Document Type

Educator scholarship

Publication Date

1995

Abstract

Messiah College faculty scholarship papers : submitted by faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for promotion to the rank of professor

From a Christian perspective, politics is an especially appropriate field of study. Theologically speaking, the pursuit of political knowledge is part of an attempt to understand God's truth regarding the organization of social. life, government a manifestation of God's providence for the human condition. Political theorists with religious sensibilities--Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Mornay, Locke, among the most prominent­-have often maintained that the state is in some sense a divinely ordained institution, that political legitimacy turns on conformity to the moral principles inherent. in creation. And even those theorists whose Christian credentials are more dubious have often recognized the politically integrative effect of religion--the civic faith of Machiavelli and Rousseau, for example.

Comments

Professor of Political Science

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