This thesis argues that the Church of Scotland is hampered in the proper
exercise of its inherent power of spiritual jurisdiction by the predominance of a
model of sovereignty that owes more to secular political science than to Christian
theology. Chapter One analyses sovereignty from a Reformed theological
perspective, founding on a prior doxological conception of the sovereignty of God.
The result is a model of 'diakonal' sovereignty expressed in covenant relation
between God and his people. Chapter Two describes the emergence of a conception
of the relationship of authority between Church and state in post-Reformation
Scotland that relied excessively on a 'Two Kingdoms' theory of authority. Chapter
Three describes the constitutional crisis produced by the events of the 1840s, and the
solution that was enshrined in the Church of Scotland Act of 1921 and the Fourth
Article Declaratory appended thereto. This settlement is useful for asserting the
Church's internal freedom to regulate spiritualia; but as a model of a legally
sovereign institution, it was always constitutionally imperfect and obsolescent.
Chapter Four traces the fate of the settlement in the last eighty years. The Church's
legal privilege has diminished, and its independence been threatened by legislation
and case-law; meanwhile the nation state has fragmented to such an extent that it
may no longer have the ability to guarantee the Church's freedoms under the terms
of the Act. Chapter Five recounts fourteen conversations held with men of
experience and influence in the field of Church-state relations; conversations in
which issues of Establishment (now barely relevant in the constitution of the
Church), religious human rights (a partial, but inadequate alternative basis of
religious liberty) and spiritual freedom itself (a separate matter from spiritual
jurisdiction) were discussed in depth. Chapter Six concludes that a new philosophy
of legal authority is needed to replace the one supporting the 1921 Act and the
Articles. It must be a philosophy of service not domination; and it should not be
enslaved to any particular understanding of sovereignty, not even a temptingly
traditional, Scottish model. It must serve ecclesia semper reformanda and the
Church as communio, not as societas perfecta. This produces a suggested re-writing
of the Fourth and Sixth Articles Declaratory, on the separation of jurisdictions and
the relationship between the Church and the civil magistrate. Only such a re-writing
can restore the relevance of the constitutional foundation of the Church of Scotland
and defend the spiritual freedom the Church must demand - to obey God above all
earthly authority
