What do 18th century revolutions have to do with our
daily lives?
daily lives?
A very great deal according to Os Guinness. The
American Revolution
American Revolution
was notably influenced by the biblical understanding
of humanity, of
of humanity, of
good and evil, and of justice and reconciliation. Its
French counterpart
French counterpart
was a very different thing, focusing on a perfectionist
ideal of a world
ideal of a world
where justice would be meted out by an all-knowing elite.
While the French Revolution eventually went down to
defeat with the
defeat with the
rise of Napoleon, it inspired the horrors of the 20th
century’s totalitarian
century’s totalitarian
regimes and continues to echo in the contemporary
debates in the
debates in the
West about critical theory and cultural Marxism. As
America moves
America moves
further and further away from its original vision, the
more tribalism
more tribalism
and viciousness will come to characterize our public
acts.
acts.
Below is as an edited excerpt from Guinness’ recent
talk with
talk with
the Colson Center’s Truth, Love, Together online
conference,
conference,
where he goes into greater detail on these themes.
You can check
You can check
Think of the way the two revolutions address wrongs.
They both
They both
agree there are wrongs, there are injustices, oppressions
in the world, but in the French style and according to the
in the world, but in the French style and according to the
understanding of critical theory, what you look for is the
majority and the minority. The oppressors and the
oppressed.
oppressed.
People have the power and people are the victims of power.
And then there’s no truth, remember? Following Nietzsche’s
God is dead, truth is dead, everything is only power.
Critical theory becomes a way of exploiting victimhood
in order
in order
to change the status quo to a new one, but of course
based only
based only
on power. And so, they become the new problem,
replacing the
replacing the
old problem. And that retaliation of wrong answered
by revenge
by revenge
goes on and on and on. And you have a Corsican
blood feud writ
blood feud writ
large in the cultural warring of America. And that’s
where we are
where we are
today. And quite literally, there will be no end to it
with the talk
with the talk
of reparations and so on.
Now, compare that with the biblical way of putting
things right
things right
and addressing wrongs. Evil is addressed as evil, but
there’s
there’s
the possibility of repentance, which both in Hebrew,
teshuva,
teshuva,
and in Greek, metanoia, has that idea of a radical and
complete
complete
about turn. But this repentance is followed by
forgiveness -forgiveness,
forgiveness -forgiveness,
freeing, and cutting off the past completely, and
forgiveness freeing
forgiveness freeing
the future from the burden of the past. You work
towards finally
towards finally
a reconciliation in which enemies can be made truly
friends,
friends,
as Abraham Lincoln used to say, as we see very much
in the Early Church.
in the Early Church.
Think of the Early Church and their idea of the Pax
Christi,
Christi,
peacemaking under God. This is far better than Pax
Romana,
Romana,
the Roman peace. The Roman peace, as many of the
historians
historians
like Tacitus said, was a peace through power. Though
you have
you have
peace when one power or another dominates all the
other powers,
other powers,
but of course you have oppression and dictatorship
and imperialism,
and imperialism,
whereas PAX Christi, the peace of Christ, peace made
with God
with God
through the blood of the cross is a completely different
understanding.
understanding.
I can mention lots of other differences, but you can see
as things
as things
have played out. The 2016 election, the Kavanaugh
hearings,
the Russian collusion case, the Mueller hearings, and
various things like this, you can see almost daily in American
daily lifeand politics, the clash between the American
Revolution and the French Revolution.
hearings,
the Russian collusion case, the Mueller hearings, and
various things like this, you can see almost daily in American
daily lifeand politics, the clash between the American
Revolution and the French Revolution.
The tragedy being, as I said, there’s no Lincoln addressing the
better angels. Now, I’m not American. I’m European. I’m
a great admirer of this country, but to me, this country has
done so much for the gospel around the world, and so much
standing for principles like religious freedom, that it would be
a tragedy of historic proportions if America turns away from
the groundings of true freedom and goes away, that will be
a disaster for freedom and humanity in the future. Breakpoint.
