Do More Good Than a Grand Coalition of Christian Churches and Monarchies Ever Could
I recently encountered a blog post that (correctly) warned Christians against eagerly forming alliances with secular right-wing/alt-right types (sorry, I can’t recall where I read the post).
I am of the same view; however, the post in question then promoted the cultivation of Christian alliances to attain the same sort of this-worldly social/political aims the secular right/alt-right types pine for.
I couldn’t help but shake my head upon reading that.
The mere notion of allying with Christians who marinate their expressed aims in the same sort of grand, civilizational-level, this-worldly concerns as the secular right is anathema to me.
They are choosing the wrong way, a way Berdyaev describes in the following manner:
There are two ways: one is that of the love of man, which wants to make men happy, to calm and organize them, to build comfortable housing for their neighbors where they will forget their irrational and tragic freedom, will renounce their right to absolute, supra-mundane truth. This is the way of the Grand Inquisitor. It leads to the ant hill where there will be neither freedom nor personality.
For the sake of brevity, I will forgo wading into the laughable delusions fueling noble pipedreams of a resurrected future Christendom forged by sturdy Christian alliances determined to alter the social and political landscape in God’s name and focus instead on what Christian alliances ought to be and should focus on in this time and place.
To get the ball rolling, I turn, once again, to Berdyaev:
The other is the way of the love of God that wants to liberate men and puts truth and super-human values above prosperity and the ordering of life. This is the way of Him who came with words of boundless freedom and was a reminder that God and freedom and truth are above the well-being and tranquility of men. And we must choose either the philanthropic way of well-being or the God-loving way of freedom....
The only Christian alliances that interest me in this time and place are those that place the spiritual aspects of following Jesus well above human tranquility and the ordering of this-worldly life. Such alliances are inevitably personal and compact. As such, they do perceptibly little to alter the course of world history.
Still, I am convinced that the workings within such intimate, spiritually focused affiliations and collaborations ultimately achieve a higher level of good in this world (and the next) than any grand coalition of contemporary Christian churches and monarchies ever could.
I am of the same view; however, the post in question then promoted the cultivation of Christian alliances to attain the same sort of this-worldly social/political aims the secular right/alt-right types pine for.
I couldn’t help but shake my head upon reading that.
The mere notion of allying with Christians who marinate their expressed aims in the same sort of grand, civilizational-level, this-worldly concerns as the secular right is anathema to me.
They are choosing the wrong way, a way Berdyaev describes in the following manner:
There are two ways: one is that of the love of man, which wants to make men happy, to calm and organize them, to build comfortable housing for their neighbors where they will forget their irrational and tragic freedom, will renounce their right to absolute, supra-mundane truth. This is the way of the Grand Inquisitor. It leads to the ant hill where there will be neither freedom nor personality.
For the sake of brevity, I will forgo wading into the laughable delusions fueling noble pipedreams of a resurrected future Christendom forged by sturdy Christian alliances determined to alter the social and political landscape in God’s name and focus instead on what Christian alliances ought to be and should focus on in this time and place.
To get the ball rolling, I turn, once again, to Berdyaev:
The other is the way of the love of God that wants to liberate men and puts truth and super-human values above prosperity and the ordering of life. This is the way of Him who came with words of boundless freedom and was a reminder that God and freedom and truth are above the well-being and tranquility of men. And we must choose either the philanthropic way of well-being or the God-loving way of freedom....
The only Christian alliances that interest me in this time and place are those that place the spiritual aspects of following Jesus well above human tranquility and the ordering of this-worldly life. Such alliances are inevitably personal and compact. As such, they do perceptibly little to alter the course of world history.
Still, I am convinced that the workings within such intimate, spiritually focused affiliations and collaborations ultimately achieve a higher level of good in this world (and the next) than any grand coalition of contemporary Christian churches and monarchies ever could.
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