Chapter 2 The Transformation of the Concept “People of God” in the Reformation Era

Abstract

“People of God” in the Reformation era is an entirely theological concept. The Latin word populus, meaning people, has no ethnic connotation, as the word natio, nation, has. “People of God” means those who are elected by God as his followers and believers on earth and the heirs of his kingdom in heaven. Additionally, “people of God” not only renders populus Dei, but also civitas Dei, “God’s citizenship.” This concept, introduced by Augustine (354–430) into Christian thinking had a strong ecclesiastical interpretation since the Early Middle Ages, identifying the history of the civitas Dei in the world with the history of the Church. Thus, in the Middle Ages one might see an understanding of people or citizenship of God as a social group, namely the orthodox Church in the Latin World. Applying the Old Testament term of “people of God” to it implied that Christianity had taken over the promises given to Israel and Judaism (“theory of substitution”). Most reformers agreed with the common medieval conviction that Christians had replaced Jews as the true people of God. As early as in his Dictata super Psalterium (1513–1515), for example, Martin Luther understood Ps 65 (64 Vg.) De Ecclesiae profectu et gloria amplianda per euangelium “of the Church’s success and glory to be broadened by the Gospel.” In fact, the Psalm itself spoke about Mount Zion and the temple in Jerusalem. But for Luther it spoke “against the envy of the Jews who alone want to be the people of God.” Against this background the question is not whether the church of their own days would constitute the true people of God, but how this would be understood. It is here that the difference to medieval ideas began, as all reformers tried to avoid direct identification of the people of God with any external institution like the