In social life, how do I know what is right or wrong? Chapter 3.
The drama of our human existence encompasses interlocking spheres of belief and behavior: the religious sphere, the moral sphere, and the prudential (political) sphere. Today, we will conclude with the different set-ups regarding the Prudential (Political) sphere.
The Prudential (Political) Sphere: How does your conscience guide your everyday choices and compare them with your religious and moral principles? Do you invoke religious and moral teachings to help formulate your views of the world? Must your beliefs affect your public choices?
The CATHOLIC PRUDENTIAL (POLITICAL) SPHERE applies Catholic religious and moral principles to every culture and nation. It gathers the positive cultural traits of every ethnicity and energizes them. It points out the negative traits of every civilization to denounce them.
The Catholic laity governs the political sphere as its own concern, often with the general guidance of the hierarchy, which proclaims the principles. The political sphere includes everyday living, secular lawmaking, immigration, domestic policy, and foreign policy. We govern our individual lives, communities, and nations with God’s grace and according to our state of life.
The laity considers circumstances and evaluates evidence. Lay people apply Christian principles to form opinions and make choices. Moral pragmatism—the claim that good ends justify evil means (such as “We have no choice but to target non-combatants to win the war”) interferes with Catholic moral principles. The clergy must not overreach in prudential judgments that should be the realm of the laity.
The Christian message has a social dimension, and the Church encourages its diffusion and implementation as an integral part of the Christian conception of life. The main task of the Church is the salvation of souls. Man, however, can reach salvation only if he strives to establish in his society the order of justice and charity that is desired by God.
This religious-moral-prudential template applies to every aspect of life, including the various expressions of Protestant practice, strains of Islam, and the array of Eastern religions. The model helps with mutual understanding without rancor.
The TRADITIONAL PROTESTANT PRUDENTIAL (POLITICAL) SPHERE is to be found among the (mostly Protestant) American founding fathers. Pastors often become political figures. Facts for decision-making are usually evidence-driven or practical. However, Protestant religious doctrines do not demand reasonable natural law to determine many political policies.
A significant strain of old-fashioned Protestantism includes the doctrine of Dispensationalism, a relatively recent development (dating back to the last 200 years). We are in the final historical dispensation, some of them claim, and the return of Jesus and His 1,000-year reign is imminent.
The ATHEIST PRUDENTIAL SPHERE is purely rationalistic without the light of faith and executes the maxim “everything is permissible as long as you don’t hurt anybody.” Since atheists presumably view their own death (or terrible suffering) as the greatest evil, waging war is unintelligible unless death in battle is preferable to continued existence.
Devout atheists may be disposed to murderous secular ideologies (such as Communism). But they may also be less dangerous than consequentialist Catholics or some strains of Protestantism.
Oct 29 Wed