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Thread: Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics

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    Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics

    Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics cite the following five items:

    1. The state is not divine
    2. The state is not the final arbiter of justice
    3. The importance of the common Good
    4. A community of communities
    5. Anti-utopianism

    I'm particularly impressed with the 4th:

    A Community of Communities

    This leads to the fourth main contribution: the importance of families and a rich and varied civil society.

    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.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    donttread's Avatar Senior Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics cite the following five items:
    1. The state is not divine
    2. The state is not the final arbiter of justice
    3. The importance of the common Good
    4. A community of communities
    5. Anti-utopianism
    I'm particularly impressed with the 4th:
    Interesting concept. But wasn't some of that in place long before Christianity? In fact isn't it the head of catholics who is deemed infalible? Aren't the Godless commies all about the common good? Don't get me wrong , I like this because it feels like a fresh perspective . These are legit questions.

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    Quote Originally Posted by donttread View Post
    Interesting concept. But wasn't some of that in place long before Christianity? In fact isn't it the head of catholics who is deemed infalible? Aren't the Godless commies all about the common good? Don't get me wrong , I like this because it feels like a fresh perspective . These are legit questions.
    A community of communities is subsidiarity. Authority is bottom up. Much as the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church I do believe Catholicism is still organized as subsidiarity, witness the controversy going on with accusing the current Pope of heresy. Communism, in fact, most modern, even liberal democratic ones are the opposite, organized top-down under a centralized authority.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by donttread View Post
    In fact isn't it the head of catholics who is deemed infalible?
    I am not a Catholic; but it is my understanding--and someone please correct me if I am mistaken--that the pope is considered to be infallible only when he is speaking ex cathedra.

    Anyway, it is #5 that especially impresses me: Too many philosophers (from Hegel to Marx--let us refer to them, loosely, as the Romantics) have concentrated upon the perfectibility (or at least, the significant improvement) of humankind. And that is a fool's errand, I believe.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    A community of communities is subsidiarity. Authority is bottom up. Much as the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church I do believe Catholicism is still organized as subsidiarity, witness the controversy going on with accusing the current Pope of heresy. Communism, in fact, most modern, even liberal democratic ones are the opposite, organized top-down under a centralized authority.
    The Pope is not infallible unless he is speaking ex cathedra. It has been used once- The Assumption of Mary to Heaven.

    This isn't aimed at you.
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
    Pick your enemies carefully.






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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    A community of communities is subsidiarity. Authority is bottom up. Much as the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church I do believe Catholicism is still organized as subsidiarity, witness the controversy going on with accusing the current Pope of heresy. Communism, in fact, most modern, even liberal democratic ones are the opposite, organized top-down under a centralized authority.
    Interesting. We are also top down IMO, in function. Not in spirit, but in the way things actually work.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Captdon View Post
    The Pope is not infallible unless he is speaking ex cathedra. It has been used once- The Assumption of Mary to Heaven.

    This isn't aimed at you.
    If you believe that why should it be aimed at anyone?

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    Quote Originally Posted by donttread View Post
    Interesting. We are also top down IMO, in function. Not in spirit, but in the way things actually work.
    But what community of communities stands between the individual and the state?
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Five Insights Christianity Brings to Politics cite the following five items:

    1. The state is not divine
    2. The state is not the final arbiter of justice
    3. The importance of the common Good
    4. A community of communities
    5. Anti-utopianism

    I'm particularly impressed with the 4th:
    None of these is exclusive to Christianity or monotheism.

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    Quote Originally Posted by alexa View Post
    None of these is exclusive to Christianity or monotheism.
    #4, which is subsidiarity is pretty much uniquely Catholic.

    #5, liberals, who tend to be secular, are also prone to utopian fantasies--in believing the state is divine.


    It would be interesting if you took your comment further and gave an example of another group that fit all 5 items. That would contribute something to the discussion.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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