humaneness and in this way,theologically speaking, to bring about more favourable conditions for carrying out the primary task of the Church, the preaching ministry and the diakoniac Standing on such a theological basis, the radically secular character of the socialist state organized accordin^/the atheistic social teaching is not the primary and dominant feature of the state and so it cannot, in ary way, prevent us fron having an objective view of the State«

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2) The Responsible Cooperation of Christians in the Life cf the State

a) The Responsibility of Christian Citizenship

Dealing with the ethical problem cf citizenship, -there are, first of all, three basic statements to be made:

We live in an age when the changes in technology and the revolutionary transformation cf society have exposed the fact that there are no Christian peoples, Chzustian nations and Christian states« If they existed at any times at all, one must be wary, even in the retrospective, to apply to them the adjective "Christian"« Tire concept cf the Christian people or state must be distinguished from what we generally call Christian civilization«

We live in an age which is determined, for a long time to cone, by the gradual withal revolutionary transformation cf society into the collective type cf socialist society« The First World War and especially the Great So-