Catholic Sociobiology: The Fundamental Categories

                                             
This schema is printed here to outline the basic categories we use in integrating our teaching of the Physical World, Natural History, and the Human Organism to Catholic Sociobiology.

Time
Space
Matter
Motion
Life
Person

These categories used to organize our exploration of the physical world lead us to the deeper distinctions and categories which complete the Catholic syntax :

The Spiritual and the Material as well as Masculine and Feminine and finally  The Sacral, the Profane, and the Abomination

The deepest harmony of the Spiritual is Masculine and Feminine. The feminine is hidden.  The masculine interpersonal love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit  is the highest revealed form of communion. This reality of interpersonal communion existed before there were the  categories of time and space. Masculinity (and Femininity?) precede the creation of matter.
The highest forms of material life are masculine and feminine persons.
Humans are a eusocial species meant to be integrated as a single interpersonal organism in the Body of Christ.
Masculine communion is patriarchal,  fraternal, territorial and integrates all men. Male-female communion is particular bonding:  Mother-son, Father-daughter, and husband-wife in marital monogamy. The highest female form is virgin-Mother.

Angels are created spiritual persons who have already been divided into the saved and the damned in a previous conflict. Their final separation from other living beings has not yet occurred. The spiritual contest to effect their ongoing judgment and casting out is integral to the original mission of Adam and the destiny of the human species. Their final expulsion is known as the Last Judgment. All men and an elected part of the material world are called to be conformed to the Holy. It seems that many men do not choose life. They will surely die that second death. Most of matter is being expelled outward into desolation and cold. This is a sign of what will happen to the mighty angels turned from God. The law of matter apart from Life  is the law of dissipation and entropy.  Building the Kingdom of God is integrating humans and physical goods into the sacred realm-into a state of Grace-a share in God's life and love.
There are Spiritual beings and material realities which are presently in the grasp of Lucifer. We are obligated to cast these abominations out and sever the attractive hold they exercise on humans in this era of contest. The final tribulation and judgment is a fiery and terrible separation which culminates in the Everlasting Communal Integration of the Living known as Heaven and the perpetual isolation of those lost to the second death known as Hell. The attractive force of Satan--the terrible gravitational reach of the Evil black hole will be burnt away in the final tribulation. Satan's Hell like the Hell of all the damned will be in utter loneliness and isolation.

Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, April 28

By Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

WEEKLY BRIEF

The April 26 meeting of Kin Jong un of North Korea and Moon Jae-in of South Korea was marked by each crossing into the other's side of their divided national homeland. Their dramatic gestures and the intent of their joint message is to eventually reunite their ancient civilization.  It is a great irony that the two aggressive racial empires that sprang from Japan and Germany are now self governing nations while the earliest victim of the 20th century empire wars is still divided. (See North Korea and American Foreign Policy.) Is it possible that this Berlin Wall of the East is really coming down? It will be up to these two Korean leaders to work with the two national leaders who built this platform for agreement:  Xi Jinping of China and Donald Trump of the United States.
The next day an April 27 meeting of Narendra Modi of India and Xi Jinping of China was another encouraging step in establishing better relations between these two often warring nations representing 2.6 of the world's 7.5 billion people. China and India as well as Russia and Iran will be key to extracting the US from our longest war still waging in Afghanistan(scroll to Islam and Mideast).
Amidst this dangerous world of men and nations, the US Senate confirmed Mike Pompeo ( b 1963, former Representative from Kansas and ex CIA director) as Secretary of State. Several Democrats said he was unfit for office because of his opposition to abortion and the homosexual agenda. These "rights " had come to claim center stage in the foreign policy objectives of the Obama/Clinton era. There will be no American Christian foreign policy if American Christians are denied office for their opposition to the sexual revolution. The disgraceful interrogation by the abortion/sodomy advocates  should have been vigorously countered by Republican senators. Usually loquacious media seeking Senators like Lindsey Graham however went mute during the grilling. Mr. Pompeo emerged as the first serious national leader one could imagine carrying on the Trump legacy. Indeed the other major line of argument by Democrats against his nomination was that Pompeo  would use his office to carry out the president's policy instead of undermining him.
Speaking of undermining policy, former FBI chief James Comey reports a recent dinner with former Director of National Intelligence  James Clapper and ex CIA head John Brennan. Their wives rounded out the dinner party.  The great intelligence failure of the US foreign policy establishment in the last two decades has been the exoneration of Wahhabi Islam and Saudi Arabia in the 911 attack and the continued spread of worldwide jihadist terror.  These three men (as well as Robert Mueller) are central players in the circus of incompetence driven by sexual and religious confusion in our nation's war against this still unnamed religious brotherhood.  Candidate Trump once proposed a ban on Muslim immigration until we figured out "what the hell is going on." We don't need a ban on Muslim immigration but we still need to figure out "what the hell is going on". The self righteous smugness of the "table for six" is a perfect symbol of the basket of incompetents who have shrunk and subordinated a nation's foreign policy to the careerist ambitions of feminists and their male geldings.  Yesterday's power couples are not a dominating conspiracy but a clueless self referential and decadent ruling class that lost control  in the real world of men, nations, religion and military loyalties. As the lights are turned on the swamp we are not finding powerful well armed mobsters in the deep state. We are seeing how fleeting are the ties of texting adulterers and temporary the loyalties of careerist bosses. The deep state is very broad and sometimes seems an ether hovering over the workplaces, the universities, the media centers and the dining places of the East Coast. The deep state is a lot like the Republican field of candidates in the 2016 election. What was advertised as a battleship of formidable warriors is turning out to be a sinking raft of numerous but surprisingly shallow players.                       

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

POPE FRANCIS - BAPTIZE YOUR CHILDREN: That they may have life within them.

POPE FRANCIS - THE MYSTIC RECONCILING PROGRESSIVES AND CONSERVATIVES: An interview with Massimo Borghesi, an intellectual who understands the Pope's thinking far more profoundly than his critics. Edward Pentin is to be thanked for allowing a defender of the Pope in his column space. It would be a great gift if some English speaking Catholic journalists would do for Francis what Ignatius Press did for Pope Benedict - translate his writings and the works of his favorite thinkers into English to encourage conversation with literate English speaking Catholics. At the end of the interview Pentin offers thumbnail descriptions of the thinkers who have influenced the Pope. They are cartoonish. The brief sketches miss what it is about the thinker that interests Francis and emphasize what it is about the thinker that irritates Pentin.

One of the thinkers who influenced many favorites of Pope Francis is Johann Adam Mohler (1796-1838). Here is a very good paper on Mohler's ecclesiology ending with this quote:

"No more beautiful object presents itself to the imagination of the Catholic... than the image of the harmonious interworkings of countless spirits who, though scattered over the whole globe... yet preserving still their various peculiarities, constitute one great brotherhood (Bruderbund) for the advancement of each other's spiritual existence and are become one body."

FROM POPE FRANCIS GAUDATE ET EXSULTATE
 "A dangerous confusion can arise. We can think that because we know something, or are able to explain it in certain terms, we are already saints, perfect and better than the “ignorant masses.” Saint John Paul II warned of the temptation on the part of those in the Church who are more highly educated “to feel somehow superior to other members of the faithful.” In point of fact, what we think we know should always motivate us to respond more fully to God’s love. Indeed, “you learn so as to live: theology and holiness are inseparable.”

TWO AMERICAN CATHOLIC INTELLECTUALS, DANIEL MAHONEY AND GEORGE WEIGEL IN DIFFERENT FORUMS  AGREE IN THEIR JUDGMENT OF POPE FRANCIS:
Pope Francis is a provincial thinker very much bound by his Argentinian experience.

AOA SEES A HOLIER AND WISER POPE
Defending Pope Francis by listening to him

II. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

WHY AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENTS ARE RISING AND AMERICA'S UNSUSTAINABLE EMPIRE: Pat Buchanan and Pat Buchanan. There are so few journalists today steeped in history and geography. Buchanan is an exception.

THE BROTHERS: KAYNE WEST AND DONALD TRUMP 
Maybe this is an alliance of two well employed men cheering the low unemployment rates for other men less fortunate. But probably this is deeper than that.  Thus the guardians of racial segregation are in a frenzy. Two "fire breathing dragons", two alpha males respect the mountains each has climbed. Brotherhood is a special form of public love. We built our religion and our country on such bonds.  
It scares the modern huckster racists who benefit only when American men are divided by party, color, and ideology.

HOW MANAGERIAL ELITES GAVE US GAY MARRIAGE: Scott Yenor reviews Darel Paul's account of the revolution. An excerpt:

"How did this ideology gain ascendancy.. The short answer, for Paul, is through the influence of the learned professions and the acceptance of a new corporate ethic. Paul catalogues how learned profession after learned profession—from psychologists to social workers to lawyers to medical doctors to mainline Protestant clergy—embraced first homosexuality starting in the early 1970s and then same-sex marriage in the 1990s. The broad public did not follow quickly. As late as 1992, a large majority of Americans thought homosexual acts were always wrong; fewer than 20 percent thought it was not wrong at all. As late as 2012, most Americans opposed public recognition of same-sex marriage.

The Importance of the New Managerial Elite

Only when America’s corporate managerial elite embraced homosexuality and same-sex marriage as an essential expression of diversity did America cross the “cultural Rubicon.” Normalization of homosexuality and acceptance of same-sex marriage became class values for our new class of corporate managers—those employed as public administration officials, financial managers, computer system analysts, computer scientists, college professors, lawyers, physicians, and other high achievers. Managers gain admittance to their jobs through higher education. They then oversee corporate and governmental bureaucracies. Through affirmative action, the leverage of benefits, diversity training, consciousness raising, and the promulgation of “shared values,” managers help create a new corporate regime, in which managers value diversity as much as profits and where opinions about language, food, and sexuality are as central to one’s personal identity as earnings, capital, or one’s place in the labor market.

Before they could vote in public to make pro-homosexual policies official governmental policy, America’s corporations, Paul shows, imposed nondiscrimination policies on themselves. They also extended benefits to same-sex partners without coercion. The first US employer extended benefits to same-sex partners in 1982. By 1996, 500 employers had done so; by 2004, the number was over 8,200. Twenty-eight Fortune 500 companies offered such benefits in 1996; 216 did by 2004. Many global companies signed amicus briefs to affirm same-sex marriage in Obergefell, while none opposed it.

Corporations built diversity-centered human resources departments to spearhead these and other celebrations of cultural diversity. They won approval from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights activist group. These corporations marketed to America an acceptance of homosexuality. Gay was more than OK. Many managers left religion, patriotism, and the pursuit of family life behind. Instead, their lives were given meaning by their devotion to careers celebrating cultural diversity, and celebrating homosexuality is the key expression of that diversity. Homosexuality symbolized, in Paul’s words, “creativity, cosmopolitanism, authenticity, toleration, and the reward of merit.” In homosexuals, America’s corporate, coastal elites found a minority that looked like them: well-educated, creative, successful, white, and safe. According to Paul, and the various studies he cites, this corporate elite actively avoids living near the poor or near ethnic minorities. Celebrating diversity by celebrating homosexuality thus became the way corporate managers lived with what would otherwise have been an astounding cognitive dissonance."

Catholic soldier, French martyr

"The Christian is not simply a student of Christ; discipleship consists not simply in hearing and applying the teachings of Christ, as if he were simply another sage. To be a disciple of Christ is to imitate Christ, and the key event in the life of Christ was his death and resurrection. The Christian who is most fully conformed to that death and resurrection is the best imitator of Christ: the martyr therefore most clearly fulfills the Christian call...  

"The two great martyrs, Ignatius of Antioch [d. 107] and Polycarp of Smyrna [d. 155], left their imprint on all later accounts of martyrs. The martyr is the new athlete, the new soldier. His passion is not passive, but active, a battle. The Church felt, therefore, that martyrdom was, properly speaking, a masculine activity."   (Leon Podles)

This article sums up the life and death of a modern man, who came to realize he needed to honor and follow the Eternal Son of God -- the Savior of mankind who vanquished the dragon.

Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, April 21

By Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

WEEKLY BRIEF

CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO

US-LED BOMBING IN SYRIA

Rather than give our own commentary this week, we ask all to listen to the words of the patriarchs and our brother Christians in Syria. While the Russian collusion witch hunt continues to investigate "Russian meddling" in the U.S., the fathers of Syria's Christians demand that the U.S. military stop American meddling in Syria. Read the statement below:

A Statement Issued by the Patriarchates of Antioch and all the East for the Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, and Greek-Melkite Catholic (Damascus, 14 April 2018)

God is with us; Understand all ye nations and submit yourselves!

We, the Patriarchs: John X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and Joseph Absi, Melkite-Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, condemn and denounce the brutal aggression that took place this morning against our precious country Syria by the USA, France and the UK, under the allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. We raise our voices to affirm the following:

1. This brutal aggression is a clear violation of the international laws and the UN Charter, because it is an unjustified assault on a sovereign country, member of the UN.
2. It causes us great pain that this assault comes from powerful countries to which Syria did not cause any harm in any way.
3. The allegations of the USA and other countries that the Syrian army is using chemical weapons and that Syria is a country that owns and uses this kind of weapon, is a claim that is unjustified and unsupported by sufficient and clear evidence.
4. The timing of this unjustified aggression against Syria, when the independent International Commission for Inquiry was about to start its work in Syria, undermines of the work of this commission.
5. This brutal aggression destroys the chances for a peaceful political solution and leads to escalation and more complications.
6. This unjust aggression encourages the terrorist organizations and gives them momentum to continue in their terrorism.
7. We call upon the Security Council of the United Nations to play its natural role in bringing peace rather than contribute to escalation of wars.
8. We call upon all churches in the countries that participated in the aggression, to fulfill their Christian duties, according to the teachings of the Gospel, and condemn this aggression and to call their governments to commit to the protection of international peace.
9. We salute the courage, heroism and sacrifices of the Syrian Arab Army which courageously protects Syria and provide security for its people. We pray for the souls of the martyrs and the recovery of the wounded. We are confident that the army will not bow before the external or internal terrorist aggressions; they will continue to fight courageously against terrorism until every inch of the Syrian land is cleansed from terrorism. We, likewise, commend the brave stand of countries which are friendly to the Syria and its people.

We offer our prayers for the safety, victory, and deliverance of Syria from all kinds of wars and terrorism. We also pray for peace in Syria and throughout the world, and call for strengthening the efforts of the national reconciliation for the sake of protecting the country and preserving the dignity of all Syrians.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

GAUDATE ET EXSULTATE: Let us Rejoice and be Glad - Six takeaways from Pope's Exhortation on the feast of St Joseph, 2018. That was his five year anniversary as Pope.

1) The communion of saints reimagined: "The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of love and communion with us. Nor need we think only of those already beatified and canonized. The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance... in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance I see the holiness of the Church militant. Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbours, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence. We might call them “the middle class of holiness”.

2) Salvation in community: "In salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in a human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people."

3) Continuously Centered on God, Rooted in Baptism and the Holy Spirt, Be holy where you are! "Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness. Let everything be open to God; turn to him in every situation. Do not be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves. Are you called to the consecrated life? Be holy by living out your commitment with joy. Are you married? Be holy by loving and caring for your husband or wife, as Christ does for the Church. Do you work for a living? Be holy by labouring with integrity and skill in the service of your brothers and sisters. Are you a parent or grandparent? Be holy by patiently teaching the little ones how to follow Jesus. Are you in a position of authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing personal gain'"

4) The Devil is Real. Deliver us from the Evil One: "We will not admit the existence of the devil if we insist on regarding life by empirical standards alone, without a supernatural understanding. It is precisely the conviction that this malign power is present in our midst that enables us to understand how evil can at times have so much destructive force. in leaving us the Our Father, Jesus wanted us to conclude by asking the Father to “deliver us from evil”. That final word does not refer to evil in the abstract; a more exact translation would be “the evil one”. It indicates a personal being who assails us. Jesus taught us to ask daily for deliverance from him, lest his power prevail over us." "...Hence, we should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea."

5) To be Holy is to be with God - Pray Always and Everywhere: "Finally, though it may seem obvious, we should remember that holiness consists in a habitual openness to the transcendent, expressed in prayer and adoration. The saints are distinguished by a spirit of prayer and a need for communion with God."

6) Scripture and the Eucharist: "Meeting Jesus in the Scriptures leads us to the Eucharist, where the written word attains its greatest efficacy, for there the living Word is truly present. In the Eucharist, the one true God receives the greatest worship the world can give him, for it is Christ himself who is offered. When we receive him in Holy Communion, we renew our covenant with him and allow him to carry out ever more fully his work of transforming our lives."


                                    II. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

DAWSON ON EUROPE: “It is difficult to exaggerate the horror and confusion of the Dark Age that followed the collapse of the Carolingian experiment,” Dawson summarizes. “The one principle of the new society was the law of force and the need for protection. Personal freedom was no longer a privilege, for the man without a lord was a man without a protector.” That is still true - break down protection and life is lost. A culture of life is a culture of protection. A real civilization of life does not begin by asserting "the right to life." We begin with gratitude to the Source of all life and then swear to to protect our section of the garden.

THE POPE WAS LIED TO. HE APOLOGIZES FOR HIS FAILURE "IN PERCEPTION AND JUDGMENT" IN CHILE. HE NEEDS MUCH TOUGHER AND MORE TRUTHFUL ADVISORS: There are many grievous instances of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI being misled about scandal often very close to them. What has happened here with Pope Francis and the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros Madrid is extraordinary. What is different here is the clarity of the personal apology by the Pope. He did not apologize for the Church but for his own failure. His quick dispatch of a serious investigator (Archbishop Scicluna) corrected him after judging the local situation. May the Pope and bishops around the world find an Elliott Ness (or Charles Scicluna) and seriously go after the bad guys. They are legion. Raymond De Souza explains at National Catholic Register about one papal advisor who failed the Pope:

"Much closer to home, the Holy Father will have to consider the position of Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz on the “council of cardinals,” the group of his closest advisers. Cardinal Errázuriz was chosen for the council in 2013, when he was already retired and almost 80 years old. Now 84, he spends several days with Pope Francis every few months when the council meets. It is impossible that he did not advise Pope Francis on Barros. Even more, he was the archbishop when the Father Karadima scandal first came to light and has already admitted that he dismissed the victims. All that was known in 2013 when Pope Francis chose him for the council. Now it will be very hard to explain his continuing presence. Even more, it raises the question of how well the council is serving the Pope if Cardinal Errázuriz failed him in such a grave matter."

WHILE RAYMOND BURKE MAKES THE ROUNDS CRITICIZING POPE FRANCIS, THE ARCHBISHOP OF GUAM HE WAS ASSIGNED TO JUDGE GETS A PRETTY GOOD DEAL: From the Apostolic Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, April 16: The tribunal, which is composed of five judges appointed by the Prefect of the Congregation, “has issued its sentence of first instance, finding the accused guilty of certain of the accusations and imposing upon the accused the penalties of privation of office and prohibition of residence in the Archdiocese of Guam.” He retains his clerical office and monetary support.  It is not clear for which crimes he has been found guilty. Apuron has been credibly accused of multiple charges of sodomy against teen age males. His "penalty" of early retirement was already imposed before the "Court" came.  Leaving Guam may protect him from the local police who will probably be harsher than Cardinal Burke and his fellow judges. Cardinal Ray Burke is no hanging judge in clerical sodomy cases. Apparently Aprun will suffer no restrictions in his priestly role offering the Holy Mass. This seems a horrific desecration much worse than the dubious Dubia  by which Cardinal Burke postures as a protector of the sacred.

SENATOR CORY BOOKER GRILLS MIKE POMPEO ABOUT THE PERVERSION OF GAY MARRIAGE: The imperialism of gender ideology and imposition of abortion and sodomy as human rights was a major tenet of international relations in the Obama administration. The American bishops have not caught up with the Pope yet in highlighting the injustice and confusion of these policies. Cory Booker a Senator from Maryland and presidential hopeful was aggressive in his demands that any new Secretary of State enforce the new imperialism. Opposition to this arrogance remains all too muted.

III. NATIONS AND POLITICS R&G ROUND UP

TRUMP AS SAMSON: The Syrian dilemma and the globalist war party surrounding the President.

TRUMP AND WAR IN SYRIA: Buchanan reminds us why the Shiites are fighting in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Don't they get their nations, too? He thinks Trump is being captured by the War Party.

IRVING BABBITT AND THE ATHEISM OF INTELLECTUALS: Brad Birzer takes University intellectuals way too seriously and the reality of God not enough. A major problem in the American conservative movement is how many atheists were considered leading lights. The real "court of reputation" was university faculty culture. American universities and "intellectuals" turned against God way before the sixties. Irving Babbitt's "respectable atheism" was a luxury most men and cultures cannot afford.

VICTOR ORBAN - EUROPE'S MOST IMPORTANT LEADER WINS BIG IN HUNGARY: His "state of the nation" 2016 and Christmas address 2017. His electoral victory in April 2018.

AMERICA AND THE DESTINY OF ISRAEL. ZIONISTS BEFORE ZIONISM: From an excellent First Things article on Theology and American Foreign Policy: In 1891, William E. Blackstone presented to President Benjamin Harrison a petition titled “Palestine for the Jews.” A Chicago businessman and the author of Jesus Is Coming, one of the bestselling books of the nineteenth century, Blackstone believed that Scripture predicted the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The role of the United States was to follow in the footsteps of Cyrus, king of Persia, and help the Jews reclaim their birthright. “What shall be done for the Russian Jews?” the petition asks. “Why not give Palestine back to them again? According to God’s distribution of nations, it is their home, an inalienable possession, from which they were expelled by force.”

ISRAEL, RUSSIA, AND TURKEY AT ODDS OVER SYRIA: The Israel foreign policy of demonizing Iran as Syria and Lebanon establish more effective military control over their countries is not sustainable. Here is a very good pro-Israel writer explaining the growing dilemma. Those of us who favor a strong territorially defensible Israel must acknowledge the same claims to national sovereignty of Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. A truly nationalist foreign policy hasn't sunk in yet.

Oliver O'Donovan: The Desire of the Nations

by David Pence


Oliver O'Donovan (b. 1945) is an Anglican theologian who has written this dense and seminal work on political theology. Here is a good introduction to the author and his other important works in Christian ethics. He argues that Christian political theology must always begin from the reality that God is King. He believes Christian political thinking has been swamped by modern thinking and thus he and his wife edited a spectacular resource book From Irenaeus to Grotius: A source book in Christian Political Thought (1999). There he makes clear that constitutionalism and multiple authorities in civic and religious life are not inventions of the Enlightenment but gifts from Christendom. The Desire of the Nations is very hard to read. Even reviews of the book are hard to read, but there are realities which O'Donovan articulates which are too essential to leave him to academics. Here is the best review.

                                                                 

The template of political authority is God ruling Israel. They have a unique destiny as the elect but they are also the template of other nations. The rule of God over Israel culminates in the life, death, resurrection and rule of Christ. God acts in history to establish Israel. He judges them at different times separating righteous from unrighteous behavior and he maintains them as a continuous body acting in time. Power, Judgement, and Sustenance. These are the rudiments of God's rule over a nation.
                                                           

Christ too is a definitive act of authority by the Father. Christ too renders a  judgment on the world separating the living from death and sin on the cross. Christ sustains by ordering a Liturgical church that retains a continuous identity and memory of the Kingdom of God on earth. (The Church is a nation of priests.) God acts. God judges and saves. God sustains and remembers. He has done this through Israel. He has done this through  Christ and the Church. He is now doing this through the nations.

Christendom is an interaction of the priestly and kingly roles of the church and the nations. Christendom is not to be dismissed as a past era not to be lived again. There are two powers: the Church and the states. This we accept. But there is only one God and He is King of both domains. To say a state is secular is not to say it is godless. The opposite of "secular" is not the sacred. It is "the eternal".  Secular is an age- an era, a unit of time-an acceptance of contingency.  A secular state understands its limitation in time and a territorial state accepts its limitation in space.  These limits are not the acts of public atheism but express a piety to a larger order best expressed as allegiance to the Sovereignty of God.  A nation as a historical territorial community is not the ultimate corporate body.  The best state creates a just order in which the deeper communal bonds of men with God and the wider bonds with other men and God can flourish. The best state protects the smaller sacred bond of marriage and family as well.   Christendom will have many professedly Christian states, and many civilized states structured within the field effect of the Christian order. These states may be grounded in Confucian, Hindu, Buddhist or Islamic traditions. Amidst the nations lives a global transcendent flourishing Church.
                                                                       

In O'Donovan's depiction of political theology based on biblical revelation there is a recurring necessary character type who employs the Word to bring order amidst national decline or collapse. The prophet plays a role in speaking clearly about his nation and bringing it back to its deepest identity and memory. This especially happens in times of sin when the nation falls from its righteous path and must be called to judgement. One man obedient to God can bring a nation to its true identity usually through speech that evokes a public memory of a sacral past or mission.

Man is meant to be reunited with God in harmony. This was the original state of humanity. Now we are being drawn back into order under the kingship of Christ who was always intended to rule the humans. But we are drawn back in the territorial communal "attention forms" of nations. The desire of the nations is to be bound together in a way that all can be fraternally and peacefully bound under the King. The search for a political order that is in harmony with other polities is a deep communal desire. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Unlike Social Darwinists and foreign policy "realists" Christians know and assert that men are not meant for perpetual war and international anarchy. We were created and are called for Communion in Christ under the rule of the Father. The high calling of politics is to realize the desire of the nations.

This book is not about citizenship and the nature of the political bond. It is about God calling corporate bodies into existence by acts of authority, judging them in terms of law, and sustaining them through sacral acts of memory. The ongoing relationship of the Church and these states is Christendom and the culmination of this drama will come when Christ returns to consummate His rule through the Church. Men desire to be part of some communal body undertaking a mission of meaning and purpose. We are hard wired to build nations as sacred covenants participating in a great Drama. Let us build the Body of Christ. Let us baptize the nations. Let us bring the tranquility of order among all nations still desiring to live in peace under Providence.
                                                                                   

The Christian movement for Greek Independence (1821-1830), celebrated on Mar 25th,
 was deliberately initiated on the feast of the Annunciation