Orders of creation (or sometimes creation orders)[1] refer to a doctrine of theology asserting God's hand in establishing social domains such as the family, the church, the state, and the economy.
Although it is commonly traced back to early Lutheranism,[2][3] the doctrine is also discussed within Reformed Christianity[4] as well as modern Judaism.
[5] During the 1930s–1940s rise of European neo-orthodoxy, the meaning of this doctrine in regard to the foundations of church and state (e.g., how its interpretation by 19th-century German theologians may have aided in legitimizing the then-contemporary Nazi party or how it would support the reality or non-reality of natural law) came into dispute amongst such famed theologians as Karl Barth,[6] Emil Brunner,[2] and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
[7][8] Though a specific 1934 controversy between Brunner and Barth over the interpretations of the doctrines of natural law and the orders of creation[9] was not inherently political, Barth alleged that Brunner's position gave credibility to pro-Nazi "German Christians".
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