2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

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Appendix 3: Luther initially defined the two functions of the law. Luther believed that law served two functions – to discourage criminal acts, and to create guilt within those who had committed those acts. The first function was in relation to civil law, giving criminal or evil acts physical punishment, such as jail. The second function, however, was in relation to biblical law – that after having committed an unlawful act, God would forgive one as per the gospel, but this would induce feelings of guilt, and therefore internal self-punishment. This is where the distinction between Church and State became important, as to which function of the law should rule society. To distinguish this, Martin Luther wrote his doctrine of the Two Kingdoms. The Right-Hand Kingdom focuses on the second use of the law – the biblical law. The Kingdom is ruled by the Holy Spirit, and order is maintained through the citizens’ faith in God, and therefore they obey him wholly without question. The basis of the Right-Hand Kingdom is that it is led by invisible, spiritual forces, and thus these forces cannot be countered. The Left-Hand Kingdom focuses on the first use of the law – the civil law. It operates under authority to maintain order, and discourages unlawful acts with direct, physical punishment. The fact that it ruled by a visible figure of authority opens it to the possibility of being opposed, and therefore allows the freedom of thought – showing early stages of individual intellectual development. Once parts of society – such as the Protestant states – began to allow freedom of belief, and not enforce one type of Christianity upon everyone, as was seen within the Catholic Church, individuals began to develop upon their own beliefs and systems of thoughts, beginning the process of the development of knowledge. Once one person begins to think