Political Thought E-Book

Hunter Baker

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 160

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Politics affect everyone everywhere. Yet most people do not know how to communicate or think methodically (much less unemotionally) about the issues at hand. What we need is for our thinking to be grounded in the basic framework of order, freedom, justice, and equality. Award-winning professor Hunter Baker helps political amateurs gain a foundational understanding of the subject and encourages seasoned political observers to find a fresh perspective in this book. Learn how to fruitfully consider and discuss politics, and gain a greater capacity for evaluating political proposals and the claims that go with them.

Leseprobe

“Political Thought is a wonderful introduction to the study of politics. Hunter Baker writes as a true teacher, offering not only rigor and clarity but also a personal touch. He shows his reader that the study of political thought is not just an abstract exercise for dreary academics, but an application of practical reason to the question of how we are to live together in freedom and order to advance the common good. While introducing the student to the greatest political philosophers in history, Professor Baker takes great care in showing the indelible marks these thinkers have left on our civilization, and how they, for good or ill, have shaped the way Christians should critically assess their place in civil society and its political institutions.”

Francis J. Beckwith, Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies, Baylor University; author, Politics for Christians

“What is the purpose of politics? How should we order our lives together? In lively and engaging prose, Hunter Baker surveys the answers that great thinkers have given to these enduring questions. His book is an excellent, accessible introduction to the fundamental themes of political discourse—and to why these matter for the rising generation.”

George H. Nash, author, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

“Hunter Baker provides an accessible and insightful primer on the various streams of thought and action at play in American public life. A notable merit of Baker’s work is that it examines clear alternatives while at the same time doing justice to the dynamic variety in and between different schools of thought. Baker paints a clear and compelling picture of the political landscape and in so doing provides a valuable service both for those learning about politics for the first time and for those seeking a refresher and a summary of political thought.”

Jordan J. Ballor, Research Fellow, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty; author, Ecumenical Babel

~SERIES ENDORSEMENTS~

“Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition promises to be a very important series of guides—aimed at students—intended both to recover and instruct regarding the Christian intellectual tradition.”

Robert B. Sloan, President, Houston Baptist University

“Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition is an exciting series that will freshly introduce readers to the riches of historic Christian thought and practice. As the modern secular academy struggles to reclaim a semblance of purpose, this series demonstrates why a deeply rooted Christian worldview offers an intellectual coherence so badly needed in our fragmented culture. Assembling a formidable cohort of respected evangelical scholars, the series promises to supply must-read orientations to the disciplines for the next generation of Christian students.”

Thomas Kidd, Department of History, Baylor University

“This new series is exactly what Christian higher education needs to shore up its intellectual foundations for the challenges of the coming decades. Whether students are studying in professedly Christian institutions or in more traditionally secular settings, these volumes will provide a firm basis from which to withstand the dismissive attitude toward biblical thinking that seems so pervasive in the academy today. These titles will make their way onto the required reading lists for Christian colleges and universities seeking to ensure a firm biblical perspective for students, regardless of discipline. Similarly, campus pastors on secular campuses will find this series to be an invaluable bibliography for guiding students who are struggling with coalescing their emerging intellectual curiosity with their developing faith.”

Carl E. Zylstra, President, Dordt College

POLITICAL THOUGHT

RECLAIMING THE

CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

David S. Dockery, series editor

CONSULTING EDITORS

Hunter Baker

Timothy George

Niel Nielson

Philip G. Ryken

Michael J. Wilkins

John D. Woodbridge

OTHER RCIT VOLUMES

The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking, David S. Dockery and Timothy George

The Liberal Arts, Gene C. Fant Jr.

Literature, Louis Markos

Philosophy, David K. Naugle

Political Thought: A Student’s Guide

Copyright © 2012 by Hunter Baker

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath, Simplicated Studio

First printing 2012

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3119-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3120-0 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3121-7 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3122-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baker, Hunter, 1970-.

Political thought : a student’s guide / Hunter Baker.

p. cm.—(Reclaiming the Christian intellectual tradition)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3119-4 (tp)

1. Christianity and politics. 2. Christian sociology. 3. Political science—Philosophy. I. Title.

BR115.P7B144 2012

261.7—dc23                                          2012001369

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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14   13   12    11    10   9    8   7   6    5   4  3   8   2   1

To Ruth Baker, the good wife, and mother of my children whom I love and find irreplaceable,

and

Jack Roady, the new district attorney of Galveston County and the best friend I have ever had.

CONTENTS

Series Preface

Author’s Preface

Acknowledgments

SECTION 1: WAYS TO BEGIN THINKING ABOUT POLITICS

1 Beginning with the Familiar

2 The Difference between Families and Political Communities

3 States of Nature and Social Contracts

SECTION 2: MAJOR THEMES

4 Order, but Not Order Alone

5 On Freedom (and Liberty)

6 Justice

7 A Brief Attempt at Describing Good Politics

SECTION 3: ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTION

8 Focus on the Christian Contribution

9 Concluding Thoughts

Questions for Reflection

Glossary

SERIES PREFACE

RECLAIMING THE CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

The Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series is designed to provide an overview of the distinctive way the church has read the Bible, formulated doctrine, provided education, and engaged the culture. The contributors to this series all agree that personal faith and genuine Christian piety are essential for the life of Christ followers and for the church. These contributors also believe that helping others recognize the importance of serious thinking about God, Scripture, and the world needs a renewed emphasis at this time in order that the truth claims of the Christian faith can be passed along from one generation to the next. The study guides in this series will enable us to see afresh how the Christian faith shapes how we live, how we think, how we write books, how we govern society, and how we relate to one another in our churches and social structures. The richness of the Christian intellectual tradition provides guidance for the complex challenges that believers face in this world.

This series is particularly designed for Christian students and others associated with college and university campuses, including faculty, staff, trustees, and other various constituents. The contributors to the series will explore how the Bible has been interpreted in the history of the church, as well as how theology has been formulated. They will ask: How does the Christian faith influence our understanding of culture, literature, philosophy, government, beauty, art, or work? How does the Christian intellectual tradition help us understand truth? How does the Christian intellectual tradition shape our approach to education? We believe that this series is not only timely but that it meets an important need, because the secular culture in which we now find ourselves is, at best, indifferent to the Christian faith, and the Christian world—at least in its more popular forms—tends to be confused about the beliefs, heritage, and tradition associated with the Christian faith.

At the heart of this work is the challenge to prepare a generation of Christians to think Christianly, to engage the academy and the culture, and to serve church and society. We believe that both the breadth and the depth of the Christian intellectual tradition need to be reclaimed, revitalized, renewed, and revived for us to carry forward this work. These study guides will seek to provide a framework to help introduce students to the great tradition of Christian thinking, seeking to highlight its importance for understanding the world, its significance for serving both church and society, and its application for Christian thinking and learning. The series is a starting point for exploring important ideas and issues such as truth, meaning, beauty, and justice.

We trust that the series will help introduce readers to the apostles, church fathers, Reformers, philosophers, theologians, historians, and a wide variety of other significant thinkers. In addition to well-known leaders such as Clement, Origen, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards, readers will be pointed to William Wilberforce, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, Johann Sebastian Bach, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, George Washington Carver, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Michael Polanyi, Henry Luke Orombi, and many others. In doing so, we hope to introduce those who throughout history have demonstrated that it is indeed possible to be serious about the life of the mind while simultaneously being deeply committed Christians. These efforts to strengthen serious Christian thinking and scholarship will not be limited to the study of theology, scriptural interpretation, or philosophy, even though these areas provide the framework for understanding the Christian faith for all other areas of exploration. In order for us to reclaim and advance the Christian intellectual tradition, we must have some understanding of the tradition itself. The volumes in this series will seek to explore this tradition and its application for our twenty-first-century world. Each volume contains helpful tools, such as a glossary, study questions, and a list of resources for further study, which we trust will provide helpful guidance for our readers.

I am deeply grateful to the series editorial committee: Timothy George, John Woodbridge, Michael Wilkins, Niel Nielson, Philip Ryken, and Hunter Baker. Each of these colleagues joins me in thanking our various contributors for their fine work. We all express our appreciation to Justin Taylor, Jill Carter, Allan Fisher, Lane Dennis, and the Crossway team for their enthusiastic support for the project. We offer the project with the hope that students will be helped, faculty and Christian leaders will be encouraged, institutions will be strengthened, churches will be built up, and, ultimately, that God will be glorified.

Soli Deo Gloria

David S. Dockery,

Series Editor

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

There are many ways one could go about writing an introductory text on political thought. Because this book is part of a series of volumes intentionally written to offer brief invitations to different academic subjects, I have chosen not to structure the book as a survey of the major thinkers.

Instead, I have elected to introduce readers to political thought through the use of familiar life circumstances, imaginative devices, and a discussion of the great themes, which have been important and remain so. Therefore, this is a book that ranges across things such as the family, the state of nature, order, justice, freedom, and Christianity.

It is my hope that the discussion will prove stimulating and that many who read this book will decide to make further and more detailed study in the area of political philosophy. Regardless, serious consideration of the issues raised here will lead to greater capacity for evaluating political proposals and the claims that go with them. I knew I was on the right track with this book when my wife, who has long had very little interest in politics and is very scientifically minded, read the manuscript and subsequently told me she suddenly began to see the things I had described in the text everywhere in the news.

The reader may even feel empowered to independently agree with or take issue with the author! And nothing would make him happier.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the preface to my first book, The End of Secularism, I offered a tribute to Richard John Neuhaus in the wake of his then-recent passing. More than anyone, he (through his writings) taught me a way of looking at matters of church and state that led me into a career of writing and teaching.

On the occasion of the publication of this book, I would like to honor the life and memory of William F. Buckley Jr., who founded National Review, hosted the fantastic public affairs program Firing Line on PBS for many years, and compiled a mountain of articles, books, and speeches in the course of his public career. Buckley died a few years ago, but that is nothing that should stop a fellow Christian (and supernaturalist) from expressing gratitude!

Like Neuhaus, Buckley was not an academic but was instead the kind of hugely influential figure who models wit and erudition for the educated public and thus inspires more people than will ever be known on this side of heaven to follow in his footsteps and to read, learn, and write. I will never forget his visit to the University of Georgia when I was a graduate student in the early 1990s (especially his unforgettable answer to a questioner who asked him what he thought of Rush Limbaugh—he was humorously affirming in his response). Never has there been a time when I sat so far on the edge of my seat or listened harder to a speaker. I had to do so in order to capture every jewel issuing forth from the man wearing what appeared to be a fire engine–red belt (perhaps honoring the Georgia Bulldogs!). Or so it is in the film reel of memory.

I would also like to offer my gratitude to another man who has left us behind in this life, Russell Kirk. Through his books, I learned to understand ordered liberty. He only taught briefly at what was then called Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) before he went on to become an independent man of letters for the Western world. Due to his prodigious output (and the commercial success of his ghost stories such as The Old House of Fear), he was able to make a living at it. I hope this book will inspire an interest in political thought sufficient to encourage readers to move on to his wonderful (and large) The Roots of American Order. In that magnum opus, he traced our political culture through four cities: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, and London. Read it and find out why.

So much for the men I never knew but profited greatly from reading. I also owe a continuing debt to men I have known such as David Dockery, Robert Sloan, Francis Beckwith, Barry Hankins, Donald Schmeltekopf, David Lyle Jeffrey, and James Bennighof. Without their encouragement and help, I have no idea where I would be today. Probably not writing this book. I would also like to acknowledge the friendship of my colleagues in political science at Union University: Micah Watson (who offered comments on one of the chapters), Sean Evans, and Greg Ryan, and my old colleagues at Houston Baptist University: Chris Hammons and Michael Bordelon (both missed for their good humor and insightfulness).

As is the tradition with acknowledgment sections in books, I am quick to add that while individuals mentioned here deserve credit for anything good or edifying the reader might encounter, any mistakes or other infelicities are my sole responsibility.

SECTION 1

WAYS TO BEGIN THINKING ABOUT POLITICS

1

BEGINNING WITH THE FAMILIAR

Aristotle famously identified the family as the primary unit of political society. One might be tempted to object and insist on the primacy of the individual, but the Greek philosopher’s reasoning was that there is no society without the family. Hillary Clinton wrote a book on the theme of an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Aristotle insisted, more basically, that it takes a family to form the basis of the broader society.1

Whether one centers political analysis on the individual, the family, the village, the nation-state, or the world community, the family is the first place in which we must interact with each other. It is our first society. The novelist Pat Conroy once said that each divorce results in the death of a small civilization.2 And he is right.

In part because of these reasons, I would like to begin our thinking about political thought with some personal reflections on family. My other motivation is that this is an introductory text. Many people are intimidated by phrases such as political thought or political philosophy. If we begin by talking about something virtually all of us can understand, such as the family, we can take a subject that may seem overly complicated or cerebral and make it more accessible. Families have features such as leadership, order, fairness, debate, restrictions, coercion, and freedoms. There are priorities, decisions, boundaries, budgets, and many other aspects that mirror political life. Rather than speak of families generally, I propose to talk about mine and the one in which my wife was raised. Through our experiences, you will be able to spot some fundamental ideas about politics.

I was raised in a family that had and has its own way of doing things. In this family, I had a great deal of freedom to decide what I was going to do. I don’t mean that I determined my own bedtime or made my own rules, but rather that I had the discretion to figure out what to do with my time outside of musts such as attending school.

While our family often ate together, sometimes we didn’t. On occasion, my folks would eat and talk in the kitchen while my sister and I ate sandwiches of our own heterodox design in front of the television (white bread, sliced ham, and A-1 steak sauce!). There were large unstructured patches of time available in any given day. I spent many happy hours alone in my room reading comic books, building with Legos, creating tents out of sheets and folding chairs, and even writing stories at my little desk. Other times, I wandered outside just looking around or playing games of imagination. Through sheer repetition over long hours, I taught myself how to play basketball by heaving up endless shots toward the hoop that seemed so far away when I began. I learned tennis in a similar fashion, beating fuzzy green spheres into the masonry on the side of our house and learning how to predict their rebound.

There were also more structured periods. I often had baseball practices and games to attend. My father and I regularly played catch for about thirty minutes or an hour after he came home from work. Friends and I frequently organized pickup games of football (we played it full contact with no pads or helmets) in each other’s yard.

The overriding theme of my childhood was bounded freedom. There were limits all around me. I had to finish homework. I had to be in bed by a certain time (reading if not sleeping). I had to go to school. A number of family activities were not optional. But what I remember so clearly was the great liberty I had to pursue my interests and desires. My family was a happy one, though it bucked the typical image by being one in which each member had a lot of time to him- or herself. I loved that.