SecretPlans.org

Still, Hart never forgets that the effects of Christianity on political life are always incomplete and compromised. That was true of both the Roman Empire and imperial Christendom, as well as the British and American empires. The polis or nation or empire can be influenced or limited by the presence of the Christian community, but always against politics’ own grain. Hart’s view seems to be that all political life is unworthy of divinized beings, and part of our true liberation is from politics’ “inherent violence.” For Hart, it was a tragedy that the church as an institution ever played a role in political life or assumed responsibility for national or imperial unity—and so he has little nostalgia for the comprehensive dream that was Christendom. Much of his book is a description of “the history of a constant struggle between the power of the gospel to alter and shape society and the power of the state to absorb every useful institution into itself.” But he should have made clearer that the modern separation of the nation from the church—in, for example, the American case—cannot be regarded as a tragedy for the church, so long as the gospel has retained some influence.

I tend to agree with David Hart and John Garvey (pay link) on this question, but Peter Lawler’s more sanguine perspective of American politics is always welcome.

(Source: firstprinciplesjournal.com)