The Militant Christian Virtues

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORs: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS OF THE PROVINCE OF ST. JosEPH Publishers: Sheed & Ward, Inc., New York City VoL. IV APRIL, 1942 No.2 THE MILITANT CHRISTIAN VIRTUES I. THE SENTIMENTAL REVOLT AGAINST HARSHNESS PRINCIPLES and programs of many religious organizations in the United States are concerned with the attitudes of their communicants toward our enemies during the war and in post-bellum peace negotiations. In these church pronouncements there is a manifest gentleness that approaches spiritual and religious flabbiness. This is a carryover from the prewar pacifistic activities, which are now necessarily quiescent but which did much to create among religionists the hopeful but spiritless quietism that left our nation unprepared to defend itself against the Axis powers. This current idealism about the gentle attitudes which Christians must take toward their savage enemies during and after the war is only a partial and disparate application of Christian principles to practical life. It pushes out of the picture basic and stern Christian virtues, and it leaves citizens and nations without the help of those vigorous and militant qualities demanded for an organized society in peace and war. Christianity itself is done no great service if, in the popular mind, it is identified exclusively with sentimental idealism to the neglect of the stern 193 194 IGNATIUS SMITH and rational realities of life. Christianity is done no service anywhere if persons with normal and God-given instincts of anger and indignation are made to feel that there is no place within the fold for them. There is need to open up to all a view of real and more complete Christianity as presented in the Catholic Church by the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. The definite indictment which can be brought against incomplete and sentimental Christianity is that, in order to create horror for criminal hatred and barbaric vengeance in war and at the peace table, it has exiled from life Christian obligations like holy anger and vindictive justice. Furthermore such partial Christianity has so overemphasized the gentle virtues of meekness , forgiveness, and mercy as to have fallen into vicious extremes of flabbiness against which these very gentle qualities are supposed to protect individuals and nations. In order to protect society against relying on brute power, it has attempted to lead Christians into a grovelling and supine inertia that is an apostasy from reaso:n. There is no intention of questioning the fine and humanitarian spirit that lies behind the efforts of pacifistic and unaggressive Christian leaders. They are rather the victims of two tendencies characteristic of partial Christianity for four centuries. One tendency is that of whittling down the content of Christian teaching and discipline to the proportions of human convenience, through a disregard of the rights of God and the ultimate needs of human nature. This is an apostasy from divine Intelligence. The other tendency is that of failing to adhere to first principles despite the temporary discomfort they may occasion and the consistency of conduct they may demand. This is an apostasy from human intelligence. Both of these tendencies are evident in . the contemporary life of partial Christianity. The apostasy from divine Intelligence began with the neglect of some of the teachings of divine Revelation, and was consummated in the open repudiation of these teachings. The Sacraments offer a striking example. First some of them were ignored, like Matrimony, Penance, Confirmation, and Extreme Unction; then they were dropped entirely. Now Baptism is THE MILITANT CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 195 the only remnant of sacramental life on which partial Christianity can present any semblance of loyalty and united action. The divine commandments suffered in a similar manner. Of the Ten Commandments, some were ignored, under the pressure of economic change and consequent moral dissolution. The first three commandments are practically ignored by about seventy-five millions of partial Christians in the United States today. From neglect of these commandments our partial Christians pass on to the open repudiation of them and to the neglect of the others. A similar process of deterioration has taken place and is taking place in regard to the virtues of Christian living. Power politics found it convenient, with the...