Scholasticism and Politics

CHAPTER IX. CHRISTIANITY AND EARTHLY CIVILIZATIONS

CHAPTER IX CHRISTIANITY AND EARTHLY CIVILIZATIONS I THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD The contact or meeting ofthe Church and earthly civilizations is the meeting of the Kingdom of God with the world. It is a question oftwo heterogeneous universes which enter into closest relations on one'common ground', namely, man. The unity ofthe Church is supernatural. Civilizations, on the other hand, spring from the natural order. To understand this more exactly, we must recall certain points of doctrine concerning, on the one hand, the common good of the Church and that of civilization, or, as St. Thomas says, of the civil life; and concerning, on the other hand, the natural virtues and the supernatural virtues. The common good ofthe Church lies in eternal life and in union with the divine Persons; the common good ofa civilization is the right life (the earthly and human right life) of a people or group of peoples. These are two specific ends, clearly distinct; they differ as heaven differs from earth. And it is clear that the earthly end is not ultimate, or is ultimate as St. Thomas says, only in a certain sense and in a given order. The last end, pure and simple, is eternal life, and that is why any order of civilization or culture is indirectly related or subordinated to the spiritual order. [225 ] On the other hand, the life of civilization, even when responding to natural inclination and primordial instinct, is not a simple physical fact: it is awork ofreason and ofvirtue. And what are the virtues directly concerned with this life? They are the natural virtues which are grouped around the four cardinal virtues ofprudence, justice, fortitude and temperance . A social and political life which truly merits the name, ~nd is worthy ofman, is centred in naturaljustice and tends to develop the natural virtue of brotherly friendship between the members ofthe same society. Whereas the virtues by which we are fellow citizens with the saints and members ofthe Kingdom ofGod are not only the three theological virtues, but also the supernatural moral virtues which follow in their wake and correspond to the natural moral virtues ofthe same name. We perceive here the great cultural importance of the doctrine of St. Thomas on the natural moral virtues and on the infused moral virtues. The first are in their nature connected with civil life; the second with the divine life begun here below, and, ifI may put it in this way, for the heaven ofthe soul. 'Man,' says St. Thomas, 'is not only a citizen of the terrestrial city, he is also a member of the celestial one; he belongs to thatJerusalem whose prince is God, and whose citizens are the angels and all the saints, whether they are reigning in glory and at rest in their Fatherland or whether they are still pilgrims on earth, according to the words of the apostle: "You are fellow-citizens with the saints; and of the household of God." But in order for a man to be a member of this city, his nature does not suffice; he must be raised up by the grace ofGod. For it is manifest that the virtues which are in man in so far as he is a member of this society cannot be acquired by his natural powers; that is the [ 226 ] reason why they are not caused in us by our actions, but are infused in us by divine gift.'1 So much for the moral virtues which are infused and which fit us for the morality and the common life which are in keeping with the Kingdom of God, which is already here, teaching, struggling and suffering on earth: the Church, the wandering and crucified Kingdom. If we are dealing with moral virtues which are acquired, 'these,' says St. Thomas, 'are the directives in civil life; that is the reason their object is the civil good, the good ofcivilization .'2 Here our actions refer directly to goods 'proportioned to human nature.'3 This is the reason why there is no infused political prudence in the earthly life of society; a supernatural virtue of political prudence would have to do only with the government ofthe Church ofChrist. Here, nevertheless, we fmd the organic union and the subordination mentioned above. There is no separation or breaking off; there is a vital cohesion between the natural virtues and the supernatural virtues. We know in fact...