Its hard to escape the political churn of this 2016 election. That’s actually not a bad thing, especially in a political structure that is centered on the idea of the citizens contributing to the overall process. What perhaps is most sad is that these days, so many people seem to think that such an idea (average citizens contributing to the governance of the overall civic entity) is assumed, that such has always been the case.
It has not. And, I think it is fair to suggest that the concept emerged from, if not exclusively, then principally a Christian ethos and worldview. Now such an statement, perhaps audacious to some, would take a book to fully defend, but I think I can at least get us started. And, in the end, this all comes back to this concept of “one’s anthropology” that I have been stressing.
When I start both my early American history class and my modern Western Civilization class, I start the students in the 17th century in England. The 1600s was the coming out of an idea that had been building over 200 years since the Renaissance. Prior to that time, Western Civilization had lived in keeping with most of antiquity in which the governance of the civic entity was left in the hands of a select few. It was, in essence, a power pyramid.
Why that happened has a lot to do with the collapse of the Roman Empire and the subsequent loss of knowledge that linked back to the Roman Republic and Athenian Democracy. And yes, both of those predated Christianity. Along with the ideals and thoughts of those two unique societies where, among the very few in antiquity, the average individual was expected to participate, Christianity emerged providing an even more egalitarian view of people. Women, typically disregarded in antiquity (save Sparta and a few other locations), poor people and even slaves were considered equals within the community of the faithful. Women were even considered leaders, though in some Greek cities, female leaders were not allowed; still on the whole, the history of the Christians included these who were usually excluded from decision-making and communal ties.
When the Germanic tribes moved into the lands of the crumbling Empire, most of this knowledge of inclusion was lost. Christianity itself was morphed….some would say corrupted. I suppose it might be said that in order to keep its position in the new society, Christian leaders allowed themselves to become something other than what the Bible described. Not an excuse; it was a poor choice and ends up harming the Christian message.
1000 years later a recovery of this knowledge began in what I call a revolution of revolutions. The Renaissance began this dawning, this return to this ancient knowledge. In every possible field of life, including government, change came. Christianity also returned somewhat to pre-Constantine ideas and structures, though not perfectly. Most of the thinkers, writers and early Humanists who highlighted the ancient knowledge were Christians, eager to learn, eager to share. In fact, this idea that the human can learn and can create became a principle part of the journey.
Thus, slowly, the willingness to return to the belief that if the individual, even the peasant or the merchant, can learn, can think…then he (and eventually “she”) should be included in the governance of the civic entity. What we call the Enlightenment is, then, merely the final culmination of the Renaissance, and not surprisingly, a key focus of those writers is about how the individual should participate in the governance of the civic entity.
Hobbes and Locke both push this point. Hobbes writes first of a social contract between individuals; that social contract is how way of describing the civic entity we all should contribute to. Both men center their ideas on a notion, new at the time of old teachings of Jesus, that the individual is a being of worth, granted aspects of personhood from God. Locke famously listed those aspects, those rights, as life, liberty and property.
It is crucial to remember that even among the Romans and the Athenians the broadness of this notion of equality is not really to be found. This point is made strongly by Alexis de Tocqueville in his work Democracy in America. He writes : “All the great writers of antiquity belonged to the aristocracy of masters, or at least they saw that aristocracy established and uncontested before their eyes. Their mind, after it had expanded itself in several directions, was barred from further progress in this one; and the advent of Jesus Christ upon earth was required to teach that all the members of the human race are by nature equal and alike.”
It is our anthropology that guides us to our views about politics. Some of my friends are surprised to find me avidly supporting the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson. I may write more later about this, but simply, he is the only one running who believes in a limited government like our Founders. Our founding as a nation was not upon the idea that government gives us rights or should do everything for us. It certainly was not upon the idea that government is all powerful. Undergirding their thoughts was the belief that Christianity espoused, that each individual should be equal and have their rights protected. Yes, the founding of our nation still left a journey before us, beset with slavery and in a setting where women were not allowed to vote or hold office. But the journey’s direction was clear.
The Incarnation of Jesus, as Tocqueville states above, had great consequences for the political nature of a civic society. Jesus and the Christian faith that followed him pushed for liberty and equality. Tocqueville is a respected thinker who came and observed what made our country special. Christianity was a key ingredient in that creation. He wrote “Zealous Christians may be found amongst us whose minds are nurtured in the love and knowledge of a future life, and who readily espouse the cause of human liberty as the source of all moral greatness. Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law.
The idea of the dignity of the individual, and that we as individuals should contribute to the civic society in which we find ourselves, gained its strength first through the teachings of Jesus. It was rescued after 1000 years of being lost in the Renaissance. Christianity got us here. The Renaissance brought it back to light. The brave thinkers like Hobbes and Locke, opening the door for Enlightenment writers, helped propel those living on the island north of Europe.
The human has value. Many of us believe that, Christians and non-Christians. Yet that such is the norm is really taken for granted, however. The danger in taking the foundation of this belief for granted is that the WHY of the belief (that God created the individual, He granted us the rights through our creation, and that Jesus came for each of us regardless of money, race or status) can get lost. Then, we no longer realize why it should be defended. We become complacent. We quit voting, starting to see government as a “them” rather than part of us.