{"id":24,"date":"2011-05-14T21:01:47","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T01:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=24"},"modified":"2011-05-14T21:01:47","modified_gmt":"2011-05-15T01:01:47","slug":"america-the-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html","title":{"rendered":"America the Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago, I was interviewed on a radio show.\u00a0 Shortly before my interview ended, and before I could really say much more, one of the two hosts affirmed the conventional, bi-partisan orthodoxy that America was founded on an \u201cidea.\u201d\u00a0 Presumably, this idea is the \u201cself-evident\u201d principle <\/em>famously enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that all human beings are in possession of \u201cunalienable rights\u201d that they\u2019ve derived from their \u201cCreator.\u201d\u00a0 For lack of a better term and for the sake of economy, this doctrine regarding America\u2019s genesis I will henceforth refer to as \u201cAmericanism.\u201d\u00a0 Unfortunately for its rightist adherents, it has some rather unsettling ramifications.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the very same Christian perspective that many on the right hold, Americanism borders on blasphemy<\/em>.\u00a0 As far as the Christian is concerned, there is but one Incarnation, and it occurred when the Eternal Logos, the Light of the World, Christ, stepped into the current of history by assuming flesh.\u00a0 At once God and man, timeless and temporal, transcendent and immanent, Christ\u2014the Anointed One, the Messiah\u2014redeemed the human race.\u00a0 The conventional narrative of Americanism is modeled on this Christian template; the only problem is that the latter has been divested of every vestige of the true Christos <\/em>in favor of a new Messiah to the world: America itself.<\/p>\n

Since the idea upon which America is allegedly founded and which it is said to embody is a basic <\/em>or self-evident <\/em>principle or proposition, it is a priori\u2014<\/em>prior to all experience.\u00a0 This in turn means that it is transcendent, timeless, and universal.\u00a0 But America as an historical entity is concrete, temporal, and particular.\u00a0 Thus, the logic is inescapable: America is this idea \u201cmade flesh\u201d or incarnate. <\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Proponents of this narrative may object that the principle of which America is the world\u2019s first expression, deriving as it does from God, is not intended as a substitute for the latter.\u00a0 America is the new Israel\u2014the New Jerusalem\u2014not the new God.\u00a0 There is at least one insuperable difficulty with this line of reasoning, though.<\/p>\n

On a standard reading of the Bible, the New Israel arrived long before America came into being: its name was Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The author of the book of Isaiah <\/em>describes Israel as the Lord\u2019s \u201cSuffering Servant,\u201d a title that Jesus later affixed to Himself.\u00a0 Furthermore, Israel is often characterized as a \u201clight to the Gentiles\u201d\u2014but only until the advent of Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To put this simply, this objection only strengthens the charge of blasphemy.\u00a0 It is one thing to believe\u2014as I believe\u2014that America is a gift, a blessing, from God; it is another matter entirely to render it an idol.\u00a0 This, however, is exactly what happens when America\u2014or any historical society\u2014is conceived as the embodiment, however imperfect, of an eternal moral truth.<\/p>\n

Conservatives have distinguished themselves as the enemies of all utopianisms.\u00a0 Indeed, it isn\u2019t much of an exaggeration to say that, at bottom, it is just his vehement resistance to all such fantasies that makes the conservative who he is. \u00a0While the following three reasons for this opposition are mutually distinct, they are mutually complimentary.<\/p>\n

First, insofar as utopian dreams are dreams of a perfect world, they are inherently unrealizable in the here and now; so, the utopian visionary is a fool for thinking otherwise.\u00a0 Second, because the zealotry with which he pursues his goals inevitably entails profound losses for flesh-and-blood human beings in the real world, the visionary is reckless.\u00a0 Finally, the utopian\u2019s monumental hubris, coupled with his invincible resolve to remake the world into his own image, exposes him as blasphemous.<\/p>\n

In declaring America to be the first and only society in all of human history to have been erected upon a universal and timeless moral truth, a principle<\/em> of the \u201cequal rights\u201d of every human being, <\/em>today\u2019s \u201cconservative\u201d proves himself committed to utopia. Only his utopia, the Kingdom of God come to Earth, is America.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are various difficulties with Americanism as I have defined it.\u00a0 And I will write about these at a future time.\u00a0 For now, however surprising and disturbing it will doubtless strike many as being, our verdict is clear: Americanism is utopian and, thus, blasphemous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago, I was interviewed on a radio show.\u00a0 Shortly before my interview ended, and before I could really say much more, one of the two hosts affirmed the conventional, bi-partisan orthodoxy that America was founded on an \u201cidea.\u201d\u00a0 Presumably, this idea is the \u201cself-evident\u201d principle famously enshrined in the Declaration of Independence…<\/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-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica the Idea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America the Idea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not too long ago, I was interviewed on a radio show.\u00a0 Shortly before my interview ended, and before I could really say much more, one of the two hosts affirmed the conventional, bi-partisan orthodoxy that America was founded on an \u201cidea.\u201d\u00a0 Presumably, this idea is the \u201cself-evident\u201d principle famously enshrined in the Declaration of Independence…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-15T01:01:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"America the Idea","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"America the Idea","og_description":"Not too long ago, I was interviewed on a radio show.\u00a0 Shortly before my interview ended, and before I could really say much more, one of the two hosts affirmed the conventional, bi-partisan orthodoxy that America was founded on an \u201cidea.\u201d\u00a0 Presumably, this idea is the \u201cself-evident\u201d principle famously enshrined in the Declaration of Independence…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2011-05-15T01:01:47+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html","name":"America the Idea","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-15T01:01:47+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-15T01:01:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/america-the-idea.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"America the Idea"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - 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