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christendom, Classical Legal Tradition, Modern State, New Polity, Paganism, People of God, Political Philosophy, Political Theology
New Polity: A Journal of Postliberal Thought recently published my essay “Pagan Laws and the People of God.” Here is an excerpt from the introduction, you can read the whole essay by purchasing the issue or subscribing to the journal here.
The dawn that dispelled the horrendous night that morn
Was not a Sabbath of rest but a Saturnalia of sorrow
The impious demon rejoiced in seeing the breach of peace between brothers
There never was greater slaughter, nor field so full of war
The laws of Christendom are turned into a rain of blood.
Thus the gluttony of Cerberus pleases the infernal powers.— Angelbert, Versus de bella que fuit acta Fontaneto
These poignant verses describe the aftermath of the Battle of Fontenoy, a decisive moment in the fratricidal war between the three grandsons of Charlemagne. In the eyes of the Frankish poet, the order of the Lex Christianorum—the reign of peace—had given way to the old blood-soaked anarchy of paganism; the divinely instituted leisure of the Sabbath had yielded to a Saturnalia of debauchery. These verses could equally well describe the situation of Catholics in the modern administrative state, a model of state which has come to dominate the political life of many countries. The atrocities of the modern state are without number; for example, in America, until very recently, this form of state sanctioned at its highest levels the mass destruction of innocents in the womb. A growing school of postliberal “juridical thinkers” blame our moral and spiritual decay on the refusal to ground our law in the “Classical Legal Tradition.” They claim that the basic apparatus of the modern state is merely abused; politicians educated in the tradition of classical legal thought can and should adopt “the apparatus of the administrative state” to successfully adapt and adjust “broad positive instruments to changing social, economic, and technological circumstances.” This claim (and the booming juristic community that has rallied around it) lacks any sense of the traditional perspective which pits Catholic society and the Western European tradition of governance against the depredations of the pagan civilizations that it converted and conquered. From this perspective, the modern administrative state has revived the despotism of the pagans.
The full essay can be found in the print issue of New Polity Volume 4 Issue 3.
The War for Christendom 
I admittedly have not read your essay in its entirety, as I’m not a New Polity subscriber. I only regularly read what’s freely available on its site. I’m sympathetic to and in agreement with most of what it publishes and with what you share and write here. But I always have one question when I read criticisms of the Roman state (which is what most of those juridical thinkers have in mind and often what New Polity criticizes)—how do you treat the medieval Roman Empire? Do you exclude it from Christendom? I don’t think it can be seriously argued that it was not a Christian society, even by the most ardent Catholic. But, it never ceased to use Roman law and the inherited—although ever-changing to meet changing circumstances—Roman state institutions.
I’m only just now about to embark on a thorough reading of Roman history from its Republican days to its fall in 1453 (with an emphasis on its imperial history and, within that, an emphasis on its history beginning with Constantine), so I’m certainly no expert. But, I get the impression it was largely as just a society as those of medieval Western and Central Europe.
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I find the Byzantine State extremely problematic, both because of its schism from the Roman West (which would exclude it from Christendom in the strict sense) and its inability to develop systems of Legitimacy such as defined the Medieval Kingdoms and the Holy Roman Empire.
I will add that Byzantium did not inherit Roman institutions in a way that is significantly different from the Frankish, Lombardic, or Visigothic Kingdoms. But it also did not receive the developments in terms of Christianization that those polities received.
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Thanks for the reply! I’ll keep your comment in mind as I soon re-read Peter Wilson’s The Heart of Europe.
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I may re-read that work, after I finish Gordon Wood’s The Creation of the American Republic, before I read anything else. I may also concurrently read Orestes Brownson, as I’ve wanted to get to him for some time.
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I just subscribed to New Polity, so I will read your essay as soon as I get a chance!
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Thank you for your comments! I should let you know that my essay was included in a previous issue, you should have access to the pdf version with your subscription but you will have to buy the print issue separately.
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