I thought this was interesting though:
Exhausted and appalled by the spectacle of Christians hunting and killing each other over arcane doctrinal disputes, the early modern philosophers began to question the very premises of political theology. Thomas Hobbes, whom Lilla regards as the father of this line of thought, made the revolutionary suggestion that we stop asking what God wants from us and start asking what people want from religion.I had this same thought while watching an old episode of Art of the Western World on the impact of Rationalism and Romanticism on 18th Century France (from monarchy to the the revolution to the rise and fall of Napolean). Isn't democracy essentially incompatible with religion and "spirituality"? (that seems to be bin Laden's notion, anyway). And aren't the hardcore 20% of the Religious Right really trying to turn the Republican party into the party of monarchy via George W. Bush's limitless executive powers?
This was a radical switch in perspective for Christians. Hobbes didn't manage to sway many believers over to his own (apparent) atheism, but he shifted the focus. He speculated on why humans might choose to believe in God (to find solace in a harsh, unpredictable universe, he said), and this in itself introduced the possibility that human interpretations of divine intentions might be distorted by our own fear, ignorance and greed. Hobbes didn't advocate the separation of church and state -- he believed an absolute temporal and spiritual sovereign was the only way to secure the peace -- but the Enlightenment thinkers who inherited his ideas did.
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Listening to: Wilderness - Beautiful Alarms
via FoxyTunes
