The liberal tradition frames the story of modernity as the gradual victory of freedom against state hegemony. Liberty, the consent of the people to be governed, and individual rights are the mainstay of western society. But are we really more free than before? What if freedom isn’t what we think?
Historian and theologian Andrew Willard Jones talks with Grant about the ways that liberalism contradicts the Christian idea of the human person, how liberalism ultimately tends towards tyranny, and what a post-liberal world might look like. What is the role of government if self-gift and peace are seen as the foundation of human society? How ought the Church and state relate to one another? Most importantly, how can we work here and now to build a just post-liberal society in a culture shaped profoundly by individualism?
Liberalism is challenging to define because it is a tradition with a history
Liberalism poses a dichotomy between individual freedom and state hegemony, framing history as a narrative where liberalism reduces hegemony and increases freedom
Historically and philosophically, “an increase in individual liberty [as] the ability to satisfy your own will without constraint [...] entails, from the very beginning, the construction and extension of the hegemonic state”
In liberalism, society is a compromise: the surrender individual liberty to the hegemonic state in return for goods, thus framing all human interactions as contractual relationships; the social is not inherent to human nature
The ends that most satisfy us and make us happy can only be had socially; society is a good, not just a means used to attain the good
Liberalism takes scarcity as its starting point; a Christian anthropology sees scarcity as a “tear in the social fabric,” something gone wrong rather than the norm
Liberalism sees man as fundamentally self-interested, while Christianity sees man as fundamentally oriented towards the good of the other
“The more we occupy liberal social and economic structures, the more we behave as self-interested actors; and that habituates in us those habits, which are vices”
Christianity is often used as a tool of social control in the modern period, alongside the practice of true Christianity
Martyrdom converted the Roman empire because it bore witness to a society of love and peace
“The fear of death has to be overcome, which is why the resurrection has [such radical political implications; because once the fear of death is overcome, the whole game changes”
Christian society includes the obligation to use power to protect the weak through appropriate use of discipline, law enforcement, and even war
Liberalism becomes tyrannical when those who desire different ends than the majority of society encounter friction, resistance, and “the wrath of the regime”
Early modern monarchy was based on sovereignty: power rested centrally and was dispensed from above to lower authorities
Medieval monarchy was based on subsidiarity: peace is viewed as the norm, and the higher authority only assists the lower when something has gone wrong
Because politics are based on prudential judgements, just post-liberal democracies will look different in different places
Illiberalism is a reactionary, authoritarian response that is built into liberalism
Integralists often divide politics into the natural realm, and the Church into the supernatural, with the Church trumping politics
“If the body is the polity and the soul is the Church, we know that we are a composite. We're not a body that has a soul, we're an ensouled body. There's a distinction between the soul and the body, but they're always and everywhere bound up together. And that's the vision for the spiritual and temporal powers”
“We become free in the relationships, in the communities, in which we are bound. Intimate communities take shape from the people who create them, so we as persons are integral to what that community is [...] [our] freedom operates in that world, not against it”
Just as the intimacy of family is the most fundamental element of society, so the most powerful instance of divine action—the Eucharist—is the most intimate