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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Constitutionalism Without Liberalism", November 24, 2001
This review is from: Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in the Fallen World (Frank M. Covey, Jr. Loyola Lectures in Politial Analysis) (Paperback)
R. P. Kraynak, who teaches political science at Colgate, reminds us of Augustine's Doctrine of the Two Cities, meaning that the state's sphere is political and economic management and the church's sphere is salvation of souls. The two realms or swords are distinct but not separate. Indeed, the effective implementation of the Augustinian proposal, Prof. Kraynak maintains, preserves us, on the one hand, from the danger of totalitarian politics and, on the other, from the danger of theocracy. In an effective and even elegant argument, he warns us, however, that the church's (or, perhaps, churches') embrace of Kant's "personalism"--that we are people and not things--is, after a point, incompatible with Christianity, for Kantianism is rooted in naturalism, denyiny our eternal destiny and supernatural duties. Christianity has become so suffused with the liberal language of "rights" that it is increasingly given to the kind of sociological leveling and mass taste which are the poisoned fruit of the Modern Project but are finally destructive of political order. The Gospel, Kraynak suggests, tells us not only of the law of love but also of the fact of sin. Recognition of those eternal realities are at the heart of prudent statecraft and of Christian faith. We witness today a secular chiliasm which, to use Moynihan's apt phrase, "defines deviancy down" (238-242) and leads to moral relativism, nihilism, and emotivism which deny the transcendent and exalt ungrounded and unbounded "rights." Kraynak's insights into the ideas of freedom and dignity (61; cf. Rom 7:22 and 1 Pt 3:4), of proper Christian resistance to human rights (153), and of the roles of the secular state (189, 228-229; cf. 1 Pt 2:13-17) are simply superb. Although he might have mined Voegelin's works more effectively--and should have learned the proper spelling of "supersede" (!)--he cogently marshals the work of Solzhenitsyn, Goerner, Niemeyer, O'Donovan, Maritain, Novak, John Courtney Murray, John Finnis, MacIntyre, Strauss, and Lasch, in addition to John Paul II and Reinhold Niebuhr, while standing in principled opposition to Ackerman, Dworkin, Rawls, and Rorty. "Modern culture has cut out the highest part of the human soul," he writes, "the part that longs for eternity and for spiritual transcendence of the here and now, the part that seeks the presence of the Incarnate God . . ." (270). Warmly recommended!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Constitutionalism Without Liberalism", November 24, 2001
This review is from: Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in the Fallen World (Frank M. Covey, Jr. Loyola Lectures in Politial Analysis) (Paperback)
R. P. Kraynak, who teaches political science at Colgate, reminds us of Augustine's Doctrine of the Two Cities, meaning that the state's sphere is political and economic management and the church's sphere is salvation of souls. The two realms or swords are distinct but not separate. Indeed, the effective implementation of the Augustinian proposal, Prof. Kraynak maintains, preserves us, on the one hand, from the danger of a totalitarian politics and, on the other, from the danger of theocracy. In an effective and even elegant argument, he warns us, however, that the church's (or, perhaps, churches') embrace of Kant's "personalism"--that we are people and not things--is, after a point, incompatible with Christianity, for Kantianism is rooted in naturalism, denyiny our eternal destiny and supernatural duties. Christianity has become so suffused with the liberal language of "rights" that it is increasingly given to the kind of sociological leveling and mass taste which are the poisoned fruit of the Modern Project but are finally destructive of political order. The Gospel, Kraynak suggests, tells us not only of the law of love but also of the fact of sin. Recognition of those eternal realities are at the heart of prudent statecraft and of Christian faith. We witness today a secular chiliasm which "defines deviancy down" (238-242) and leads to moral relativism, nihilism, and emotivism which deny the transcendent and exalt ungrounded and unbounded "rights." Kraynak's insights into the ideas of freedom and dignity (61; cf. Rom 7:22 and 1 Pt 3:4), of proper Christian resistance to human rights (153), and of the roles of the secular state (189, 228-229; cf. 1 Pt 2:13-17) are simply superb. Although he might have mined Voegelin's works more effectively--and should have learned the proper spelling of "supersede" (!)--he cogently marshals the work of Solzhenitsyn, Goerner, Niemeyer, O'Donovan, Maritain, Novak, John Courtney Murray, John Finnis, MacIntyre, Strauss, and Lasch, in addition to John Paul II and Reinhold Niebuhr, while standing in principled opposition to Ackerman, Dworkin, Rawls, and Rorty. "Modern culture has cut out the highest part of the human soul," he writes, "the part that longs for eternity and for spiritual transcendence of the here and now, the part that seeks the presence of the Incarnate God . . ." (270). Warmly recommended!
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Painful Possibility, January 20, 2006
This review is from: Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in the Fallen World (Frank M. Covey, Jr. Loyola Lectures in Politial Analysis) (Paperback)
This book takes a hard look at some of our most cherished notions; namely human rights and the notion of personal and political freedom. While claiming that Kant is the main culprit in giving birth to the current backslide of society into a self-destroying autonomy, the author questions even those movements (namely Christian personalism) that have tried to baptize Kant's notions of autonomy and turn them into a force for good and for God. While this criticism of Christian Personalism is not entirely warranted, it does raise a very serious question that needs to be considered; namely, what will be the final outcome of the Church's project of meeting the world on many of its own terms (terms redefined and redirected towards God)and bringing it to conversion? When we look at St. Paul and his appeal to the Unknown God of the Greeks, we realize that perhaps there is some precedent for success with the Church's current approach.
It appears that the author's reason for the criticism of Christian Personalism is fairly understandable. Regardless of how rights and freedom are metaphysically grounded, if those particularly modern political and personal notions are so extraordinarily liberating, then why (to ironically borrow a famous phrase) do we everywhere in modern democracies find ourselves more and more in chains? Why do we see so many atrocities committed (and turned into law) in the name of rights and freedom?
One cannot walk away from this book without gaining a profound sense of the limitations of our current form of democracy and of our cherished notions of personal freedom, human dignity and human rights. We really do have to place our hope in God and not in democracy or freedom. Those latter notions can too easily turn against us. It is an extremely sobering read to say the least.
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