The Parable of the Tares as the Proof Text for Religious Liberty to the end of the Sixteenth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID3501657
AuthorsRoland H Bainton (Yale University, corresponding author)
Year1932
Volume1
Issue2
Pages67-89
Publication date1932-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChurch History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3160016
OpenAlexW2155252306
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited1

The parable of the tares is the proof pàssage for religious liberty. Sinite utraque crescere (Matthew 13, 30) is the counterpart of compelle intrare (Luke 14, 23). The apostles of liberty repeat the text with monotonous iteration, although there is an occasional variety in the emphasis. Some stress the rationalistic argument: we do not know enough to separate the tares from the wheat. Others emphasize the eschatological approach: we can afford to be patient because God will burn the tares at the harvest. Others again make a legalistic appeal: Christ has commanded us to leave the tares alone. More interesting are the expedients employed by the persecutors to evade the liberal implications of the parable. The simplest device is to identify the tares not with the heretics, but with the moral offenders within the church. Another subterfuge is to identify the overly zealous servants with the ministers, not with the magistrates, who are not to be hampered by the parable

Apostles · Appeal · Argument (complex analysis) · Political science · Theology · Variety (cybernetics) · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Chemistry · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy

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