Democratic naturalism and anti-democratic naturalism
From the Things that are not Caesar's by Jacques Maritain.
As I live 400 yards from the European Parliament, I can say that I have little trace of democracy there in five years and much democratism. Democracy is slowly being drained away in modern European states and as no-one could put their finger on the day when England was no longer Catholic, looking back no-one will be able in Europe to know the date when tyranny started its rule.
" Democracy, lawful in itself," Pere Garrigou-Lagrange wrote recently, " may degenerate into democratism, into a kind of religion which confuses the order of grace and the order of nature or tends to reduce the supernatural truth of the Gospel to a social conception of human order, to transform divine charity into philanthropy, humanitarian-ism and liberalism. The Church may then intervene in virtue of her very magistracy. She cannot forget the maxim : corruptio optimi pessima ; the worst form of corruption is that which attacks what is best in us, the most exalted of the supernatural virtues, the soul of all the others. If there is nothing better in this world than true charity, which loves God above all things and its neighbour for the love of God, there is nothing worse than false charity, which reverses the very order of love, by making us forget the infinite goodness of God and His imprescriptible rights, to stuff our ears with the rights of man— equality, liberty and fraternity. The formal object of an essentially supernatural virtue so becomes confused with that of a feeling not unfrequently largely inspired by envy. Is that not the essence of the democracy-religion which completely falsifies the idea of the virtue of charily and at the same time that of virtue indissolubly bound with justice ? To seek to discover in it the spirit of the Gospel would be mere illuminism. To realise it, it is sufficient to apply the main rule for die discerning of spirits : ' The tree is judged by its fruits ' : the fruits produced by the works of Rousseau are not the fruits of the Gospel. “To react properly against such democratism and by those who profit by it to the great detriment of their country, is it sufficient to give the helm a vigourous turn in the opposite direction, in the human order? Is it sufficient to recall the benefits conferred by the natural hierarchy of values once established by the guilds in the artisan world, the benefits conferred by an intellectual aristocracy and a landed aristocracy, the advantages derived from a monarchy which brought about unity and continuity in the home and foreign policy of a great country, to protect it against its enemies both within and without ? If such a reaction takes place only or mainly in the human order, and not sufficiently in the supernatural order of faith and love of God, it runs the risk of falling into the opposite extreme to that which it is fighting. Not only can it not effectively substitute, as it ought, for false notions of charity and justice the true conception of these virtues, but it can easily degenerate into an aristocratic naturalism recalling the wisdom of Greece and its intellectual pride in opposition to the spirit of the Gospel. The profound significance of the teaching of Our Lord respecting humility and love of our neighbour would be thenceforth lost : ' / confess to tkee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones' (Matthew xi. 25). * This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you' {John xv. 12). " To react against the naturalist conception of charity which is as it were the soul of democracy-religion, une must safeguard oneself against the opposite extreme which would be a contrary form of naturalism. One must rise above these two extremes to the culminating point which unites the theological and moral virtues, living faith, resolute hope, the supernatural love of God and our neighbour, of our very enemies, divine charity indissolubly bound to true justice. To rise to such a height, Christian humility is required ; it is a fundamental virtue and alone can repress the pride which tends to pervert every political conception and to warp every form of government. Humility must be accompanied by docility of the mind with regard to every natural and supernatural truth. It is the only way to supreme truth and true religion. Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP Vie Spirituelle March 1927.
As I live 400 yards from the European Parliament, I can say that I have little trace of democracy there in five years and much democratism. Democracy is slowly being drained away in modern European states and as no-one could put their finger on the day when England was no longer Catholic, looking back no-one will be able in Europe to know the date when tyranny started its rule.
" Democracy, lawful in itself," Pere Garrigou-Lagrange wrote recently, " may degenerate into democratism, into a kind of religion which confuses the order of grace and the order of nature or tends to reduce the supernatural truth of the Gospel to a social conception of human order, to transform divine charity into philanthropy, humanitarian-ism and liberalism. The Church may then intervene in virtue of her very magistracy. She cannot forget the maxim : corruptio optimi pessima ; the worst form of corruption is that which attacks what is best in us, the most exalted of the supernatural virtues, the soul of all the others. If there is nothing better in this world than true charity, which loves God above all things and its neighbour for the love of God, there is nothing worse than false charity, which reverses the very order of love, by making us forget the infinite goodness of God and His imprescriptible rights, to stuff our ears with the rights of man— equality, liberty and fraternity. The formal object of an essentially supernatural virtue so becomes confused with that of a feeling not unfrequently largely inspired by envy. Is that not the essence of the democracy-religion which completely falsifies the idea of the virtue of charily and at the same time that of virtue indissolubly bound with justice ? To seek to discover in it the spirit of the Gospel would be mere illuminism. To realise it, it is sufficient to apply the main rule for die discerning of spirits : ' The tree is judged by its fruits ' : the fruits produced by the works of Rousseau are not the fruits of the Gospel. “To react properly against such democratism and by those who profit by it to the great detriment of their country, is it sufficient to give the helm a vigourous turn in the opposite direction, in the human order? Is it sufficient to recall the benefits conferred by the natural hierarchy of values once established by the guilds in the artisan world, the benefits conferred by an intellectual aristocracy and a landed aristocracy, the advantages derived from a monarchy which brought about unity and continuity in the home and foreign policy of a great country, to protect it against its enemies both within and without ? If such a reaction takes place only or mainly in the human order, and not sufficiently in the supernatural order of faith and love of God, it runs the risk of falling into the opposite extreme to that which it is fighting. Not only can it not effectively substitute, as it ought, for false notions of charity and justice the true conception of these virtues, but it can easily degenerate into an aristocratic naturalism recalling the wisdom of Greece and its intellectual pride in opposition to the spirit of the Gospel. The profound significance of the teaching of Our Lord respecting humility and love of our neighbour would be thenceforth lost : ' / confess to tkee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones' (Matthew xi. 25). * This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you' {John xv. 12). " To react against the naturalist conception of charity which is as it were the soul of democracy-religion, une must safeguard oneself against the opposite extreme which would be a contrary form of naturalism. One must rise above these two extremes to the culminating point which unites the theological and moral virtues, living faith, resolute hope, the supernatural love of God and our neighbour, of our very enemies, divine charity indissolubly bound to true justice. To rise to such a height, Christian humility is required ; it is a fundamental virtue and alone can repress the pride which tends to pervert every political conception and to warp every form of government. Humility must be accompanied by docility of the mind with regard to every natural and supernatural truth. It is the only way to supreme truth and true religion. Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP Vie Spirituelle March 1927.
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