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6/12/2025, 9:19:11 PM
Christianity and Nationalism / Politics are at odds.
>“I am a Christian. He who answers thus has declared everything at once—his country, profession, family; the believer belongs to no city on earth but to the heavenly Jerusalem.”
St. John Chrysostom
Rousseau Social Contract pages 67 through 73.
https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf
>This was the situation when Jesus came to set up on earth a spiritual kingdom, which, by separating the theological from the political system, destroyed the unity of the state, and caused the internal divisions that never ceased to trouble Christian peoples. This new idea of a kingdom of 'the other world' could never have occurred to pagans, so they always regarded the Christians as really rebels.
>But this religion, having no special relation to the body politic, leaves the laws with only the force they draw from themselves without adding anything to it; which means that one of the great bonds for uniting the society of the given country is left idle. Worse: so far from binding the citizens' hearts to the state, it detaches them from that and from all earthly things. I know of nothing more contrary to the social spirit.
>They tell us that a populace of true Christians would form the most perfect society imaginable. I see only one great difficulty about this idea, namely that a society of true Christians wouldn't be a society of men.
>Christianity is an entirely spiritual religion, occupied solely with heavenly things; the Christian's country is not of this world.
>But I'm wrong to speak of a Christian republic--those terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favourable to tyranny that it always profits by such a régime. Genuine Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and don't much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes.
>“I am a Christian. He who answers thus has declared everything at once—his country, profession, family; the believer belongs to no city on earth but to the heavenly Jerusalem.”
St. John Chrysostom
Rousseau Social Contract pages 67 through 73.
https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf
>This was the situation when Jesus came to set up on earth a spiritual kingdom, which, by separating the theological from the political system, destroyed the unity of the state, and caused the internal divisions that never ceased to trouble Christian peoples. This new idea of a kingdom of 'the other world' could never have occurred to pagans, so they always regarded the Christians as really rebels.
>But this religion, having no special relation to the body politic, leaves the laws with only the force they draw from themselves without adding anything to it; which means that one of the great bonds for uniting the society of the given country is left idle. Worse: so far from binding the citizens' hearts to the state, it detaches them from that and from all earthly things. I know of nothing more contrary to the social spirit.
>They tell us that a populace of true Christians would form the most perfect society imaginable. I see only one great difficulty about this idea, namely that a society of true Christians wouldn't be a society of men.
>Christianity is an entirely spiritual religion, occupied solely with heavenly things; the Christian's country is not of this world.
>But I'm wrong to speak of a Christian republic--those terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favourable to tyranny that it always profits by such a régime. Genuine Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and don't much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes.
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