Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Friday, November 29, 2013

The Social Kingship of Christ: A Question for Patrick

On the Feast of Christ the King, Patrick quoted Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP: "[P]ublicly recognising divine revelation is an entailment of the Kingship of Christ on which, despite its difficulties in a post-Enlightenment society, we must not renege." Patrick continues: "I agree with Fr. Nichols's judgment, of course, but I have to wonder whether any other contributor to this blog also agrees.  Enthusiasts of the First Amendment's agnosticism will have a hard time on this one." 

Right after the above quote, Fr. Aidan says:

Where the ethos of society is such that an elected legislature may be trusted to regard the Judaeo-Christian tradition as normative, the Church should be accorded her rightful place as “mother and mistress”. (The Edwardian priest-novelist Robert Hugh Benson’s The Dawn of All will give you the idea.) Where that is not possible there should at least be, in the former Christendom, a recognition of the historic role of the faith in forming the human patrimony.

Patrick, you have given this much more thought than I have, but it seems to me that these are the money lines for our situation.  I assume you agree with me that the ethos of our society is not such that the elected legislature can be trusted to regard the Judaeo-Christian tradition as normative. If so, then we can and should fight for a) our religious freedom along with the religious freedom of others (the agnostic position) and b) a recognition that Christendom played an historic role in forming the human patrimony.  The EU's refusal to give recognition to this patrimony in its proposed Constitution gave rise to Joseph Weiler coining the phrase Christophobia.

By my reading, in the American context this would not be considered First Amendment agnosticism but would be considered First Amendment realism.  Do you agree Patrick? Or, what am I missing?

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/11/the-social-kingship-of-christ-a-question-for-patrick.html

Scaperlanda, Mike | Permalink