tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077923805793258724.post8371205045797248131..comments2022-09-07T06:49:23.577-05:00Comments on The Season of Another Book: american political religionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077923805793258724.post-72257064083855247052009-10-01T23:50:03.558-05:002009-10-01T23:50:03.558-05:00Well, Washington was orthodox by the (even already...Well, Washington was orthodox by the (even already) lax standards of 18th c. Anglicanism. He seems to have taken his religious duties seriously and steadily, but also had a cast of mind very much of his age. This isn't surprising; rarely are men remarkable in all respects.<br /><br />The problem of natural reason and revelation is certainly not new to Orthodoxy, and it is not a problem that is going to go away. Just this evening I had to disagree with a fellow parishioner who asserted that the Latins were the sole cause of atheism. There's a lot to be said for the assertion that atheism in its current form exists in a space granted to it by Christianity, but I do not see how those conditions are unique to the Roman and Protestant churches. In any case, Orthodoxy has provided no sure cultural inoculation against the philosophical horrors of the last 200 years, so I do not know why we'd brag about it.<br /><br />"Because the Church said so" was never a great line to begin with, because the teaching authority of the Church in Orthodoxy is not understood in the terms of a Magisterium. That is to say: We believe the Creed because the Church confesses it, but there was the use of natural reason in formulating it. What the Church protects us from is the self-defeating, insular use of the reason against its own products, which tell us nothing.<br /><br />The amount of room to discuss and debate within the Church is sometimes frightfully large, especially to those who maybe saw Orthodoxy as a refuge from the total voluntarism of our modern condition (unfortunately, when voluntarism is the default option, it is hard to "escape" it). We're like children who have been allowed infinite license: We desperately want the adults in charge again.Aristonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05941177388074392732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077923805793258724.post-12166533513949956112009-10-01T14:05:42.689-05:002009-10-01T14:05:42.689-05:00I thought the irony humorous if it were true, and ...I thought the irony humorous if it were true, and I was serious as you also suspected. <br /><br />I am surprised that the Protestant Reformation is not given more attribution for the elevation of reason and equality over authority. It is interesting that the rhetoric and values ushered in by the Enlightenment could trump orthodoxy in Washington. I think one of the challenges for Orthodox in the west is to learn this rhetoric, making it reasonable to accept authority, without compromising Orthodoxy, which I suspect is what Orthodox philosophers in the west try to juggle. "Because the Church says so" doesn't seem to go far enough here and now.<br /><br />And could the decadence that you speak of be a result of entropy caused by a lack of an orderly, orthodox authority (assuming Washington's was compromised)?Andrea Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04072949934250484257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077923805793258724.post-42784290377285847472009-10-01T12:14:11.318-05:002009-10-01T12:14:11.318-05:00I suspect you're probably making a joke here, ...I suspect you're probably making a joke here, as well as being serious, so I'll just respond as seriously as I can.<br /><br />It's not reductionism to see the roots of American political religion in the Enlightenment. In fact, I'm not sure that a definition of the Enlightenment which excludes documents such as the Constitution or the Declaration has any coherence left. I am in no way implying some sort of historical inevitability, here. I think there is some justice in saying that differing currents of historical circumstances can overdetermine most historical artifacts, but that does not make them belong less to one or the other.Aristonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05941177388074392732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077923805793258724.post-21822760533942916512009-10-01T08:25:33.179-05:002009-10-01T08:25:33.179-05:00As much as I like common denominators, would attri...As much as I like common denominators, would attributing the American modus operandi to the Enlightenment be reductionism, also a product of the Enlightenment? And is this also Newtonian metanaration?Andrea Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04072949934250484257noreply@blogger.com