Obedience Ends Where Evil Begins Church-State Relations in the Former Soviet Union from a baptistic Perspective

Abstract

After some preliminary remarks about the ongoing legacy of the Soviet system, this article opens with a sketch of church-state relations from a biblical and theological perspective. The article concludes with some observations about how a ‘baptist vision’1 (McClendon) of a free church in a free state could provoke new thinking about the renewal of church and society in the post-Soviet era. My argument is that a baptistic2 vision of peace, justice and freedom in Christ, could help the church in Eastern Europe to drive a wooden stake through the heart of the Soviet system and help the people of the former USSR to emerge from the difficult travails of the post-Soviet transition.