The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

After reading two books of modern theology which make unsubstantiated passing generalizations like they are pork for southern cooking, I felt I needed to slightly expand my grosse generalization about the coherence of constantinianism within a monarchy.

Now much of this statement is pure reactionary response to the anti-liberal-democratic rhetoric espoused by liberal democrats I know. I mean, what is an anarchist who pays taxes? A liberal.

The gestation for this thought came last year after reading Avery Cardinal Dulles' memoir where he spoke of a teacher he had at Harvard in the thirties who, upon being asked what he would do with a million dollars, immediately responded, "Give the money to Franco to buy tanks." This blew my liberal mind and opened up a new horizon, "what if the socialists in Spain weren't the righteous ones orwell and hemingway paint them out to be?"

I don't have a quick answer to that, the question opened up the possibility that there is a place for fascism, which is the heir of the Louis quatorzien absolute monarchy, and so with that brief preface, my briefer argument begins (like people from Michigan) in earnest.

Constantinianism is a pejorative epithet for a Christian state. The Christian state lasted (explicitly) for over a thousand years; longer than the Roman state it sprang from. There is a valid argument for the counter narrative of such works as the Martyr's Mirror, but there is also the issue which Christian's find within new readings of history of trying to move the date of the fall and challenge the power of the holy spirit. Now, my reactionary readings also have a difficult challenge of baptizing history and oppression, but I shall let someone else make that argument.

The coherence of constantinianism within a fascist or monarchist government is due to the fact that fascism and monarchy are based on communities. A fascist, even (to go a head and throw the bomb) hitler received his power from a community of people supporting him and a community Goebbels was able to continually deceive. Democracy (or the governments we have now, whatever they might better be called) are about pods, compartments, platforms, issues, topics, interests, profits, capital in the most pejorative sense. No matter how much it tries, from the time of Washington's farewell address, we have known that he virtue of democracy is in the ability of the individual to stand against factionalism. Now, whether this has happened much is a broader question, but America was founded on the optimism that we can be magnanimous. Washington did not become king of America because he believed in the possibility of humanity. This is why constantinianism fails in a democracy for it is rightfully cynical about humanity while democracy is the most optimistic. Democracy's feel like we can make choices, constantinianism says that the choice has been made by God, and for good or ill, it will be followed.

Oh, and Bush is not a fascist, he is a democrat of the worst stripe. He is a public deist (at least the language of his speeches) who thinks that the Christian God Billy Graham showed him has put him where he is, but he will soon be gone. Fascists aren't elected by less than a 98% majority, kings by 99%.

There are a lot of holes here, but push it. I am curious to see what will hold up and what will fall away. It is mostly provocation, but like the great provocation artist we have at Duke, it is not about tight theology put pushing us to faithfulness.