Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics

[MisterVeritis]

The OP articles doesn't focus on the individual as you do. Let me quote it again:

"Human persons are not radical individuals. We are social beings and flourish in community. We are born into families and into cultures, and flourish in communities. At the heart of society is the family. The family is the fundamental unit of society. While the state recognizes the family and has a place in regulating it, family is not simply a construct of the state. It is a natural community and a biological and sociological reality that exists prior to the state. This is one reason why the attempts to redefine marriage is an overreaching of state power and ultimately a totalitarian act. The state acts as the arbiter of reality itself. If biology can be redefined, what possible limits remain?

"A Christian vision of government recognizes both the independence and social dimension of the family and its need to have space to flourish and live out its responsibilities. As Robert Nisbet and others have noted, the Christian vision of the family in politics sits in between the all controlling paterfamilias of Rome and the radically individualist nuclear family of modernity. Basic social and political issues such as education and private property are embedded in a robust role of the family. In education, the parents, not the schools, government, or churches are the primary educators of the children. In Rerum Novarum Pope Leo XIII grounds his discussion of private property not simply in economic or political terms, but in the light of the family.

"While families are essential, they cannot flourish on their own. The common good requires rich and varied civil society or what Alexis de Tocqueville called “intermediary institutions.” These include civic and neighborhood groups, churches, mutual aid societies, charitable organizations, schools, and various types of sodalities and voluntary organizations that solve social problems and build community.

"One way to think about civil society is as a community of communities that promote the common good and encourage solidarity and human flourishing."

I am not beholden to others for every thought I have.

Can you explain what a radical individual is?

[Chris]

I am not beholden to others for every thought I have.

Can you explain what a radical individual is?

And I'm just pointing out the conservative position here.

A radical individual is someone like you, MV, who says just what you said, like "The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

Now individualism itself also arises from Christianity but in the sense of an other-worldly relationship with God. Early zealots and monks and such would separate themselves from this world, living in caves and later monasteries, to focus on their other-worldly relation with God. The Enlightenment first removed God and then transformed individualism into an in-worldly idealism or ideology.

[MisterVeritis]

And I'm just pointing out the conservative position here.

A radical individual is someone like you, MV, who says just what you said, like "The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

Now individualism itself also arises from Christianity but in the sense of an other-worldly relationship with God. Early zealots and monks and such would separate themselves from this world, living in caves and later monasteries, to focus on their other-worldly relation with God. The Enlightenment first removed God and then transformed individualism into an in-worldly idealism or ideology.

In other words, in your opinion, a radical individual is someone who is right.

Your position begins in error. You do not believe we are individuals with individual rights. Your error is so profound all else is suspect. We are individuals. We begin as individuals. We live, suffer, and die as individuals. Everything else you hold dear is about the relationships between individuals.

[Chris]

In other words, in your opinion, a radical individual is someone who is right.

Your position begins in error. You do not believe we are individuals with individual rights. Your error is so profound all else is suspect. We are individuals. We begin as individuals. We live, suffer, and die as individuals. Everything else you hold dear is about the relationships between individuals.

Well, I said nothing about right v left or right v wrong so not sure where you see that.

I explained the conservative Christian opinion as given in the OP article. That position goes at least as far back as Aristotle.

I believe individuals obtain rights from the socio-cultural milieu they are born into, grown up and mature in, and die in. That is what Community in Communities is about. It is also found in the Declaration and Bill of Rights as the rights of the people.

Your mere declarations to the contrary are not arguments in defense of your declaring anyone in error.

[MisterVeritis]

Well, I said nothing about right v left or right v wrong so not sure where you see that.

Right as in correct.

"The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

You have no thoughts except those written by long dead men.

[Chris]

Right as in correct.

"The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

You have no thoughts except those written by long dead men.

And I said nothing about being right or wrong. But you put those words in my mouth: "In other words, in your opinion, a radical individual is someone who is right."

You can repeat your individualism but repetition is not an argument,

I have my own thoughts on this but those thoughts are built on the ideas of a history of others. For man is not an individual isolated in time, but part of a community in time.

Believe me, you're just repeating others' ideas as well, you just don't know it.

[MisterVeritis]

"The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

And I said nothing about being right or wrong. But you put those words in my mouth: "In other words, in your opinion, a radical individual is someone who is right."

You can repeat your individualism but repetition is not an argument,

I have my own thoughts on this but those thoughts are built on the ideas of a history of others. For man is not an individual isolated in time, but part of a community in time.

Believe me, you're just repeating others' ideas as well, you just don't know it.

You failed to answer my reasonable question. Instead you took a jab at me, little man.

[Chris]

I am not beholden to others for every thought I have.

Can you explain what a radical individual is?

And I'm just pointing out the conservative position here.

A radical individual is someone like you, MV, who says just what you said, like "The fundamental building block in god's creation is the individual made in the likeness of god himself."

Now individualism itself also arises from Christianity but in the sense of an other-worldly relationship with God. Early zealots and monks and such would separate themselves from this world, living in caves and later monasteries, to focus on their other-worldly relation with God. The Enlightenment first removed God and then transformed individualism into an in-worldly idealism or ideology.

...You failed to answer my reasonable question. Instead you took a jab at me, little man.

It was answered.

[MisterVeritis]

It was answered.

I see. You believe a radical individual is one who believes humans were created, one at a time in god's image? Is that right?

You will have to think better, little man.