Christianity and Problems of To-day: Lectures Delivered Before Lake Forest College on the Foundation of the Late William BrossFinley, John H. (John Huston)
Religion
Christianity and Problems of To-day: Lectures Delivered Before Lake Forest College on the Foundation of the Late William Bross
Finley, John H. (John Huston)
Christianity -- 20th century
If we review hastily these principles of personal action which
are really the summary of the most important of Jesus' social
teachings, we note that in enunciating these principles Jesus laid
the foundations of democracy. He dealt the death-blow to imperialism,
even to a benevolent despotism. When the mature individuals in a
community deal truthfully and frankly with one another, when they
feel a keen sense of individual responsibility for their actions,
judging those actions with independence of spirit, with tolerance
for the same independent judgment on the part of others, with the
consciousness that they must study and prepare themselves for the
bearing of their responsibilities, and when they also feel that they
must devote themselves with all that they have and all that they are
to the promotion of the welfare of the community at large, we have
the ideal democracy. Is not this true? I have asked many thoughtful
students of government whether or not these principles are the
fundamental principles of popular self-government, and whether any
other principles besides these are needed to be brought into play
in order to give us popular self-government of the best type; and
so far I have found no one who denied these to be the principles of
democracy or who had anything to add to these principles. If, then,
these are the principles of Christianity, if these are the complete
summary of Jesus' fundamental teachings, is it not the fact that
Jesus, although not dealing directly with government, is nevertheless
the founder of democracy, of self-government? It is certainly true
that before his day the various attempts that had been made toward
the establishment of republics or of democratic governments did not
recognize the worth of the common man. In all of the earlier attempts
that had been made there was a substantial equality of rights among
the so-called better classes in the community; but the great masses
of the serving classes, of the working classes, if not slaves were
at least not supposed to bear the responsibilities of guiding the
affairs of the community. Even in Great Britain, until after the
great reform acts of the middle of the last century, there was no
real democracy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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