The Politics Of Human Frailty: A Theological Defense Of Political Liberalism

by Christopher J. Insole

The latest book in the Faith in Reason series addresses the fraught and topical issue of the relationship between political liberalism and theology. Political liberalism is frequently denounced by theologians as individualist, relativist, and hubristic. In response, there has been a tendency in recent political theology to attempt the overcoming of political liberalism, with the hope of building a more ecclesiastical, virtuous, or community-orientated space. In an original and well-documented argument, Insole demonstrates that this negative characterization of political liberalism is inadequate, both conceptually and historically. By attending to thinkers such as Richard Hooker, Edmund Burke, Lord Acton and John Rawls, Insole shows that a passion to protect the individual within liberal institutions can arise not from an illusory sense of self-sufficiency, but from an insight into our fallen condition, characterized by frailty, sin and complexity. This strand of political liberalism arises from a sense of our solidarity in sin with others, and the hubris of judging our fellow citizens, when judgement belongs to God alone. Such a position would be at odds with theologically over-zealous appropriations of the theme of "liberty" that emanate, for instance, from American presidents such as George W. Bush. Insole carefully uncovers the eschatological premises behind such appropriations, and shows that they are at fault theologically, in their failure to reckon with our fallenness, frailty and complexity. The book concludes by showing that the proposed alternatives to political liberalism - such as can be found in the influential Radical Orthodoxy movement- are na�ve, utopian and dangerous, and in certain respects theologically impoverished. The Politics of Haman Frailty is an important contribution to the contemporary debate, in that it offers a genuinely theological and historically aware defence of political liberalism, both against its critics and in its own terms.

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2005

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I struggle with politics simply because the hype that is more often than not associated with proponents from both the right and the left leaves me unconvinced. This book has enabled me to reconcile myself with my disenchantment, while at the same time confirming my position. The bottom line is that any utopian proposition that promises an ideal society fails from the outset. As the title suggests, this is a theological defence, and, for this reason it takes into account the Biblical and (given our present circumstances) logical conclusion that humankind is a "fallen" species. Broken leaders leading a broken people using failed systems is our common lot with which we have to build our communities. The problem with this condition which the theologian calls “sin” is that it blinds its victims to its own existence. So, we have the added problem of everybody being insistent with how “right” they are. Everybody is seeking justice when what they need is mercy!
This book recognises the frailty of the human condition and exposes all the many attempts to bypass that reality by utopian systems. Whether right wing capitalist utopias, left wing socialist dreams, the “Kingdom of God on earth” prophesies of the Puritans and the proponents of Radical Orthodoxy, Islamic Theocracy, or the American eschatology of “overcoming evil with good”; all are tainted with the same unrealistic ideological brush and are doomed to failure. We need to be, therefore gentle with one another:
"Human nature is imperfect, therefore we should be practical, realistic and compassionate, rather than full of righteousness, pride, extreme idealism or indignation. But there is something from which we have fallen, something we should have been, a moral order exemplifying goodness, beauty and harmony, and we should still orientate ourselves as much as possible to this order. So Burke sees the need for the irreducible wickedness of the human condition to be contained within stable structures rather than attempting to eliminate it through radical measures."
– not only so but these man-made systems are downright dangerous. This is reiterated many times throughout the book:
"The city of God is hidden amid the city of Man: Attempts to render the heavenly city visible or construct it on earth through human activity, Burke fears, are steeped in blood, the product of a hubristic metaphysical frenzy leading to vast human misery."
Regarding the moral excellence proponents attach to their systems CJI quotes Michael Freeman’s "Burke and the critique of political radicalism":
"Men who hate vice too much, says Burke, love men too little. Men of excessive virtue may take excessive measures to bring ordinary men into the path of virtue. In the womb of moral Puritanism lies the seed of political authoritarianism. Fanaticism, even if altruistic, perhaps especially when altruistic, poses a greater threat to freedom and humanity than ordinary selfishness. Paradoxically extreme virtue turns into extreme vice."
Again: “Everybody, not least Christians, should be aware how a perfectly legitimate moral duty when placed in the wrong (God-less - therefore graceless) hands results in an evil much worse than the intended good.”
He states … “Even if this imposition is manifested as a pious desire for unity and transformation, it is a unity at the expense of diversity and complexity, and transformation by subtly violent if seductive means.”
The author avoids coming up with any system himself. That would be a contradiction:

“The reader could be forgiven for feeling some frustration in that there is little sense of an overall positive and constructive solution. But that is precisely the point. If we are serious about human imperfectability and frailty, global constructive solutions are dangerous; and I could not be asked to be taken seriously if I meant all global constructive solutions except mine.”
He does invite the reader to consider classical liberal writers such as Burke, Adams, Hooker and many others – all with their faults and some highlighted. He sums up Political Liberalism thus:
“Political liberalism is the conviction that politics is ordered towards peaceful coexistence and the preservation of the liberties of the individual within a pluralistic and tolerant framework, rather than by a search for truth (religious or otherwise), perfection and unity. The crucial ambition of this sort of political liberalism is a refusal to allow public power to enforce on society a substantial and comprehensive conception of the good driven as it is by its central passion for the liberties of individuals over and above the enthusiasms of other individuals or collectivities. Political authority is wielded on behalf of the people it protects, and this derived ultimately from their consent.”
As I write this, “Cancel culture” is in full swing and “Critical theory”, with all its obfuscation, is dominating our institutions. The insistence of being “right” and gaining some sort of political or emotional control or leverage through exposing others is wearing thin. Furthermore a right wing backlash is inevitable - both entrenched in their own insistent rightness.
Appropriately CJI quotes Barth whose words are powerful:
“When the human creature gives itself over to self-righteousness, ideological thinking and strife he fails to understand the language of others because he's too much convinced of the soundness of his own seriously to want to understand the others.” Church Dogmatics P68
“The human will to self-justification through judgement of others leads to a fanatical self-instruction which destroys moral fellowship.”
“I am already putting myself in the wrong with others, and doing them wrong, when it makes no odds how gently or vigorously I do it, I confront them as one who is right wanting to break over them as a great crisis. For when I do this, I divide myself and I break the fellowship between myself and others. I can only live at unity with myself, and we can only live in fellowship with one another, when I and we subject ourselves to the right which does not dwell in us and is not manifested by us, but which is over me and us as the right of God above, and manifested to me and us only from God.”
Our problem today is not politically solvable but spiritually dissolvable. (God does not solve our problems but dis-solves them with love and grace). The darkness that Covid19 has and will bring in the days to come could be an opportunity for us to “see in the darkness” a “Great Light” or conversely we could entrench ourselves in our own “rightness”, continue to judge others and curse the darkness – it is a moral choice we each have to make between these two paths. This book may help anyone reading it recognise our frailty and take the former.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since Chris is my dissertation supervisor I better give him 5 stars : ) Just kidding, this book was very helpful in thinking more fully of the place of political liberalism within a theological context. His writing and research style are also excellent. The reader can tell that he has a really good grasp on the issue theoretically and historically.