A history of social thoughtBogardus, Emory S. (Emory Stephen)
History
A history of social thought
Bogardus, Emory S. (Emory Stephen)
Social psychology; Sociology -- History
Unlike Plato and Aristotle, Jesus was a continual student of everyday
life. Like Socrates, Jesus was fond of people. He was a student of
individual and social affairs. He mixed with all types of human beings.
Like Socrates, he wrote practically nothing. Unlike Socrates, Jesus had
a dynamic element in his nature which forbade him to remain content
to argue with people (after the Socratic manner), but which drove him
to help and to heal. He went about doing good. The Gospel records are
replete with instance after instance of his work in healing the sick of
their infirmities. He was not, however, a physician but a teacher and a
savior from sin and evil.
Behind all the teachings of Jesus, there is the concept of a perfect
human order. This Kingdom begins in the hearts of individuals.[VIII-1]
It is a spirit or an attitude of mind which leads the individual toward
co-operative living. The Kingdom may come on earth as well as in
heaven. Consider the picture of a harmonious community life which Jesus
gave when lamenting over Jerusalem: “How often would I have gathered
thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood together under
her wings, and ye would not!”[VIII-2]
Jesus extended the concept of brotherhood. Whoever shall do the will of
God is a brother to me.[VIII-3] The world, under God, is one family.
The Kingdom, therefore, is to include all human beings, who worship God
in spirit and in truth and who at the same time love their fellowmen
in justice and co-operative living.
The ideal society is organic. It grows from good examples. Live so that
other persons, seeing the helpfulness of your life, may live likewise.
The Kingdom grows like a grain of mustard seed, which finally becomes
a tree in whose branches the birds find homes.[VIII-4] Love grows, and
like leaven, permeates and transforms the whole mass,--the result is
the perfect Kingdom.
God is the spiritual leader of the new society, to whom Jesus prayed in
the social term, Our Father. God is the personification of love. God
loved the sinful world so much that he gave his only son to the task
of saving not simply the Jews or modern Europeans, but the whole world
from all sins. The Star which guided the Magi was God’s service Star,
announcing that he had given his only son in the war against sin.
Love is the new note that is to re-form the world. Love is the
scientific principle from which all other true sociological concepts
are derived. Love received the most perfect human expression in the
personality and life of Jesus, who came not for self glory but to save
people from hate and sin; who sought not the sheep to oppress and slay
them for his own gratification, but to direct them, when lost, back
to safe living; who sought not to weigh down the burdened with unjust
taxes and harsh living conditions, but to relieve and give rest to the
heavy-laden: who cared less for the upper Four Hundred than for the
lower Four Hundred Million.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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