Christian and Church resistance

A distinction must additionally be made between Christian and Church resistance.

Church resistance was resistance linked to an institution. It might evolve from the official duties of the official churches and their diverse institutions, especially whenever spheres of church activity and interests of state collided. Such resistance was also always based upon individuals’ decisions to act. Church action was generally tied to Christian convictions manifested in the normative principles of the regional churches and their officials. In this respect, it was always also motivated by Christian faith, whereas it was discernible in the official churches’ institutional trappings.

Apart from such Church resistance, which beyond Christian motives might also be dictated by institutional interests (e.g. preserving their own influence and their own organizational structures), there was also Christian resistance in the narrower sense. This was tied solely to individuals’ Christian faith and based upon personal decisions of conscience.