It may, I think, even be argued that Communism in Russia, National Socialism in Germany, and Capitalism and Liberal Democracy in the Western countries are really three forms of the same thing, and that they are all moving by different but parallel paths to the same goal, which is the mechanization of human life and the complete subordination of the individual to the state and to the economic process. Of course I do not mean to say that they are all absolutely equivalent, and that we have no right to prefer one to another. But I do believe that a Christian cannot regard any of them as a final solution to the problem of civilization, or even as a tolerable one. Christianity is bound to protest against any social system which claims the whole of man and sets itself up as the final end of human action, for it asserts that man's essential nature transcends all political and economic forms. Civilization is a road by which man travels, not a house for him to dwell in. His true city is elsewhere.(Christopher Dawson, Religion and the Modern State, 1938).
"In him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).
Monday, January 11, 2010
Dawson's Critique
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1 comment:
This is a great quote-- especially in light of the too-common weight that so many Christians put on our government's priority.
I'd never say that Christians shouldn't be conscientious about political matters that affect them. But when Christians begin to speak as if the Kingdom is threatened by the potential outcome of an election or the policies of a sitting politician, they need to read Dawson's quote; they are merely trusting in horses and chariots.
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