Teologiska perspektiv på rättsstaten hos Gustaf Aulén

Abstract

Gustaf Aulén is remembered for Christus Victor, based on a series of lectures in Uppsala in 1930. In 1933, he was elected bishop of Strängnäs, at a time when Nazism gained power in Germany. Aulén became a fervent opponent of oppressive and totalitarian regimes. He developed a contextual theology of resistance based on the Law of Creation given by God and engraved in every human heart. Aulén distanced himself from both liberal theology and Pietism. One could lead to passivity and adaptation, the other to false pretensions and illusionary ideals. In his ambition to address society as a whole, and not only the Christian community, Aulén built his social ethics not on Christology, but on the intentions of the Reformation and a biblical theology of creation. Justice should not be founded on human rationality or natural law (lex naturalis), but on the Law of God as a dynamic, creative force to be applied in all realms of life. He distinguished the Law of the Creator from natural law, which especially in its Protestant forms and under the influence of secularization, according to Aulén, had degenerated into a collection of fixed and static rules, whereas the Law of God was a continuous revelation of God's universal will. As the love of God is the essence of the law of justice, for a Christian to be a Christian and for the church to be the church they must actively care for the world in all its needs. Aulén's understanding of justice reflects his understanding of God as a living, creative, struggling, and victorious presence in the world, and the church as entrusted with the Word of God. In the historical context of totalitarianism, the church's primary duty in relation to society was to serve as a living conscience of the justice emanating from the divine law of the Creator, and to do so in cooperation with all for whom justice was a holy duty. When read contextually, there is a fundamental consistence in Aulén's theology from Christus Victor to Church, Law and Society.