Christian libertarianism

Synthesis of Christian beliefs with libertarian thought

This article is part of a series on

Libertarianism
in the United States

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Principles

* Anti-imperialism
* Civil libertarianism
* Constitutionalism
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* Decentralization
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* Evictionism
* Free banking
* Free market
* Free-market environmentalism
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* Homestead principle
* Individuality
* Individualism
* Liberty
* Limited government
* Localism
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* Natural rights and legal rights
* Non-aggression principle
* Non-interventionism
* Non-politics
* Non-voting
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* Private defense agency
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* Public choice theory
* Restorative justice
* Right to bear arms
* Right to privacy
* Rugged Individualism
* Self-ownership
* Single tax
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* Spontaneous order
* Stateless society
* Tax resistance
* Title-transfer theory of contract
* Voluntary association
* Voluntary society

History

* Age of Enlightenment
* Abolitionism in the United States
* Classical liberalism
* Anti-Federalists
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* Individualist anarchism in the United States
* Old Right
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Economics

* Austrian School
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Intellectuals

* Andrews
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Politicians

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* Wu

Commentators

* Chamberlain
* Gillespie
* Gutfeld
* Jones
* Kauffman
* McElroy
* Miller
* Napolitano
* Postrel
* Pugsley
* Rogan
* Smith
* Soave
* Stone
* Stossel
* Welch
* Will
* Woods

Activists

* Ben Garrison
* Jillette
* Koch (Charles)
* Koch (David)
* Prince
* Teller
* Thiel

Literature

* The Anarchist Cookbook
* Anarchy, State, and Utopia
* The Betrayal of the American Right
* The Case Against Education
* Civil Disobedience
* Conceived in Liberty
* The Creature from Jekyll Island
* Defending the Undefendable
* The Discovery of Freedom
* End the Fed
* The Ethics of Liberty
* For a New Liberty
* Free to Choose
* The Future and Its Enemies
* The God of the Machine
* It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand
* Liberty
* The Machinery of Freedom
* Man, Economy and State
* The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
* The Mainspring of Human Progress
* The Market for Liberty
* The Myth of the Rational Voter
* No, They Can't
* No Treason
* New Libertarian Manifesto
* Our Enemy, the State
* The Problem of Political Authority
* Progress and Poverty
* Protection or Free Trade
* Radicals for Capitalism
* Seeing Like a State
* To Serve and Protect
* The Unconstitutionality of Slavery

Issues

* Abortion
* Capital punishment
* Criticism
* Foreign affairs
* Immigration
* Intellectual property
* Internal debates
* LGBT rights
* Objectivism
* Political parties
* Politics
* State
* Theories of law

Symbols

* Come and take it
* Gadsden flag

Idols

* Ron Swanson
* Patrick Bateman
* Walter White

Organizations

* Cato Institute
* Federalist Society
* Free State Project
* Foundation for Economic Education
* International Alliance of Libertarian Parties
* Libertarian Party
* Liberty International
* Mises Institute
* Reason Foundation
* Reason (magazine)
* Students for a Democratic Society
* Students for Liberty
* Young Americans for Liberty

Movements

* American militia movement
* Boogaloo movement
* Dark Enlightenment
* Objectivist movement
* Objectivism
* Sovereign citizen movement

Comparable

* Libertarianism in Hong Kong
* Libertarianism in South Africa
* Libertarianism in the United Kingdom

Related

* Conservatism in the United States
* Left-libertarianism
* Liberalism in the United States
* Libertarian Democrat
* Libertarian Republican
* Libertarian science fiction
* On Democracy in America
* Outline of libertarianism
* Right-libertarianism

* Liberalism portal
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* Libertarianism portal
* United States portal

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Christian libertarianism is the synthesis of Christian beliefs with libertarian political philosophy, with a focus on beliefs about free will, human nature, and God-given inalienable rights.

As with some other forms of libertarianism, Christian libertarianism holds that what is prohibited by law should be limited to various forms of assault, theft and fraud.[1] Other actions that are forbidden by Christianity can only be disciplined by the church, or in the case of children and teens, one's parents or guardians.[citation needed] Likewise, beliefs such as "love your neighbor as yourself" are not imposed on others so long as the non-aggression principle, which Christian libertarians believe to be foundational,[citation needed] has not been violated.[citation needed]

## Definition

[edit]

According to Andrew Sandlin, an American theologian and author, Christian libertarianism is the view that mature individuals are permitted maximum freedom under God's law.[2]

## History

[edit]

The origins of Christian libertarianism in the United States can be traced back to 18th-century classical liberalism and 19th-century individualist anarchism.[citation needed] According to Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian theorist Murray Rothbard, of the three libertarian experiments during the European colonization of the Americas in the mid-17th century, all three were begun by nonconformist Protestant groups.[3]

Martin Luther, one of the principal figures of the Protestant Reformation, is referred to as "libertarian" in the introduction to Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority, published by the Cambridge University Press. The term used here is something quite different from the ruggedly individualist ideology of American-libertarian type of right-libertarianism. The book's editor Harro Hopfl states that libertarian as well as egalitarian and communal motifs were part of the texture of Luther's theology.[4]

English Catholic historian and Liberal statesman Lord Acton posited that political liberty is the essential condition and guardian of religious liberty. The Acton Institute, an American Christian conservative libertarian think tank, is named after him.[5]

### People

[edit]

* Justin Amash (Orthodox)
* Nikolai Berdyaev (Orthodox)
* John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (Roman Catholic)
* James W. Fifield Jr. (Congregationalist)
* Jesus Huerta de Soto (Roman Catholic)
* Johannes Kaiser (Orthodox)
* Gary Johnson (Lutheran)[6]
* John Locke (Anglican, Unitarian)
* Andrew Napolitano (Roman Catholic)
* Albert Jay Nock (Episcopalian)
* Rand Paul (Presbyterian)
* Ron Paul (Baptist)
* Thomas Woods (Roman Catholic)
* Deirdre McCloskey (Episcopalian)

## See also

[edit]

* Libertarianism portal

* Christian anarchism
* Christian democracy
* Christian ethics
* Christian existentialism
* Christian pacifism
* Christian socialism
* Christian views on poverty and wealth
* Christianity and politics
* Consistent life ethic
* Constantinian shift
* Cultural mandate
* Geolibertarianism
* Golden and Silver Rules
* Image of God
* Kingship and kingdom of God
* Libertarian Christianity
* Natural-rights libertarianism
* Non-aggression principle
* Original and ancestral sin
* Political ethics
* Political theology
* Religious views on capitalism
* Statolatry
* Two kingdoms doctrine

## References

[edit]

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Seavey 2016, p. 25.
2. ^ Sandlin 1996.
3. ^ Rothbard 2011, p. 437.
4. ^ Höpfl 1991, p. xii.
5. ^ "History of Acton Institute". Acton Institute. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
6. ^ Anon. 2011.

### Sources

[edit]

* Anon. (10 November 2011). "Gary Johnson candidate profile". Reason.com. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
* Höpfl, Harro, ed. (1991). Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-39303-5.
* Rothbard, Murray N. (2011). "The Origins of Individualist Anarchism in the US". In Edward P. Stringham (ed.). Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-0890-3.
* Sandlin, Andrew (October 1996). "The Christian Libertarian Idea". The Christian Statesman. Retrieved 1 September 2020 - via The Forerunner Blog.
* Seavey, Todd (2016). Libertarianism For Beginners. For Beginners Books. ISBN 978-1-939994-67-7.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Bandow, Douglas (1988). Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics. Crossway Books. ISBN 0-89107-498-8.

## External links

[edit]

* Summa of the Libertarian Catholic

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Christianity and politics

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Key concepts|

* Separation of church and state
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Movements|

* Christian anarchism
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* Distributism
* Evangelical left
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* Christianism
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Issues|

* Abortion
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Theology|

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Christian state|

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Related topics|

* Christian views on genetically modified foods
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Religion in politics

General concepts

* Anti-clericalism
* Anti-clericalism and Freemasonry
* Caesaropapism
* Civil religion
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* Spiritual left
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Christianity and politics

* Blaine Amendment
* Christian anarchism
* Christian anti-communism
* Christian anti-Masonry
* Papal ban
* Christian anti-Zionism
* Christian communism
* Christian corporatism
* Christian democracy
* Christian egalitarianism
* Christian environmentalism
* Evangelical environmentalism
* Christian fascism
* German Christians (movement)
* National Catholicism
* Positive Christianity
* Protestant Reich Church
* Christian feminism
* Mormon feminism
* Christian humanism
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* Christian left
* Evangelical left
* Christian libertarianism
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* Christian peacemaking
* Christian reconstructionism
* Christian republic
* Christian right
* Christian socialism
* In Utah
* Christian state
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* Cisalpinism
* Dominion Theology
* Febronianism
* Gallicanism
* Liberation theology
* Maronite politics
* Phoenicianism
* Papal state
* Pillarisation
* Political Catholicism
* Relations between the Catholic Church and the state
* In Argentina
* Sphere sovereignty
* Subsidiarity
* Temporal power
* Theodemocracy
* Ultramontanism
* Neo-ultramontanism

Islam and politics

* Hui pan-nationalism
* Human Rights in Islam
* Imamate
* Islamic anarchism
* Islamic anti-Masonry
* Islamic anti-Zionism
* Islamic democracy
* Islamic fascism
* Islamic feminism
* Sharia law
* by country
* In Pakistan
* In South Asia
* Islamic pacifism
* Islamic republic
* Islamic socialism
* Islamic state
* Islamic Zionism
* Islamism
* Criticism
* Islamization
* Khilafat
* Petro-Islam
* Political quietism
* Taliban
* Talibanization
* Two-nation theory

Judaism and politics

* Halachic state
* Jewish anarchism
* Jewish anti-Zionism
* Haredim
* Jewish Autonomism
* Jewish democracy
* Jewish fascism
* Kahanism
* Revisionist Maximalism
* Jewish feminism
* Jewish law
* Jewish left
* Jewish pacifism
* Jewish political movements
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* Jewish socialism
* Bundism
* Poale Zion
* Zionism
* Religious
* World Agudath Israel

Hinduism and politics

* Akhand Bharat
* Hindu feminism
* Gandhism
* Hindu law
* Hindu modernism
* Hindu nationalism
* Hindutva
* Hindu Rashtra
* Panun Kashmir
* Bangabhumi
* Hindu revolution
* Hindu revivalism
* Hindu environmentalism
* Integral humanism
* Indigenous Aryans
* Rama Rajya
* Saffronisation
* Shuddhi
* Uniform civil code

Buddhism and politics

* Buddhist anti-communism
* Buddhist feminism
* Buddhist law
* Buddhist modernism
* Buddhist nationalism
* 969 Movement
* Nichirenism
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Buddhist socialism
* Engaged Buddhism
* Humanistic Buddhism
* Secular Buddhism

Other

* American civil religion
* Disestablishmentarianism
* Imperial cult
* Ancient Rome
* Gottgläubig
* Khalistan movement
* Neopaganist feminism
* Religious aspects of Nazism
* Creativity (religion)
* Cult of personality
* State Shinto

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