- Feb 5, 2002
- 166,693
- 56,303
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
What is the proper relationship between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men?
In recent years, an odd phenomenon has occurred in American conservatism. Well, perhaps there has been more than one. Yet the most surprising has been the ascendancy of Catholic integralism. Rejecting liberal political theory, integralists have argued that separation of state and Church is a dead-end road and that Catholics need to return to a political vision in which the City of God and the earthly city cooperate closely; indeed, that the state is the secular arm of the Church and ought to assist in the salvation of souls. It is truly surprising that this vision has gained traction in the United States of all places. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly popular among young Catholics, who are tired of liberal conservatives and desire a re-sacralized public square.
The general response by conservatives to integralism has been disdain and rejection. According to fusionists, classical liberals—and even national conservatives—integralists are, at best, utopian idealists and, at worst, fascists. Integralists for their part have been quite willing to attack conservatives, who they present, at best, as naive would-be reformers of a defective liberal order, and, at worst, as heretics who ought, in a proper integralist regime, to be chided for their views (to put it mildly).
It often seems that the two sides are talking past each other, and in the often-heated debates, they may forget a more important truth: that as Christians, they are all brothers and sisters in Christ and mere pilgrims on earth on the way (God willing) to Heaven, where they will spend eternity praising God together in mutual love, even if they blocked each other on Twitter in this wretched world.
Continued below.
lawliberty.org
In recent years, an odd phenomenon has occurred in American conservatism. Well, perhaps there has been more than one. Yet the most surprising has been the ascendancy of Catholic integralism. Rejecting liberal political theory, integralists have argued that separation of state and Church is a dead-end road and that Catholics need to return to a political vision in which the City of God and the earthly city cooperate closely; indeed, that the state is the secular arm of the Church and ought to assist in the salvation of souls. It is truly surprising that this vision has gained traction in the United States of all places. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly popular among young Catholics, who are tired of liberal conservatives and desire a re-sacralized public square.
The general response by conservatives to integralism has been disdain and rejection. According to fusionists, classical liberals—and even national conservatives—integralists are, at best, utopian idealists and, at worst, fascists. Integralists for their part have been quite willing to attack conservatives, who they present, at best, as naive would-be reformers of a defective liberal order, and, at worst, as heretics who ought, in a proper integralist regime, to be chided for their views (to put it mildly).
It often seems that the two sides are talking past each other, and in the often-heated debates, they may forget a more important truth: that as Christians, they are all brothers and sisters in Christ and mere pilgrims on earth on the way (God willing) to Heaven, where they will spend eternity praising God together in mutual love, even if they blocked each other on Twitter in this wretched world.
Continued below.
An Unserious Catholic Politics – - Kai Weiss
What is the proper relationship between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men?
lawliberty.org
