Good questions.
So the root meaning is basically "dominion" which ties back to Genesis.
As for your second question about coercion, that is a bit more complicated.
The simple answer is that there are plenty of just ways a person may attain authority and rule. That someone would attain authority isn't in itself wrong but, again, an inevitability.
I also should say that coercion once someone is IN authority is baked into the pie. It is not a matter of if they will be coercive but how they will be coercive. Or, put another way, to what end.
For example, I am coercive with my children—I will discipline them if they are rebellious to my authority—but my coercion is aimed in the direction of them being self-disciplined, respectful, and responsible individuals who are not mastered by their emotions and impulses and sins but rather learn how to submit themselves in righteousness to God. My authority as a father is to love them enough to teach them to obey all that God has commanded. That involves coercion.
On the flip side, If I were a tyrannical father I would still have authority over them because of my "governing office" as father but my rule would be using coercion for MY OWN gain, not my children's gain.
This, in principle, is true of magisterial rulers. God calls rulers to love their people and place. To use coercion in righteous ways for the benefit and flourishing of the people.
You specifically asked about attaining power through coercive means. On that note, and this is a harder reality to grapple with, God allows, for his purposes, selfish and evil men to do such things. Just as men can come to power through just means, so they can through unjust means. God is infinitely wise and we often do not understand why he allows all that he does. But, as was stated before, sometimes it is to discipline an unruly peoples. To discipline and rebuke in order to call them back into righteous submission to Christ.
Pardon the novel I wrote in response here. Does all that make sense?
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I'll add one more thing, that despite God using unjust and tyrannical rulers for his good purposes, it is equally true that we are to resist unjust rulers and unjust coercion. John Calvin considered governing officials who betray their office to essentially be reduced to private persons, what's more, mere "brigands" and "criminals".
We are to respect the office but rebel against the office holder if that man rules unjustly.
The just use of corrosion in authority is if it is used to will the good of the other for his own sake: what Christians call love or charity. That is to say, the “common good.”
I love the novel, keep 'em coming!
Arguably, if the child is nasty, he is initiating harm, and thus starting aggression. So you have the right to defend and put an end to the violence, including by using violence. Applying defensive force is not coercion.
Did you ever read A Lodging of Wayfaring Men? There are fascinating dialogs about the history of religious thought, it is quite related to our conversation, and far more eloquent than my blabbering. Specifically Appendix B where Philip speaks with Steven.


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I love it when smart and in depth conversation spawns under notes, it's like a portal to another rabbit hole.
Good questions.
So the root meaning is basically "dominion" which ties back to Genesis.
As for your second question about coercion, that is a bit more complicated.
The simple answer is that there are plenty of just ways a person may attain authority and rule. That someone would attain authority isn't in itself wrong but, again, an inevitability.
I also should say that coercion once someone is IN authority is baked into the pie. It is not a matter of if they will be coercive but how they will be coercive. Or, put another way, to what end.
For example, I am coercive with my children—I will discipline them if they are rebellious to my authority—but my coercion is aimed in the direction of them being self-disciplined, respectful, and responsible individuals who are not mastered by their emotions and impulses and sins but rather learn how to submit themselves in righteousness to God. My authority as a father is to love them enough to teach them to obey all that God has commanded. That involves coercion.
On the flip side, If I were a tyrannical father I would still have authority over them because of my "governing office" as father but my rule would be using coercion for MY OWN gain, not my children's gain.
This, in principle, is true of magisterial rulers. God calls rulers to love their people and place. To use coercion in righteous ways for the benefit and flourishing of the people.
You specifically asked about attaining power through coercive means. On that note, and this is a harder reality to grapple with, God allows, for his purposes, selfish and evil men to do such things. Just as men can come to power through just means, so they can through unjust means. God is infinitely wise and we often do not understand why he allows all that he does. But, as was stated before, sometimes it is to discipline an unruly peoples. To discipline and rebuke in order to call them back into righteous submission to Christ.
Pardon the novel I wrote in response here. Does all that make sense?
View quoted note →
Regarding god allows evil:
My theory is that allowing "evil" is the basis of giving choice, wouldn't make much sense as a god to say: "Choose whatever you want, but I'll only allow good choices".
Opening up a second topic: God influencing the "evil" freedom by answering prayers:
Personally I believe that god doesn't instantly answer/resolve typical askforhelp prayers, because it would contradict the freedom to choose evil.
P.S. I am no christian, but my philosophy has a lot of parallels with christianity.
I would submit it is not coercive to have dominion over your own house. That one's children are in effect "Trapped" under your care is a function of reality. For example If I take someone up in a hot air balloon that I own. I have every right to remove them from my property if they do not follow my rules. However, I may not throw them out of my balloon 1000meters in the air, that would be murder. The physical reality is your children's upbringing is that same hot air balloon. You must safely ferry them to a place where releasing them from your property would not kill them. You are not "Coercing" them to stay on your property (and thus abiding by your rules) you are preventing their demise at the hands of the physical reality of the world.
On the Broader point, government is a mental game we play with each other. We all pretend that we are, in some ethereal way in the same "group" as everyone in our geographical vicinity. That is not a physical reality. That is simply something people like to do. Other people do not like to play that mental game. It is only when the mental game of "I'm the boss and you have to do what I say" meets the physical reality of extortion(taxes), kidnapping(arrests), and murder(the death penalty) that this game becomes not so fun. And to invoke the metaphysical as some sort of justification for the behavior of those not participating in an illusory mental game is a bit myopic. God is my ruler not because of some vote, appointment or some other contrivance. God rules because God created the physical reality I dwell within and the rules of reality itself. The words of men are simply inconsequential to the will of God because it physically can't be any other way.
I agree that human agency is a factor in the allowance of evil, though I draw distinction in thinking that human choice is the primary reason for God allowing evil.
The reasons for the allowance of evil on the part of a just, holy, and loving God are going to vary—sometimes it is for disciplinary purposes (like a father would discipline the son in whom he loves), sometimes it is allowing an unruly and rebellious people to have exactly what they want and be faced with the consequences (Example: We don't want to submit to the good design for sex as being between one man and one woman in marriage and instead give God the middle finger by fornicating outside of marriage and producing pornography and incentivizing adultery and inventing a spectrum of gender identities and castrating young children through surgery and puberty blockers—all of which is disastrous long-term for the stability and health of any civilization, and God simply says "you want that, sure, have at it", allowing people to simply walk headlong into the natural consequences that inevitably come as a result of their rebellion.)
Sometimes the allowance of evil is to display his glory in overcoming that evil. And I'm sure there are many other reasons God in his wisdom has that we in our finitude cannot fathom. That is partly where faith comes in—not blind faith, mind you, but steadfast trust that God is good even when things are bad.
I suppose you could say they are trapped haha, but I think a healthier framing is that they are given by God and entrusted to my care as a parent. And my argument is that coercion is a natural part of taking dominion. Maybe a helpful way of distinguishing what I mean is that righteous coercion is a tool of just dominion while unrighteous coercion is a weapon for unjust domination.
Government (the magistrate) is more than a shared illusion though, because people have to order themselves in a civil society somehow and Scripture is pretty clear that the magistrate is a part of God's intended order.
And forgive me if I have not been clear, I am not trying to invoke God to justify the actions of unjust rulers. Quite the opposite. What I am saying is that God intentionally created a world in which there are various ranks of authority and rule and that the magistrate isn't in itself bad, illusory, or even a "necessary evil" that we simply have to put up with, but rather when godly men rule in the fear of the Lord the magistrate is doing what it ought to do—punish the wrongdoer, elevate the righteous, protect property rights.
When the magistrate becomes the thing it is supposed to protect against (extortionists, thieves, murderers, etc) then it is right and just for the people to resist such tyranny.