05-11-2011, 09:42 PM
rjmacs wrote:
[quote=kj]
I'd agree he was talking about society as a whole, as in every individual in existence, but I don't think he was talking about how institutions (economic/political) should "behave", as in how they should operate and be built. Individuals within the institutions for sure, but not the institutions themselves. There's a lot of guidance about how churches should be set up, but I'm not aware of any guidance related to types of governments (again, guidance for leaders as individuals, etc.). kj.
Do you mean Biblical guidance? The general recommendations to early Christians in the Bible (from both Jesus and the apostles) were to withdraw from broader society, form communities of believers, evangelize and await the imminent return of the messiah. Not much room in that plan for rebuilding governments, etc. They truly didn't expect that those institutions would be around much longer; the task of adapting Christianity to a world awaiting the Second Coming for decades, centuries, and millenia fell to the Church (used generically here to describe organized Christianity). That was a difficult and contentious task, in no small part because the Bible doesn't offer much direct guidance. In that sense, it's possible to say that Christianity is concerned with individuals. There's a tension here, though, because this same Christianity was really not concerned with a world in which Christians would need to wait so long that they'd need to make governments, build institutions (other than the Church), etc. Only after it became clear that Christ's return was not imminent did Christians turn - often reluctantly - to these tasks.
I haven't come across anything that emphasizes the effect of imminent return of messiah to the extent that you do, so I'll keep that in mind. But I think if Christ had been intending for politics to be the main vessel of change, he would have been a politician. Of course, this presupposes faith, I think, so I understand why you might not see it that way. Thanks, kj.