Wherever the Western vision of political order has gained a foothold, we find freedom of expression: not merely the freedom to disagree with others publicly about matters of faith and morality but also the freedom to satirize solemnity and to ridicule nonsense, including solemnity and nonsense of the sacred kind. This freedom of conscience requires secular government. But what makes secular government legitimate?
That question is the starting point of Western political philosophy, the consensus among modern thinkers being that sovereignty and law are made legitimate by the consent of those who must obey them. They show this consent in two ways: by a real or implied “social contract,” whereby each person agrees with every other to the principles of government; and by a political process through which each person participates in the making and enacting of the law. The right and duty of participation is what we mean, or ought to mean, by “citizenship,” and the distinction between political and religious communities can be summed up in the view that political communities are composed of citizens and religious communities of subjects—of those who have “submitted.” If we want a simple definition of the West as it is today, the concept of citizenship is a good starting point. That is what millions of migrants are roaming the world in search of: an order that confers security and freedom in exchange for consent.
Full article published winter issue 2009 vol. 19, no. 1 of City Journal
Roger,
I came across this article in City Journal to which I subscribe.
Liked your selection of the gifts of forgiveness and irony. I was interested in your choice of irony particularly in relation to the woman caught in adultery – it wasn’t the word that came to mind but I take your point. The thing about the Christian religion is that in regard to humankind it tells the way things really are, like exposing the lust in the hearts of the onlookers in the Jn 8 passage. There is no flanneling, no false optimism, nor despair for that matter, just sober reality, which is what we need to make a fair fist of every day that God grants us.
Using the understanding of Islam, the presumptive heir to a decadent, dying Western civilisation as a foil was spot on
Thank you. I passed on the link to your article to all my (Presbyterian) ministerial colleages.
David
I loved this piece and put a link to it on my facebook page in the hope that my family and friends will all read it. I also bookmarked it in my “best articles, essays, columns, etc.” folder. Thanks for writing it. I’ll re-read it soon, in order to fully apprehend all the salience therein. I was delighted to find your blog and so hasten to drop you a note to say how much I appreciated your essay on Forgiveness and Irony, two of my guiding principles. A dear mentor of mine has his theory of forgiveness as “giving up on having a better past”. With that and the Irony part of the equation in mind, we are not giving up on a better future. Looking forward to reading more.
Best regards,
Mark
Dear Mark,
Thank you so much for those kind remarks. I have been encouraged by the response to this article, the argument I want to take forward in my work over the next couple of years. So thanks again for writing. RS