Thursday, March 04, 2004
An Introduction to Rerum Novarum
Readers of this weblog as of late have noticed your humble journalist has focused on the social thought of Leo XIII. We have covered Americanism, the nature of civil power, the Christian Constitution of States, and the nature of human liberty. We will end our commentaries on Leo XIII with the most important encyclical(or at least well known), Rerum Novarum.
Before we jump in and cover this monumental encyclical, I believe it is right we address some basic fundamental aspects of the encyclical. The neglecting of these fundamental rights by Christians is I believe the biggest problem facing Christians today.
The Goal of the Christian is to be saved, and bring the message of salvation to others. This is the eternal goal. As a temporal goal, they should seek to better society, so that the eternal goal may be better spread. We are failing in the temporal goal. Christians in America offer no concrete alternative to modern society, hence, modern society prevails. I believe fundamentally this to be an error of the Protestant spirit. Protestantism focuses far too much on the indivudalistic sphere, and mainly ignores the communal. Everything is about a "personal relationship." When you spend too much time focusing on the personal, the communal is ignored, and hence, no true society can develop. In order to truly bring about a Culture of Christ, we must provide an alternative to the modern society. Modern society attacks two basic rights of man, that of the notion of private property, and the notion that family is the intial society, and the building block from which all true societies spring forth.
When many people think private property, they simply think land. Land is an extension of that private property. Private property is simply anything we get as a service for something we do. Yazaki North America is my employer. I do a job for them, and they compensate me for that job. We both have our obligations. What I receive from Yazaki North America is indeed my property, that paycheck. Since I earned that money, I have a right to do with it what is needed to be done.
The Second aspect we must look at is the aspect of family as the basic society. As Leo XIII taught in his encyclical on Christian Marriage, man and woman coming together is the basis of all society. It is a society in intself. It has it's own distinct ruler(the husband) and it's own distinct members. The right ordering of the family is neccessary for other families to come together in society.
As I will demonstrate in my commentary, these two aspects of society neccessary to build a Culture focused on Christ are the most attacked by the culture of death. The Culture of Death is not just the culture of abortion, but that culture that works against Christianity.
Readers of this weblog as of late have noticed your humble journalist has focused on the social thought of Leo XIII. We have covered Americanism, the nature of civil power, the Christian Constitution of States, and the nature of human liberty. We will end our commentaries on Leo XIII with the most important encyclical(or at least well known), Rerum Novarum.
Before we jump in and cover this monumental encyclical, I believe it is right we address some basic fundamental aspects of the encyclical. The neglecting of these fundamental rights by Christians is I believe the biggest problem facing Christians today.
The Goal of the Christian is to be saved, and bring the message of salvation to others. This is the eternal goal. As a temporal goal, they should seek to better society, so that the eternal goal may be better spread. We are failing in the temporal goal. Christians in America offer no concrete alternative to modern society, hence, modern society prevails. I believe fundamentally this to be an error of the Protestant spirit. Protestantism focuses far too much on the indivudalistic sphere, and mainly ignores the communal. Everything is about a "personal relationship." When you spend too much time focusing on the personal, the communal is ignored, and hence, no true society can develop. In order to truly bring about a Culture of Christ, we must provide an alternative to the modern society. Modern society attacks two basic rights of man, that of the notion of private property, and the notion that family is the intial society, and the building block from which all true societies spring forth.
When many people think private property, they simply think land. Land is an extension of that private property. Private property is simply anything we get as a service for something we do. Yazaki North America is my employer. I do a job for them, and they compensate me for that job. We both have our obligations. What I receive from Yazaki North America is indeed my property, that paycheck. Since I earned that money, I have a right to do with it what is needed to be done.
The Second aspect we must look at is the aspect of family as the basic society. As Leo XIII taught in his encyclical on Christian Marriage, man and woman coming together is the basis of all society. It is a society in intself. It has it's own distinct ruler(the husband) and it's own distinct members. The right ordering of the family is neccessary for other families to come together in society.
As I will demonstrate in my commentary, these two aspects of society neccessary to build a Culture focused on Christ are the most attacked by the culture of death. The Culture of Death is not just the culture of abortion, but that culture that works against Christianity.
