The totalitarian state then and now

A theological analysis

Abstract

To understand and criticize the state with regard to totalitarianism and religious freedom, one must have a standard by which to evaluate the current situation. The Lutheran Reformation, by providing a theological rationale for the limits of the state in relation to religion and the family, gives us a tool for such an evaluation. By showing how this theological understanding of the state was used in the resistance to Nazism in Germany and Norway, the article argues that the same theology is useful today in critiquing the totalitarian features of the modern welfare state, such as in Finland.