Van Dyke on Aquinas, Kings & Revolt:

Responding to my post on Romans 13, Tom Van Dyke emails the following:

Some relevant and hopefully helpful stuff:

This, particularly "In Defense of Regicide: John Cotton on the Execution of Charles I."

I mean, if the English could kill their king in 1649, revolution in 1776 wasn't that radical a step.

And of course, the always helpful Aquinas, who mentions Romans 13 specifically here, and who was studied at Harvard at least through the 1600s.

I'm not sure there was much theological handwringing over revolution among those who were already disposed toward it.