The first principle or characteristic that Maritain proposes as necessary for a new Christian civilization is the communal element. That civilization is, or ought to be, communal entails that the specifying end of civilization and political society is the common good. The common good cannot be reduced to the sum of individual goods, for the former has a place of primacy over the latter. While Maritain is concerned with the material and social conditions being given to man such that he can “eat his bread with dignity,” he is quite clear that the common good is essentially a moral good, ultimately concerned with freedom and virtue. The freedom and virtue to which the common good is ordained is not the ultimate end of the human person, but is ordered towards something better: “the in temporal good of the person, the conquest of his perfection and of his spiritual freedom.” Much more could be said regarding this first characteristic, but I will expand upon this communal element when explaining the personalist element, and what Maritain will call “the autonomy of the temporal order.”
Following closely to this first point is Maritain’s second characteristic feature of an authentic Christian temporal regime, namely, that it be personalist. A political society whose center of orientation is a personalist one means that the temporal common good, while good in its own order and necessary for man, is subordinated to a higher common good that belongs properly to the supra-temporal order. The common good of political society is an infravalent end: it has its own proper specification and contains its own goodness in virtue of the fact that it is necessary for man’s moral and human development. The supernatural end of the human person transc...
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... New Christendom will be a Christian secular conception of the temporal order, as contrasted with the “sacral” order that is characteristic of Medieval Christendom. He states that this supernatural ideal of a new humanism will not be “that of God’s sacred empire over all things, but the idea of the holy freedom of the creature whom grace unites to God… it will be a refraction of the Gospel into the socio-temporal life of man. This refers us back to Maritain’s earlier understanding of integrating both freedom and grace within the very order of civilization, a view of seeing the human person and political society in a way that is in opposition to both liberalism and an inhuman anthropocentric humanism. Rather, this Christian lay conception of the body politic will be an “Integral, or theocentric, humanism,” a humanism rooted in a Christian Incarnational anthropology.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic, are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans, or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics, attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
In John Caputo’s book, What Would Jesus Deconstruct? Caputo discusses his views on the world’s actions and whether or not they are reflective of what Jesus wanted. Caputo believes that society is not just falling short of what Jesus wanted but in many cases failing entirely to follow Jesus’ orders. Caputo discusses several important issues including war and abortion. However, Caputo concludes that everyone, including devout Christians, need to realize the world is not living according to the teachings of Jesus.
The modern state seeks its self-preservation above all else, and history reveals that governments are more than willing to exercise their monopoly on force and coercion in order to cement and defend their authority (5-6). Normally, unified social bodies such as the Church seek to counteract the dominance of the state through their public and political influence. However, when the Church simultaneously abdicates its political connections and powers and interiorizes itself within individual Catholics, it frees the state to exercise its will with little backlash: “Once the church has been individualized and eliminated as Christ’s body in the world, only the state is left to impersonate God”
N.T. Wright’s book, The Challenge of Jesus, challenges the reader in various aspects of his or her life; including faith, understanding and inspiration. The reader is able to view Jesus in a different context. Within this viewpoint, Wright almost presents a time traveling experience in order to understand their world and the historical context of Jesus’ time. When grasping Wright’s purpose and argument in this book, the reader can presume that the thesis is essentially the title. Jesus presents his followers a challenge, it is comprehended best in the essence of who Jesus is, not just who we understand him to be. In the preface of Wright’s book he states three specific purposes, they include, “the historical integrity in talking about Jesus, Christian discipleship that professes to follow Jesus, and providing Christians with a vision that will transform the world” (Wright 10-11). I believe that Wright’s purpose for writing this book was to empower Christians to impact the world with love and to live out the gospel in our every day lives.
James Davison Hunter is Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. In To Change The World, The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in The Late Modern World, Hunter writes three interconnected essays that are filled with chapters to make his case for the possibility of change.
“I am done with the monster of ‘We,’ the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood, and shame”(Rand 97). He expresses his emotion of the hatred in his thought of being one. He is now completely over the thought of himself and the greatness of it. “And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy peace and pride. This god, this one word: ‘I’”(Rand 97). He has completely became self-centered, and rejects and wants to forget about the past he had as men. The author finally reaches the point she has tried to make, and shows her philosophy of Objectivism through Equality’s thoughts and new transition from ‘we’ to ‘I’.
In Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity”, he expresses his ideas and opinions on the difference within the body of Christians, wealth in a spiritual society. In today’s modern view of Christian charity, Christians tend to spread charity through simply giving to the less fortunate, or spreading God’s endless love through acts of kindness. While many believe that John Winthrop’s writing does not connect with today’s view of Christian charity, “A Model of Christian Charity” shares certain aspects of writing with the modern Christian notion of what charity should be. Examples of Christian charity would be, the spiritual obedience of helping the poor, and the idea that Christians must stick together in troublesome times.
He pointed out the flaws of these two models as a failure to “define humanity ‘within a nature that transcends them’”, stating that these approaches “separate ‘culture from human nature’.” The “crisis of the truth” that he speaks of refutes the idea that right and wrong, good and evil, are knowable by human reason. The truth of right and wrong comes from human nature and reasoning, but these approaches to a “civilization of love” and the intercultural approach hinge on individuals determining their own right and wrong and living accordingly. Ironically, the real truth of “Living in harmony for a civilization of love” is synonymous with justice, church social doctrine, solidarity, social charity, and a foundation of peace. All of these things are in direct contrast to the approaches mentioned in the Declaration on Christian
Mere Christianity is divided into four books or sections that build and expand off of the prior. The first book is entitled “Right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe” and he examines the common understanding among all men of a universal moral law hardwired in the minds of men. He begins this examination with a presentation of man’s concept of right and wrong. The simplest understanding among all men is the concept of fairness. This fair play points to a law and can be seen in the reactions of mankind to justice and injustice. He contrasts this moral law, the Law of Human Nature, with the law of nature found in the world. The mind of the moral relativist denies such standards yet fail to recognize their call for fairness as a fatal flaw in their reasoning.
In this essay I will identify the issues which brought about this papal encyclical in 1891, specifically the social conditions of people, resulting from industrialisation and the church’s Christological role in declaring human dignity in terms of God’s plan for mankind. I will set out the historical position in Britain in this late Victorian era within the context of European radical political upheaval, as part of the need for reform and a response from the Church. These issues will be compared with the encyclical one hundred years later, to analyse the development of policy in1891 and 1991 in terms of the church’s teaching, within the context of the wider social and political movements of the late twentieth century. I will determine that whilst John Paul II used the centenary in 1991 to publish Centesimus Annus and see it as a ‘re-wording’ of the original, it ultimately failed to take forward the radical change envisaged in Rerum Novarum, with limited exceptions.
For this paper, I read and analyzed the Humanity of God, a series of three writings by Karl Barth. I focused specifically on his writing Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century. Barth begins by defining theology broadly and then evangelical theology specifically, he then expounds on its history, the theologians who represented it and the groundwork it was built on. He also discusses issues brought up by problems in the initial groundwork. This paper will explore the nature of theology drawing from the examples of the 19th century set by Barth and compare and contrast it with personal perspective on and experience with 21st century theology. The paper will conclude with an application of the Barth’s stance on the nature of theology to a modern day community.
The chapter What Would Jesus Deconstruct? by John D Caputo raised many different stances on normal conflicts. The focus of Caputo’s arguments in this chapter all surround the heavily disputed moral conflicts in modern day life, such conflicts as economic justice, militarism, abortion, patriarchy, and Homosexuality. Caputo compares the current solutions of these conflicts to the biblical text and an interpretation of how Jesus would react. Many of his solutions show issues in how christianity has developed in a tainted fashion. The main thesis of the chapter surrounds itself with how modern christians are preaching their own views of religion instead of respecting and following the words set out by Jesus. This being said there is an idea of
Introduction Keith Ward, is known as an Anglican priest and has held positions in social theology, history, and philosophy of religion at King’s College, University of London. Ultimately, Ward held religious Professor chairs at The University of Oxford and Cannon of Christ Church Cathedral. Ward has released numerous publications in philosophy and theology throughout his time employed as Professor at these Universities. From Ward’s series of comparative theology publications, Religion and Human Nature. In general, this book examines religious views of human nature and fate.
Further to the idea of how the obedience of religious standards prevails over the materialistic impulses
In a world that is losing the identity of being one, of loving your neighbors the institutions that are Christian-based start the revolution of us turning back to God’s word, and point the world/people to the way that it should work. In this contemporary time these organizations are aimed not only at the people in their communities, but toward the individual family, and even further toward the next generation.