Read on Twitter
Thoughts on Nationalism and Faith (Thread)
1. To start, this issue is not a zero sum game. Both nation and faith are complementary and must flourish together. I will focus on the Catholic faith as it is both my tradition and also historically the most successful European religion
1. To start, this issue is not a zero sum game. Both nation and faith are complementary and must flourish together. I will focus on the Catholic faith as it is both my tradition and also historically the most successful European religion
2. A nation is an organic community who share common culture, ethnicity and tradition. C.S. Lewis eloquently defines these bonds within his book "The Four Loves", in which I believe Storge best represents the bonds of family and nation. Innocent, natural, but corruptible.
3. St. Thomas Aquinas would equate race with Eternal Law, which governs the natural world in which we live. In this context, racial groups will favor other members of their own race as a biological imperative of survival. Countless scientific research articles support this theory
4. People will seek a familiar partner as it provides the most comfort within their respective ethnic communities and in their respective religious communities. If push comes to shove they will choose the biological imperative of race if there are no other alternatives available.
5. Storge and biological imperatives are merely the foundations on which to build. Left unchecked, it will inevitably lead to empire building where these deep bonds diminish and thus lose meaning. In an empire the state eventually seeks to dominate and redefine Eternal Law.
6. A nation-state is more robust, because it builds upon the organic elements of both Eternal Law and Storge. But even a nation-state is doomed to failure if it does not recognize the paramount importance of what St. Thomas Aquinas calls Divine Law.
7. In other words, theological anarchy will inevitably ensue without accepting a universal truth that stands above all others. Logos is therefore necessary to achieve eternal salvation, which is essentially the ability to maintain order through revelation.
8. This means we cannot neglect our identities, but we must also accept that there are universal truths that apply to everyone which can only be found through the humility to understand that God is the ultimate and eternal Truth.
9. If we don't, then we're doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, which means we've fallen into a materialistic and nihilistic Hegelian trap. Always repeating the same mistakes like characters a bad television series.
10. Europe could not have developed the way it did without the Christianity, in particular the Catholic Church. At the same time, the Catholic Church could not have thrived and established itself as successfully anywhere else in the world. This is the mystery of God's will.
11. The purpose of Logos is not to bundle everyone into one indistinguishable assemblage of homogenized humans. On the contrary, It is meant to share the universal Word of God with everyone regardless of their particular differences, or perhaps because of them.
12. The relationship between man and God is defined by this need to love and find purpose. Love of ourselves, love of our fellow men, love of our nation and yes, even love for our race. There should be no shame advocating for any of these goals in a virtuous manner.
13. Therefore, I contend that separating nation (identity) from faith contradicts the very essence of Logos. I remain open to constructive criticism as my goal is to find a mutual understanding that will provide the best outcome for all of us.
14. I will end this with a quote from the Blessed Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio:
"Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps towards a truth which transcends them. "
