Abstract: Kant ist der Moses unser Nation. --Holderlin I EVERY MODERN THEORY OF homo politicus presumes a theory of homo religiosus. This is a historical observation, not a theological one. Modern political philosophy began in a self-conscious response to the crisis of theological and political authority in Europe, and this response in turn transformed many aspects of our political experience which modern philosophy then had to take into account. Modern political philosophy is not religious today, nor is it exclusively or even primarily concerned with the social effects of religion. Religion, however, is its original problematic. Yet modern theories of homo religiosus originally arose out of dissatisfaction with homo Christianus. It would seem, then, that any investigation into the nature of modern political philosophy--its basis, its development, its strengths and limitations--would have to begin, at least initially, with an examination of how it understood the phenomenon of Christianity. The New Sciences of Christianity. The political crisis of Western Christendom gave rise to two modern schools of thought about the nature of Christianity and, eventually, of religion in general. For the sake of economy, let us call these the Epicurean and existential schools of religious science. In many respects these schools are indistinguishable. Both grew up in an atmosphere of military and psychological warfare being conducted in Jesus's name, and both deplored the fanaticism, obscurantism, and cruelties fostered by the doctrines of the Christian churches. Both schools condemned the struggle for authority among Christian faiths and between Altar and Crown, yet both also appreciated the difficulty of freeing Europe from certain aspects of Christian morality without undercutting public obedience and private morals. Here the similarities between the schools end, however, and the task of distinguishing begins. We must distinguish first between their different diagnoses of Christianity's nature, then between the different therapies they proposed for removing the psychological and political evils it had caused. Religion as Behavior. The modern Epicurean approach to Christianity takes it as axiomatic that this religion did not make all things new, that it is a human phenomenon like any other, subject to the same methods of scientific analysis. This approach, founded by Hobbes and Spinoza, succeeds to the extent that it successfully levels. It first reduces Christianity to the level of religion, then reduces religion to a form of behavior, and further reduces all behavior to the dynamic relations among or affects. On this basis the modern Epicureans find it possible to explain the existence of religion in modern scientific terms as something at once natural and perverse. Religion is natural because it is bred of the natural passions and ignorance of solitary human individuals; it is perverse because it excites fear and violence among them when they enter society. What do men naturally fear? In the state of nature only nature itself, whose workings appear arbitrary to simple minds unenlightened about its laws. Ignoring true causes, men attribute every turn of fortune to gods whom they make after an outsized image of themselves. They imagine these gods to be creatures endowed with wills and capable of causing effects in the physical world. They also assume that, just as men are subject to flattery, so are the gods. Yet when we try to curry their favor we learn that, again like men, the gods are willful and capricious, and this makes them fearsome. So while religion dissipates natural fear it does not abolish fear altogether. There is a residuum that is transferred from nature to the gods. This artificial fear is then mediated by a class of priests, who have an interest in perpetuating it. Through the miracle of their own escape from ignorance they are able to manipulate the ignorant belief in gods who work miracles. …
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 12
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