Here social science and religion agree upon the ultimate objectives of
life. Professor Josiah Royce has shown[100] that the ideal of
Christianity, the Kingdom of God, is but a universal community, what he
calls the "beloved community," which is made possible through the
loyalty of all to love and service. There is a fundamentally religious
sanction to community loyalty and only an essentially religious motive
will inspire men to sublimate personal interests in devotion to the
community. Only through loyalty to the highest ideals of community life
can the Kingdom of God be realized on earth. No conceivable cataclysm
could make its existence possible without the voluntary allegiance of
mankind, for the Kingdom of God is the kingdom of love; it can exist
only as the minds and hearts of men are devoted to it. Nor can the
community universal, the "beloved community," be achieved except each
local community adjusts its own life to the highest social values. The
community movement is but a means whereby the ideals of democracy and
religion may be given concrete expression in a definite locality. Unless
these ideals can be applied to local areas where it is possible to
achieve some measure of common life, of community, there is little
probability of their realization in the world at large.
But these higher values of human life cannot be brought about by a mere
process of organization. They require the dynamic of a religious
conviction in the hearts of men. The Gospel and life of Jesus of
Nazareth furnish the essential inspiration for that spirit of loyalty
without which all organization is in vain. Professor E. C. Lindeman has
ably expressed this in his discussion of the relation of the Community
and Democracy:
"The most formidable foe of Democracy, however, is the
confidence which people place in schemes and plans and forms
of organization. What the social machinery of our day needs
is spiritual force to provide motive power. The modern
Community Movement will fail to give Democracy its practical
expression if it is not motivated by a spiritual dynamic.
Such a dynamic force was unloosed with the message and life
of Jesus of Nazareth. He lived his life on the basis of
certain basic democratic assumptions, and He scientifically
demonstrated those assumptions. In His eyes all individuals
were of value; through the social implications of His
message sin became democratic and the burden of all; in His
aspirations all humankind were included. He assumed that
Love would solve more problems than Hatred. He even assumed
that to have a human enemy was a social anomaly. And He
believed that religion was essentially a system of behavior
by which the individual need not be swallowed up in the
group, but by which the individual must find ultimate
satisfactions in spiritualizing the group."[101]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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