In the Western world today, particularly in America, there persists this idea among both Christians and non-Christians alike that, to be a Christian, one must endorse a specific kind of vision of how societies should be organized politically.<\/p>\n
While it is true that few if any contemporary Christians endorse a theocracy, and while it is true that few advocate on behalf of anything approximating a utopian politics, it is no less true that a good number, and possibly most, Western Christians are political perfectionists<\/em>.<\/p>\n In political philosophy, perfectionism is an approach that assigns to the state or government the role of cultivating virtue in its citizens.\u00a0 Not unlike any and every theory, perfectionism admits of multiple variations. But common to all of its versions is the belief that government has a positive educative function, the belief that government is supposed to be an agent of character formation.<\/p>\n Communism and socialism are forms of perfectionism, certainly, but so too are the theories of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and any number of other approaches that needn\u2019t have much else in common with such modern collectivist ideologies.<\/p>\n When Pope Francis (and legions of other Christians) demand of the governments of affluent Western societies that they admit into their countries potentially limitless numbers of immigrants and refugees from alien cultures, and they make this demand, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the name of Christ, they betray a commitment to Christian perfectionism. \u00a0After all, it is only the peoples of European lands, i.e. those whose ancestors were historically Christian and who built the most affluent societies the world has ever known, at whom the Pope and his ilk aim their moral imperatives.<\/p>\n Christianity requires, Francis would have us think, for the governments of the West\u2014or, more precisely, the taxpayers who subsidize them\u2014to make a range of provisions for the millions of strangers entering their lands, regardless of the costs.<\/p>\n When Christians, on the alleged basis of their religion, maintain that the United States government must finance and defend Israel; provide \u201cforeign aid;\u201d abolish capital punishment; criminalize suicide, prostitution, and recreational drug use; make the world safe for Democracy; and, comprehensively, serve the world in being a City on a Hill, they reveal their perfectionism.<\/p>\n Things were not always so.<\/p>\n Jesus Himself said simply: \u201cGive to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.\u201d<\/p>\n St. Paul was clearly no perfectionist.\u00a0 Admittedly, after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, the man formerly known as Saul was interested in nothing other than spreading the Gospel to the Gentile world.\u00a0 Paul was a brilliant theologian, a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament), and, most importantly, an apostle.\u00a0 He spent little time writing about politics.\u00a0 Yet from what he did say we can abstract the bare outlines of a certain kind of vision of politics.<\/p>\n Paul wrote: \u201cLet every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.\u201d\u00a0 The state is \u201cGod\u2019s servant\u201d ordained, not to make citizens into good and pious individuals, but to instill \u201cterror\u201d through \u201cthe sword\u201d in those who act criminally.\u00a0 None are to resist the authorities, Paul says, for the latter derive their authority from God and exist for the sake of making society a tolerable, peaceful place to live. \u201cDo you wish to have no fear of the authority?\u00a0 Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God\u2019s servant for your good.\u00a0 But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain!\u00a0 It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer\u201d (Romans 13: 1-4).<\/p>\n St. Augustine (354-430) is perhaps the most influential Christian thinker of all time and one of the most influential philosophers, Christian or otherwise.\u00a0 A bishop, prolific writer, and master rhetorician, Augustine brought his prodigious intellectual powers to bear upon the formation of a Christian philosophy<\/em>, something that heretofore didn\u2019t actually exist.\u00a0 More specifically, Augustine was the first Christian thinker to treat, philosophically, the subjects of time, history, motion, eternity, and creation.\u00a0 His contributions have proven to be immeasurable.<\/p>\n In political philosophy, Augustine pursued the direction in which Paul pointed. There are two \u201ccities,\u201d he said, \u201cthe earthly city\u201d and \u201cthe city of God.\u201d These are not literal, geographical regions but spiritual and moral conditions.\u00a0 Those who are of the earthly city live according to \u201cthe flesh.\u201d Conversely, those who are of the city of God live according to \u201cthe spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Each city is distinguished from the other on account of what it loves.\u00a0 Those of the earthly city are driven by \u201cthe love of self, even to the contempt of God,\u201d while the inhabitants of the city of God are motivated by \u201cthe love of God, even to the contempt of self.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, the earthly city \u201chas its good in this world, and rejoices in it with such joy as things can afford.\u201d\u00a0 The end of the earthly city is peace, \u201cwell-ordered concord of civic obedience and rule,\u201d \u201cthe combination of men\u2019s wills to attain the things which are helpful to this life.\u201d Peace, even a temporal peace of the sort for the sake of which the earthly city exists, is a good.<\/p>\n However, this peace \u201cis rather the solace of our misery than the positive enjoyment of felicity.\u201d The state is supposed to essentially constrain vice, not promote virtue.<\/p>\n Ultimately, though, there is no true justice in this world, for true justice is to be found only \u201cin that republic whose founder and ruler is Christ [.]\u201d\u00a0 And what this in turn implies is that \u201ckingdoms\u201d are \u201cbut great robberies\u201d and \u201crobberies themselves\u201d are \u201cbut little kingdoms.\u201d<\/p>\n At this time when \u201cprogressivism\u201d has infiltrated Christian denominations in the West, it would behoove Christians to acquaint themselves with their tradition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the Western world today, particularly in America, there persists this idea among both Christians and non-Christians alike that, to be a Christian, one must endorse a specific kind of vision of how societies should be organized politically. While it is true that few if any contemporary Christians endorse a theocracy, and while it is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n