A hidden gem of Murray Rothbard’s thinking on the “Whig Theory of History” was published by the Mises Institute here in 2010. This publication was excerpted from an edited transcript of “Ideology and Theories of History” (ITH), the first in a series of six lectures on the history of economic thought given by Rothbard in 1986, published here in 2006. ITH also contained hidden gold regarding his thoughts about Christianity and Catholicism in relation to history, economics, and liberty. In fact, the second half of this 40-page, unedited transcript is devoted to that subject exclusively. A dozen of Rothbard’s best quotations from ITH on Christianity, Catholicism, and theology, follow, with commentary.
...One of the key things which Christianity brought to the world, I believe more than any other religion, is individualism – the supreme importance of the individual. I think that’s [where] the individual stamp of the image of God, and his or her salvation [through Jesus Christ], becomes of extreme importance, and moral choice and all the rest of it. … Even though I revere the Greeks – they’re great rationalists and all that – the Greeks are polis-oriented. What they care about is not the individual, but the polis, the city-state. (p. 31)
...The natural law tradition [of Aristotle and the Stoics] was picked up by [Thomas] Aquinas and the [Spanish] Scholastics. [They] rediscovered [the] use of reason [to] discover natural law [or] laws of reality, which includes laws of ethics, and which also put a firm limit on the state. In other words, the state may not invade a sphere or rights … of each individual. (p. 24)
...In addition to … setting up a sphere of individual rights and limiting the government … if you really believe in natural law, you believe there are natural limits to man’s omnipotence or individuals’ omnipotence. They don’t believe in natural law and anything goes, you can do anything, you can conquer the world or whatever without any ill consequence. That’s another reason why natural law is important. (p. 28)
...Obviously, there’s been trade in every civilization, but real [market] capitalism … comes in only in Western Europe, and what is it that made it so? [Jean Beckler] pinpoints the fact that power was decentralized [under the] feudalists. … Beckler says, “The expansion of capitalism owes its origin and its raison d’etre to [this] political anarchy.” … And particularly, it’s no coincidence, according to Beckler, that the real expansion of capitalism comes in the 11th century … which coincides with [Pope] Gregory VII’s magnificent smashing of the power of the state. (pp. 25-26)
...Catholicism had a firm check on state power throughout the Middle Ages and later. And the other, I think, important thing is the Catholic Church was a transnational check on state law. … I don’t want to go out on a limb, but I think it’s the only case in history where the church and state were not the same. … And most intellectuals throughout history have been churchmen. The idea of a lay intellectual comes only in the last couple hundred years. … [After] the Protestant Reformation … many of the Protestant churches become state churches. The Anglican Church of course being a total state church. (p. 25)
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