{"id":4593,"date":"2017-07-24T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2017-07-21T15:24:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T23:24:38","slug":"to-change-the-world-week-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/07\/24\/to-change-the-world-week-five","title":{"rendered":"To Change The World, Week Five"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"To<\/a>Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in the Late Mod\u00adern World by James Davi\u00adson Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2017<\/a>. The read\u00ading sched\u00adule is online at https:\/\/xastanford.org\/summer-reading<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Ear\u00adli\u00ader this week I saw an essay that illus\u00adtrates many of the ideas from our read\u00ading so far: Why Didn\u2019t the Planned Par\u00adent\u00adhood Videos Change the Abor\u00adtion Debate?<\/a> (Joe Carter, Gospel Coali\u00adtion). Carter makes many points, but two stand out \u2014 the video mak\u00aders failed to coor\u00addi\u00adnate with insti\u00adtu\u00adtions and they also were attacked by elite net\u00adworks. To use Hunter\u2019s ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy, Planned Par\u00adent\u00adhood is an insti\u00adtu\u00adtion on the cen\u00adter and the Cen\u00adter for Med\u00adical Progress is an insti\u00adtu\u00adtion on the periph\u00adery \u2014 they had an uphill bat\u00adtle for which they were unpre\u00adpared because they appar\u00adent\u00adly held to the naive view of cul\u00adture Hunter cri\u00adtiqued. I encour\u00adage you to read the arti\u00adcle and reflect upon the read\u00adings so far in light of it.<\/p>\n

Hunter is now mov\u00ading onto the sec\u00adond theme of his book \u2014 rethink\u00ading pow\u00ader in light of faith. He\u2019s going to focus \u201con the con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive, pro\u00adgres\u00adsive, and neo-Anabap\u00adtist posi\u00adtions \u2014 because in con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary Amer\u00adi\u00adca, these are the most promi\u00adnent\u201d (page 109). As Hunter hints, there are more the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal options than these. Per\u00adhaps we will dis\u00adcuss them as we move through this sec\u00adond essay.<\/p>\n

His main point in this week\u2019s read\u00ading is that in mod\u00adern soci\u00adeties dis\u00adcus\u00adsions of pow\u00ader are inevitably polit\u00adi\u00adcal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPol\u00adi\u00adtics has become so cen\u00adtral in our time that insti\u00adtu\u00adtions, groups, and issues are now defined rel\u00ada\u00adtive to the state, its laws and pro\u00adce\u00addures. Insti\u00adtu\u00adtions such as pop\u00adu\u00adlar and high\u00ader edu\u00adca\u00adtion, phil\u00adan\u00adthropy, sci\u00adence, the arts, and even the fam\u00adi\u00adly under\u00adstand their iden\u00adti\u00adty and func\u00adtion accord\u00ading to what the state does or does not per\u00admit. Groups (women, minori\u00adties, gays, Chris\u00adtians, etc.) have valid\u00adi\u00adty not only but increas\u00ading\u00adly through the rights con\u00adferred by the state.\u201d (page 103)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hunter says this ten\u00adden\u00adcy is evi\u00addence of a weak social fab\u00adric.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the amount of law that exists in any soci\u00adety is always inverse\u00adly relat\u00aded to the coher\u00adence and sta\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of its com\u00admon cul\u00adture: law increas\u00ades as cul\u00adtur\u00adal con\u00adsen\u00adsus decreas\u00ades. By these lights, the fab\u00adric of the com\u00admon cul\u00adture in mod\u00adern Amer\u00adi\u00adca has worn even more thin in the last sev\u00ader\u00adal decades and the extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary amount of lit\u00adi\u00adga\u00adtion we have seen in recent decades is just one place we see it.\u201d (page 102)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Giv\u00aden that laws will mul\u00adti\u00adply, the reach of the state will become ever more encom\u00adpass\u00ading, and so inter\u00adest groups feel it is imper\u00ada\u00adtive to get the state to act in align\u00adment with their val\u00adues. The state can\u00adnot sim\u00adply remain neu\u00adtral, as Hunter explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a tra\u00addi\u00adtion in polit\u00adi\u00adcal the\u00ado\u00adry that claims that in a lib\u00ader\u00adal democ\u00adra\u00adcy, the state is or should be neu\u00adtral when it comes to ques\u00adtions of the good. This is wrong main\u00adly because it is impos\u00adsi\u00adble. Law infers a moral judg\u00adment; pol\u00adi\u00adcy implies a world\u00adview.\u201d (page 103)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is, of course, the caveat that this ressen\u00adti\u00adment-dri\u00adven impulse toward pow\u00ader-seiz\u00ading is not always true of indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals \u2014 even influ\u00aden\u00adtial ones \u2014 but as Hunter demon\u00adstrat\u00aded in the pre\u00advi\u00adous essay the atti\u00adtudes of indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals prove less sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant than the atti\u00adtudes of insti\u00adtu\u00adtions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to over\u00adstate the case\u2014clearly what I describe here are not ful\u00adly and com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsive\u00adly estab\u00adlished real\u00adi\u00adties; all is not pow\u00ader and ressen\u00adti\u00adment. What makes it more com\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded (and inter\u00adest\u00ading) is that there are gen\u00aduine\u00adly pub\u00adlic-spir\u00adit\u00aded peo\u00adple on all sides of all issues. Indeed most peo\u00adple are not resent\u00adment-filled and pow\u00ader hun\u00adgry. But con\u00adsis\u00adtent with my view all along is the fact that the motives of indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals and the struc\u00adtures of cul\u00adture are not the same thing.\u201d (page 109)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This essay is off to a promis\u00ading start. I\u2019m eager to see how he sum\u00adma\u00adrizes the three the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal options he men\u00adtioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in the Late Mod\u00adern World by James Davi\u00adson Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cTo Change The World, Week Five\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Summer reading project week five: why political power is the power people pursue.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[117,209,210],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-politics","tag-summer-reading-project-2017","tag-to-change-the-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1c5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4600,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}