Staat und Kirche

The historical power of religious ideas is never more visible than it is in the interaction between religion and political systems. In this way religious ideas affected deeply the distribution of political power between the pope and the emperor in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, various political interests and powers affect the preservation and the decline, the enforcement and the content of religions. The traditional cults in the Roman Empire would have declined less rapidly if they had not been given a push by the secular arm of Theodosius. It was also on the authority of Henry VIII, King of England, that the Anglican Church came into being. Reinhold Zippelius gives an account of two thousand years of cooperation and conflict among the central powers in politics and the church, using documents from these times wherever possible.