How to Get an Education While Still in College

Home , John Zuhlsdorf, Patrick Deneen (author)

A Journal of Georgetown University’s Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy

Volume 5, Issue 2 Summer 2012 Featuring On Living to Some Purpose: How to Get an Education While Still in College

Also

Departure and Continuity

Farewell to Professor Patrick Deneen

Niebuhr Contra Gutiérrez on the Nature and Destiny of Man Understanding Freedom in America and Antiquity The Dangers of Technological Excess, and What Liberal Societies Can Do About It The Conservative Objection to the Individual Mandate The Loss of Community in a Pluralistic America Popular Protest and Regime Change The Architectural, Liturgical, and Theological Implications of Orientation Christianity and the Fulfillment of Plato’s Quest for Absolute Justice The Age of “Great Upheaval” A Gilded Microcosm: Mark Twain as an Exploration of the Latter Half of 19th Century America Boundaries and Brother Mobberly, S.J.: Justifications for Slavery from the Margins of the Antebellum South Dueling Moralities in Le Morte Darthur Dostoevsky’s Spiritual Explanation of Russia’s Political Destruction Amor in Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics Dust, Our Mutual Friend, and the Capitalization Function The Evolution of Education at Georgetown A Conversation with Denis J. M. Bradley The Philodemic Society in Recent Memory, 1989-2011 Editor-in-Chief Stephen Wu

Managing Editor, Acting Editor-in-Chief Christopher Mooney

Section Editors Alex Henderson (The Forum) Stephen Taft (The Chamber) Jordan Rudinsky (The Archive) Steven Waldorf (The Sanctuary) Alexander Miller (The Parlor) Hannah Schneider (The Clock Tower)

Graduate Assistant Lewis McCrary

Utraque Unum Georgetown University’s seal is based directly on the Great Seal of the Unit- ed States of America. Instead of an olive branch and arrows in the American eagle’s right and left talons, Georgetown’s eagle is clutching a globe and calipers in its right talon and a cross in its left talon. The American seal’s eagle holds a banner in its beak that states, E Pluribus Unum, or “Out of Many, One,” in reference to the many different people and states creating a union. The Georgetown seal’s eagle holds a banner in its beak that states, Utraque Unum.

As the official motto of Georgetown University, Utraque Unum is often translated as “Both One” or “Both and One” and is taken from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. This motto is found in a Latin translation of Ephesians 2:14: ipse est enim pax nostra qui fecit utraque unum. The King James Version of the Bible says, “For He [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both one.” Utraque Unum is the Latin phrase to describe Paul’s concept of unity between Jews and Gentiles; that through Jesus Christ both are one.

In view of the Georgetown seal, the motto represents pursuing knowledge of the earthly (the world and calipers) and the spiritual (the cross). Faith and reason should not be exclusive. In unity faith and reason enhance the pursuit of knowledge. Volume 5 Issue 2 Summer 2012

A Journal of Georgetown University’s Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy Editor-in-Chief Stephen Wu

Managing Editor, Acting Editor-in-Chief Christopher Mooney

Section Editors Alex Henderson (The Forum) Stephen Taft (The Chamber) Jordan Rudinsky (The Archive) Steven Waldorf (The Sanctuary) Alexander Miller (The Parlor) Hannah Schneider (The Clock Tower)

Graduate Assistant Lewis McCrary

The publication of Utraque Unum was made possible by the generous support of Bill Mumma, Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Class of 1981, as well as the Collegiate Network. The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy additionally wishes to acknowledge the generous support of The Veritas Fund as administered by the Manhattan Insti- tute, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the Jack Miller Center.

The Tocqueville Forum promotes events and activities devoted to furthering and deepening student understanding of the American constitutional order and its roots in the Western philosophical and religious traditions. The Tocqueville Fo- rum sponsors these activities solely through the contributions of generous sup- porters of its mission. If you would like further information about supporting the Tocqueville Forum, please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.TocquevilleForum.org.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments regarding this journal. If you are or once were a Georgetown University student, professor or staff member we would welcome the opportunity to review your work for publication in Utraque Unum. In addition to writers, we are looking for section editors, art- ists, graphic designers and web designers. Please e-mail the editors at utraque. [email protected] for these inquiries. Cultivating Knowledge of America and the West

Tocqueville Forum at Georgetown University

www.TocquevilleForum.org | Ph 202.687.8501 T        | Utraque Unum Summer 2012 Volume 5, Issue 2

Table of Contents

From the Editor-in-Chief...... 1

About The Tocqueville Forum Departure and Continuity, by Professor Patrick Deneen...... 3 . Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen ...... 5

The Forum (Feature Articles) On Living to Some Purpose: How to Get an Education While Still in College, by Father James V . Schall, S . J ...... 12. Niebuhr Contra Gutiérrez on the Nature and Destiny of Man, by Justin Hawkins...... 18 . Liberating the Mind: Understanding Freedom in America and Antiquity, by Alex Henderson . . . . . 24. Managing Progress: The Dangers of Technological Excess, and What Liberal Societies Can Do About It, by Eric W . Cheng ...... 29.

The Chamber (Articles on Law and Politics) The Conservative Objection to the Individual Mandate, by Nicholas A . Iacono...... 34. The Loss of Community in a Pluralistic America, by Margaret Beedle ...... 38 . Popular Protest and Regime Change, by Daye Shim Lee...... 44 .

The Sanctuary (Articles on Religion) From East to West: The Architectural, Liturgical, and Theological Implications of Orientation, by Kieran G . Raval...... 47. Christianity and the Fulfillment of Plato’s Quest for Absolute Justice, by Brandon Sharp...... 52 .

The Archive (Articles on History) The Age of “Great Upheaval:” American Democracy from 1865-1905, by Michael Budzinski...... 56. A Gilded Microcosm: Mark Twain as an Exploration of the Latter Half of 19th Century America, by R .J . Barthelmes...... 60 . Boundaries and Brother Mobberly, S.J.: Justifications for Slavery from the Margins of the Antebellum South, by Bridget E . Power...... 64.

The Parlor (Articles on Literature, Film, Music, Plays, and Art) Blood and Holy Water: Dueling Moralities in Le Morte Darthur, by Kevin Baird...... 70 . The Inevitable Altar: Dostoevsky’s Spiritual Explanation of Russia’s Political Destruction, by Hannah Schneider...... 74.

Tocqueville Forum at Georgetown University www.TocquevilleForum.org | Ph 202.687.8501 Amor in Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, by Roseann Day...... 79 . “Little Things Mean a Lot”: Dust, Our Mutual Friend, and the Capitalization Function, by Michelle K . Dailey...... 84 .

The Clock Tower (Articles on Georgetown) The Evolution of Education at Georgetown, by Jordan Rudinsky ...... 88 . Rhetoric and Reality at Georgetown: A Conversation with Denis J. M. Bradley, by David Schuler. . . .92 . The Philodemic Society in Recent Memory, 1989-2011, by Emma Green ...... 95 .

Endnotes...... 100

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This article is unavailable for public access at this time. about

Departure and Continuity

Patrick J . Deneen

n my previous Director’s letter, I reflect- able program. But I also depart with great joy, ed on the remarkable ability of a healthy knowing that I leave behind an institution that I culture to regenerate itself in spite of the did not exist before its establishment in 2006. I rapid turnover of membership. I spoke specifi- had arrived a year earlier at Georgetown, and cally of the turnover of students in editorship noted that there was a surfeit of programming positions of this very journal, marveling at the devoted to policy and politics, but no real dedi- ability of younger students to step into the shoes cated program for the exploration of the ideas of older students who had graduated. that underlie each. In the intervening six years, Little did I expect as I wrote those words that we have regularly attracted hundreds of stu- within a few months there would be turnover in dents who discovered a hunger for a sustained my position as Director of the Tocqueville Fo- encounter with those ideas, and particularly rum. In a quick succession of events, I was of- deeper knowledge of the origins of their own fered a position at the University of Notre Dame political system and many unexamined assump- and, after agonizing reflection, long discussion tions that governed their daily lives. It is pro- with family, and prayer, I decided to depart for foundly gratifying that this tradition will contin- that westward destination after the conclusion of ue and outlive not only successive generations of this academic year. This is thus my last letter as students, but its Founding Director. the Director of the Tocqueville Forum. I will always treasure my time at George- In the intervening months, there has been in- town, and feel profound gratitude for all that tense effort behind the scenes to ensure continu- my colleagues, students and friends have given ity of the Program. And, again, I must remark to me over the years. I first entered the main on the ability of a healthy culture to ensure its gates in 1995, a newly-minted Ph.D. needing to own continuity. A myriad of faculty and student do some research for a speechwriting position leaders have stepped up to offer their assistance I had recently accepted. As I passed through in continuing the vital tradition of conversation, those gates and gazed up in awe at the Healy exploration and reflection that have been the clock tower, I wished fervently that I might hallmark of the Forum since its launch in 2006. someday be able to teach at Georgetown. Ten I am very pleased to be able to leave the Pro- years later I was offered a position on the faculty, gram in the very able hands of its new Interim and an endowed Chair to boot. Seven years later Director, Professor Joshua Mitchell, and a host I have had the pleasure of starting this program, of eager and energetic students who refuse to let of teaching hundreds of students, of watching the Tocqueville Forum shut its doors with my many go on to personal and professional suc- departure. While this change came quickly and cess, and in the meanwhile establishing many without warning, the test of any organization is deep and abiding friendships. Those, too, like its ability to outlive its Founder(s), and in this re- this Program, will remain after my departure, spect I can state with delight that the Tocqueville and for this, and much more, I can only express Forum has passed that test. my gratitude, my thanks for many blessings, my I depart with no little wistfulness of what I prayers for Georgetown and its people, and my leave behind, especially this robust and remark- best wishes. Hoya Saxa, forever!

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 3 4 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen

ll of your students have been blessed by I ask these individuals about why they have Ayour many gifts, especially in the way the journal, to a person they say that they are they have coalesced in the Tocqueville Forum. impressed by the quality of the undergraduate The Tocqueville Forum, the greatest fountain work in them and that it keeps them wanting to of student intellectual life at Georgetown today, read the next issue. and Utraque Unum, Georgetown’s only journal There is no question that Professor Deneen principally dedicated to the publication of un- will be sorely missed at Georgetown University dergraduate research, would not exist without and in Washington, DC. I am grateful for the op- you. As a token of our thanks, and so that all of portunity to have learned from him and benefit- our readers might have the opportunity to gain a ed from the activities of the Tocqueville Forum glimpse of the great and life changing work that while as an undergraduate student and alumnus you have done while you were here, we send in DC. I am grateful for his support and leader- you off to Notre Dame with these letters, and the ship in helping to create Utraque Unum. But more editors of Utraque Unum dedicate this issue to importantly, I am grateful to call him a friend. you and your work at Georgetown. This hand- Professor Deneen, thank you. ful of letters speak on behalf of the hundreds at –Eric Wind, Utraque Unum Editor-in-Chief Georgetown you have influenced. Thank you, Emeritus, SFS 2009 . Professor Deneen. The students of Notre Dame are blessed to have you. We wish you fare well ardinal Newman stated in the Idea of a Uni- and God bless. Cversity: “The process of training, by which –Editors of Utraque Unum the intellect, instead of being formed or sacri- ficed to some particular or accidental purpose, rofessor Patrick Deneen was someone whom some specific trade or profession, or study or sci- PI grew close to while at Georgetown. We ar- ence, is disciplined for its own sake, for the per- rived at Georgetown University at the same time: ception of its own object, and for its own highest fall 2005. Although I never had the opportunity culture, is called Liberal Education.” Dr. Deneen to have him as a professor, I did consider him to tirelessly championed Liberal Education, from be one of my teachers. I enjoyed our conversa- his engaging classes to the unique institution he tions and took every opportunity I could get to championed—the Tocqueville Forum. hear him speak, for he is a man full of insight Dr. Deneen’s vigorous advocacy of Liberal and wisdom into the great questions of life. Education at Georgetown recognized both the Professor Deneen valued the idea that a few promise of youth and the benefit of experience. of us had of creating a journal to be run by un- His Tocqueville Forum has provided an unri- dergraduate students under the auspices of valed forum for students devoted to scholarship the Tocqueville Forum about important mat- analyzing traditional American and Western ters, whether items related to the study of the ideals. Similarly, the Forum has honored great American founding or Georgetown University. thinkers with its Schall Award, paying homage It is always amazing to me how many copies of to towering figures such as Father James Schall Utraque Unum I see floating around on the desks and Professor George Carey. of influential people in Washington, DC. When However, Dr. Deneen’s contributions to

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 5 Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen |

Georgetown are far greater than the institutions that would otherwise be unavailable. Addition- he has created and leaves behind. His greatest ally, if it weren’t for Utraque Unum, I wouldn’t contribution lies in the minds he has cultivated have met my wife, at the Collegiate Network’s during his years at Georgetown—individuals in editors conference in Texas! various fields interested in being more vigilant In addition to the journal, the class “The citizens, more devout believers, more thoughtful American Regime” was a needed and welcome thinkers, and more complete people. Dr. Deneen aspect of my Georgetown experience. I was for- focused on education as its own end, for the bet- tunate to be part of the class as a discussion lead- ter development of the person, and he left that er and appreciated the provocatively unnerving impact on his students. analysis of many of the unquestioned and un- I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to challenged aspects of modern life such as the de- have begun my collegiate experience with Dr. De- cline of the family and of the small community. neen’s “End of Education” seminar, which served As you can tell, the Tocqueville Forum had a as a foundation for my years at Georgetown. I major impact on me. I hope the Forum, Utraque will also remember fondly dinners at his house Unum, and “The American Regime” can be sus- and long conversations about political theory. As tained as part of your legacy on the Hilltop. I Dr. Deneen moves on, I am simultaneously grate- want to say thank you and good luck as you move ful for his innumerable contributions to intellec- to Notre Dame and instill these same principles tual life at Georgetown and saddened for those (and hopefully many of the same institutions). students planning to enter Healy Gates who will Professor Deneen, thank you. be unable to have him as their professor. –Collan Rosier, Utraque Unum Editor-in-Chief Professor Deneen, thank you. Emeritus, COL 2011. –Scott Gray, Utraque Unum Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, COL 2010. t is impossible to capture the meaning and Iplace the Tocqueville Forum had in all four want to thank you for your work at George- years of my time on the Hilltop in a short letter, I town and the Tocqueville Forum. The Fo- but I hope you have some sense of just how big rum was an integral part of my Georgetown an impact your work and associated endeavors education in many ways. Throughout my have had on me. Whatever the place of the or- time at Georgetown, the lectures and discus- ganization in the context of the University as a sions—both formal and informal—provided whole, for more than a few of us it was the cen- an outlet for intellectual curiosity and stimula- ter of our educational and social lives at George- tion. The Forum is an environment of kindred town, and it integrated the various facets of our spirits who find something lacking in college education in a way that nothing else did. education and realize that in the midst of an The Forum occupied not a central role in my ever-changing and cosmopolitan academic en- college years, but really the central role. And vironment, there are aspects of the American, were it not for you, I cannot say who I would and more broadly Western, political, religious have become, but it would have been a very dif- and philosophical traditions, which are worth ferent person. It's always difficult to speculate on knowing and discussing. these kinds of alternate histories, of course, but Utraque Unum allows many, including me, it's no over-dramatization to say that you shaped to join the conversation, rather than be mere my character. From the first lecture I attended, bystanders. The journal allows us to reflect on almost by accident, as a freshman (Professor the Georgetown experience, as well as develop Mitchell, fortuitously, discussing three possible many ideas that are sparked in classes and Fo- amendments of "history, memory, and identity" rum events and provides an intellectual outlet to Tocqueville's "fable of liberalism") to working

6 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen

as a teaching assistant in "the American Regime" great professor, farewell and Godspeed. senior year to the countless times I articulated Professor Deneen, thank you. and ruminated over things you had taught me in –Justin Hawkins, COL 2011 . conversations with friends, family, and exchang- es with other students and scholars, you singu- efore I met Professor Deneen and joined the larly made the much-hyped "college experience" BTocqueville Forum, I was in an academic rut. what it truly ought to have been. You were an I went through the motions of school but dispas- irreplaceable figure, and a much needed voice sionately and uninterested. Professor Deneen's crying out in the wilderness. Thank you again vigor and blatant love of truth showed me that for everything you have done. the genuine exchange of ideas is not taboo and Professor Deneen, thank you. is worth seeking. This re-invigorated my intel- –Matt Cantirino, COL 2011. lectual experience at Georgetown. Not only through the programming of the Tocqueville Fo- vividly remember the esteemed Father Schall rum, but through Professor Deneen's example as Ionce telling me that an undergraduate educa- someone who is not afraid to stand for what he tion can only be called proper when it not only believes. For this I would like to thank him, and requires you to read the greatest books of all wish him the best of luck at Notre Dame. time, but also when it humbles you by reveal- Professor Deneen, thank you. ing to you how much you do not know. Such –Brendan Gottschall, COL 2012. has certainly been my experience with the Toc- queville Forum. Under your tutelage and at your cannot express how thankful I am for your emphatic suggestion, I have read, re-read, and Iinfluence at Georgetown. Though I have had grappled with the books that have shaped the a limited experience with the Tocqueville Fo- west for three millennia. And for four years at rum, the past year may have single-handedly Georgetown, I walked away from Tocqueville redeemed my academic experience. After three Forum lectures, book readings, and even simple years of being disavowed of my high school conversations with others in the Forum experi- dreams of collegiate intellectual life, contemplat- encing the full exhilaration of knowing afresh ing the highest things, it was a relief to be intro- how much there was to be known, how much I duced to a group of people and professors who myself did not know, and the inestimable value care about ideas and learning for learning's sake. of true education in closing the distance between The retreat and our trips to Princeton and Notre the two. It is no hyperbole to say that you were Dame will be some of my fondest memories of more influential in my academic development at college and not just for the lectures, but also Georgetown than any other professor, and even for the discussions we were privileged to have beyond the Hilltop, I still frequently find insights with you. Thank you so much for all the ways you have shared with us clambering about in my you have generously gifted me and my friends head, demanding my consideration. Your influ- through the Tocqueville Forum. Furthermore, ence has been such that I anticipate those ques- your "American Regime" class has influenced tions and thoughts will linger for many years to me exponentially more in my daily life than I come, both in my mind, and in the minds of all of ever would have expected. Your lectures truly the students you have touched at Georgetown. made the "algae in the fishbowl" neon green So thank you, Professor Deneen, for all you have and it has made me examine my expectations done in making my Georgetown years excep- and desires for post-graduation life in a timely tional. Notre Dame will be enriched by your and challenging way. It was a true humanities presence there, as Georgetown was when you course: it taught me about myself. were with us. So I say to you, a good man and a I am profoundly thankful to you for the care

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 7 Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen |

you have for students: not only in our academic to be able to pursue in depth through work at pursuits, but for our character as well. For a pro- the Berkley Center. But my heart remains with fessor to invite me to his home to spend Thanks- the liberal arts, and particularly with philosophy giving with his family is nearly unimaginable, and in the tradition of the ancients. In fact, one of makes Georgetown’s pursuit of the whole person the things I most look forward to about life af- complete. It has been exceptionally encouraging ter Georgetown is the freedom I will have to re- to hear you mention that you view your students read, say, the Republic, at a leisurely pace. Read- in a manner similar to the way you view your ing such things has made me not merely a better children. I have seen this attitude in action. With a student at Georgetown, but a better student of dearth of examples of good men in the lives of col- life – and I have you to thank for imparting to lege students, you have been a mighty role model me this gift. for my brothers in Christ. You have influenced Professor Deneen, thank you. so many people through advising them and, in –Javier Peña, COL 2012 . no small part, you have influenced me through your guidance of my dearest friends and directly s you move to Notre Dame, it seems incum- through your enthusiasm for the right things and Abent upon us to press upon you just how your gracious conversation. Your love of God, much you have meant to us individually and country, family and learning is unique among the as a community. Thinking back over the past faculty here and while you will be moving on to three years, I cannot recall anyone who has had the wider pastures of the Midwest, I know your a larger direct or indirect impact upon my own voice will be heard at Georgetown through your life and philosophy than you have had. My first students for years to come. You will be missed, week at Georgetown, I attended your preorien- Professor Deneen. tation lecture, where I was absolutely captivated Professor Deneen, thank you. by an exploration of the end of our education. –Julia Polese, SFS 2012 . The things I took away from that lecture carried through the whole semester, as much as am deeply grateful for the impact you have any of the classes I spent hours toiling at. Since Ihad on me, which has in more ways than one then, like a trellis and a vine, every part of my shaped my experience as a transfer SFS student intellectual growth seems tied up in your work. at Georgetown. Your teaching of the ancients in Through the Tocqueville Forum, I have met my Political and Social Thought, where I first read dearest friends, had incredible conversations, Plato and Aristotle, sparked in me a fascination studied the Great Books, and spent some of my with the liberal arts and political philosophy most wonderful time at Georgetown contem- which is sure to last long after graduation. I have plating the higher things with people I love. In avidly sought to feed this passion during my your own person, I have found a source of inspi- time at Georgetown with the help of my friends ration, wisdom (so rare in a professor!), and in- at the Tocqueville Forum and through other sight. I have utterly enjoyed our conversations in courses that have happily taken me out of the any context, and they have been (again) some of usual SFS neighborhood. I remember the day in my most valuable at Georgetown. Through these class when you suggested we take a course with interactions and more, the intellectual and moral Professor Jean Elshtain, one of Georgetown's example you have provided has influenced me "best kept secrets" (unfortunately, she has since far beyond the classroom. returned to Chicago). The next semester I took Over the past three years under your tute- her course, and through her class discovered a lage, I have drunk deeply from the great books deep interest in matters of religion and interna- of ethics and philosophy, finding in them much tional affairs, an interest I have been fortunate wisdom and instruction in virtue. Throughout

8 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | Farewell Letters to Professor Patrick Deneen

the semester, the growing imminence of your Georgetown, I can fully sympathize with what departure has cast light on your role at George- you found lacking here. As I have grown in my town and silhouetted the void that will be left spiritual and religious life, I can also more fully by your absence. For me, this has been greatly understand many of the traditional, Catholic, illustrated in your seminar “The Humane Econ- and communitarian themes which the Forum omy”. The mix of political philosophy, left and has espoused under your stewardship. They are right critiques of unchallenged economic think- values which I have begun to incorporate into ing, and Catholic social teaching was by itself a my life in major ways and to temper my Conser- great rarity in Georgetown. But, more than this, vatism. In my discussions with some of the other you raised vital questions challenging us to mar- Fellows, I have increasing hope that your wis- ry our intellectual and moral educations. You dom and the wisdom of the thinkers we study refused to maintain the vicious veil between the in the Forum is beginning to catch on. I formed content of our coursework and the direction of a heartfelt connection with the State of Indiana our lives and instead pushed us to gain real-life this past summer by working in Senator Rich- wisdom and judgment through our classroom ard Lugar’s office and making some fine Hoosier experiences. You exposed us to concepts of local- friends. In maintaining that connection with the ity, community, subsidiarity, family, and labor Hoosier State, I look forward to paying you a that will shape my thinking for years to come as I visit at the University of Our Lady of the Lake. make life-altering decisions. This is your unique Professor Deneen, thank you, legacy to us, your students: in a place which as- –Stephen Taft, COL 2013 . sures us that we can do anything we wish and that there are no limits on our future, you have provided us with both the confidence that liberty within limits is a greater form of virtue and the means to make wise, soul-nourishing choices based on our natures. In both speaking wisdom and living it, you have been a light on the Hill- top. We all will miss you greatly. Professor Deneen, thank you. –Jon Askonas, SFS 2013 .

want to wish you the best of luck and happi- Iness in your new position at Notre Dame. Al- though I am an enthusiastic Tocqueville Fellow, our paths have not crossed as much as I would have liked, but your reputation and influence have nonetheless impacted me profoundly. Nonetheless, I hope to amend this somewhat with my farewell to you and with the energy I will put into helping to keep the Forum going in your absence. I have heard nothing but good things about the vitality of Catholic intellectual life and conviction at Notre Dame. I am Angli- can myself and a native of Washington DC, but as I have transitioned into the alienating individualism of urban and upperclassman life at

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 9 Pages 10-11 have been removed from this issue at the authors request. The Forum

On Living to Some Purpose How to Get an Education While Still in College

James V . Schall, S .J .

“I am not sorry to have lived, since the course my life has taken has encouraged me to believe that I have lived to some purpose . But what nature has given us is a place to dwell in temporarily, not one to make our own. When I leave life, therefore, I shall feel as if I am leaving a hostel rather than a home.” 1 --Cicero, De Senectute, 44 B.C.

“The point is not that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness is a reason for loving it more.” 2 --G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Then, when someone’s desires flow towards learning and everything of that sort, he’d be concerned, I suppose, with the pleasures of the soul itself by itself, and he’d abandon those pleasures that come through the body if indeed he is a true philosopher and not merely a counterfeit one.” 3 --Socrates, The Republic, VI, 485d

It seems only fitting to begin a lecture the realization that we are not gods, that we at the Augustinian-founded Villanova are finite? We have knowledge but not divine I. University by citing not just Cicero, knowledge, unless the divinity itself decides to Chesterton, and Socrates, but also St. Augustine inform us of what more there is than what we himself. In his treatise, On Christian Doctrine, can know by our own finite powers. Augustine, of whom it is said that no one could In this discussion, Augustine writes: read everything he wrote, entitles a chapter in Book IV: “Wisdom Has More Importance than Now a man speaks with more or less wis- Eloquence to the Christian Teacher.” If someone dom just as he has made more or less prog- fails to understand the ambiguous charm that el- ress in the knowledge of Scripture; I do not oquence can have on our souls, he will not grasp mean by reading them much and commit- the import of Augustine’s priority of wisdom to ting them to memory, but by understand- eloquence. ing them aright and carefully searching into And, too, we want to know precisely what their meaning. For there are those who read is a “Christian teacher?” Is he a Christian who and yet neglect them; they read to remem- teaches anything at all, whatever it is? Is he a ber the words, but are careless about know- teacher who elaborates only what Christian doc- ing the meaning.4 trine is about? Is he one who understands that nothing is understood unless his mind is open We are not to read simply to remember the both to reason and to revelation, even then with words, but to know their meaning. Yet, we do

12 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | James V. Schall, S.J.

not disdain the fascinating endeavor to learn it does, that our ultimate origins lie in the same rhetoric or oratory, to learn how to understand cause that brought the world into being out of and speak words well. Words bear to us the in- nothingness in the first place. Yet, in the order of telligibility of what they signify. They enable us intention, human beings come before the cosmos to be where we are not, to awaken ourselves to itself which was created for their purposes not things that are absent in time or place, yet things its own purpose. As I like to put it, we look at the still alive in our minds, memories, and souls. cosmos to understand it. It does not look at us to The title of this lecture is from Cicero’s fa- figure out what it is about. mous essay “On Old Age,” the De Senectute. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, Quoheleth tells I have always insisted young students in my us, following the same line of thought about our classes read with me as I read it again. To be purpose, that “I have considered the task which free to read something again and again is one God has appointed for men to be busied about. of the intellectual experiences that we all should He has made everything appropriate to its time, have. Many things, certainly most great things, and has put the timeless into their heart, without we will not be free to understand until we read men’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, again and again the passages that contain what the work which God has done”5 (3:10-12). That they have to tell us. When students have finished we have “the timeless in our hearts” without our reading “On Old Age,” I tell them: “Now give ever suspecting or discovering God’s work is al- this essay to or better read it to your grandfather most the definition of what we are. Here we have or grandmother.” How often is it our experience Augustine’s “restless hearts” that will not allow that when we read something great or some- us to settle for anything less than that for which thing amusing we look for someone to whom to we are created. tell it! It is not complete if it is only ours. This memorable essay of Cicero, I explain, We live, no doubt, in a relativistic, un- binds generations together in an almost tangible believing age. Unlike the “wicked and way. Cicero is not a Christian but what he says II.adulterous generation” of which Christ is fully human. He is indeed one of the founders spoke (Matthew 12:39), the generation that de- of classical humanism. It is said that once “lib- manded a sign, we expect no signs of anything eral education” meant nothing less than simply much beyond ourselves. The signs of transcen- reading Cicero. What we call “liberal education” dence are largely removed from our thinking and today is rarely superior to the reading of Cicero, even our seeing. Rarely will we find a student something we find almost incomprehensible who knows the first thing about our classical and if we identify what is best with what is recent. medieval tradition or about the content of Scrip- Cicero wrote “On Old Age” in 44 B.C., the year ture. As my Jesuit friend, John Navone once put before he died, murdered really under the or- it: ”No tradition, no civilization.”6 ders of Anthony. Cicero was 63 years old at his Tradition is a topic about which the great Jo- death. Looking back on his life, through the eyes seph Pieper often wrote. “To hand down does not of Cato the Elder, he tells us that he is “not sorry mean to give somebody something, to bring it, to have lived,” itself a wonderful, almost defiant, share it, or deliver it,” Pieper wrote in his book sentiment. Tradition: Concept and Claim. “It means rather to Moreover, Cicero thinks that his life was “of deliver something that has previously arrived some purpose.” We might say that the very fact in your hands, which was consigned to you, that Cicero recorded this affirmation the year be- to share something that was handed over and fore he died incites us to wonder about the same handed down; to hand on something that you thing about ourselves: “Is our life to some pur- received—so that it can be received and handed pose?” The fact that we are alive suggests that on again.”7 Our theological tradition, the ac-

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count within it of what we are and what we are Many think, indeed it is taken for granted, intended to be is, of this nature. Its essence is not that by denying any purpose in things, includ- something we concoct for ourselves, but some- ing especially in human things, in denying what thing we have received to be handed on as we used to be called “final causes” or “first things,” received it, something that of its very nature is we could be “free” of the gods, free even of any better than what we can imagine for ourselves. norms in nature. Supposedly then, we can do A life of purpose, then, is a life of respon- whatever we want, with no suspicious shadow sibility, a life in which truth and good make a of judgment hovering over our thoughts and difference to the meaning of life itself. When he deeds. Nothing is out there to violate, which, if understands that he is to become what he already true, considerably reduces our sense of drama is, the rational being has to take account of him- and importance. There are, it is said, no natural self. To tell a human person to “Be what you laws to be broken. are,” implies that he has direct charge over what Yet, the liberty to do whatever we want, he becomes. This alone is why we can praise or when activated, that very “what-we-want” be- blame him for what he makes of himself. No one comes, on that score alone, meaningless. On else can simply “be” what he is to “become.” He this hypothesis, the opposite of whatever we do does not begin his individual life as a fixed, com- would be just as meaningless or meaningful as plete reality without, as Aristotle said, his own what we do. If in principle everyone creates his rule of himself. own world, then no one, except accidentally, is It is not our project to make ourselves to be related to anyone or anything else in any bind- human beings; we are already that—something ing or significant manner. The world becomes Aristotle also taught us. Though we can fail to filled with myriads of unconnected beings. do this, we are to make ourselves to be good, We thus live philosophically meaningless worthy human beings as if that project is already lives because of the way we think independently found within us. It is something to be freely ac- of what is. We find ourselves increasingly lonely. complished or rejected. The “timeless” is indeed Nothing is worth talking about to anyone. We already in our hearts, to recall Quoheleth. But ironically find ourselves in the same loneliness we are free to ignore what we are. We have the that was said to characterize Aristotle’s god, power to reject what we are and, in so doing, to only now it is applied to us, not to the god. We reject what caused us to be what we are. Without have nothing in common with anyone except the this capacity, not even God could be much inter- suspicion that nothing matters because nothing ested in us. Since God is love, He cannot make a means anything, including meaning nothing. creation in which the freedom of love is not what Our own meanings put on things are simply our operates at its highest point, the point of contact own meanings. They are imposed on a reality between man and God. that has no order or resistance of its own. And Allan Bloom began his famous book on The everyone’s imposed order is different. No one Closing of the American Mind, by remarking that lives in the same world. This is the direction in no professor walks into a classroom without as- which the logic of mindless freedom leads us. suming that each student out there is either a rel- ativist or thinks he is one. I would hope that this In an old Peanuts cartoon, Lucy observation is not entirely true, but I know that and her brother Linus are sitting it largely is, though with little intellectual justifi- III.on the sofa watching television. cation. We like to say, as if it were a real reason, Lucy looks straight ahead with an unusually that it is just the culture that makes us this way, confused look on her face. She asks Linus a very which it is. But culture only lives in hearts that philosophic question: “Do you think people ever allow it to enter and flourish there. really change?” Linus, pleased to be asked such

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a profound question, ponders this issue “Sure,” When I think of these things, I often recall he finally replies, “I feel I’ve changed a lot this the remark that Eric Voegelin made in 1976 to a past year.” To which Lucy quickly deflates his group of students in Montreal. He told them that response by adding: “I meant (do they) change “No man has to participate in the errors of his for the better!”8 It is not precise just to ask wheth- time.” In these days of growing ideological de- er we “can” change. mocracy, it is becoming more difficult than even Actually, most of Aristotle’s ethics are con- Voegelin seems to have imagined. But to follow tained in this amusing scene in which Lucy ac- his admonition, we have to be able, to avoid knowledges that Linus has changed but doubts them, to know that errors are errors. This knowl- if it is for the better. We have first a denial of edge is not something we can know if we are Parmenides’ notion that being is one, therefore relativists of whatever variety. In a sense, if we nothing changes. We recognize that things can are relativists we must participate in the errors and do change, but not just haphazardly. We of our time because we do not know that they also see that they can change in two directions, are errors or that there is a meaningful difference for better and for worse. In which direction between one view and another. By tolerating ev- they change is the whole point of morality in erything we stand for everything and nothing. the first place. And if we are going to change, it So where to go? To answer this question, I should be for what is better. Therefore, we need have always proposed a list of books or essays. to have some notion of what we mean by bet- This is initially a contemplative exercise. We ter and worse, otherwise the words would be have to know of and read books that no one will meaningless. tell us about. The first thing we want to know is Praise and blame, the touchstone of the ethi- simply: “How are things?” as Yves Simon put it cal, would have no grounds for distinction if in his seminal book, A General Theory of Author- change could not be for better or worse. So at ity . We frequently see the questions proposed: the heart of Peanuts, as well as in Aristotle and in “Why is there something rather than nothing?” the account of the Fall in Genesis, we have free or “Why is this thing not that thing?” “Or what will, deliberation and decision about what we is the purpose of my existence?” Voegelin asks do. The Peanuts scene is only funny, moreover, these questions, as did Vatican II, as does Bene- if we realize Linus’ innocence about the direc- dict XVI. tion of change. His sister’s sophisticated, if not The Catholic mind, as I like to call it, has been sophistic, insight doubts that Linus has gotten unique not only because it is open to all sources, any better this past year, though, contrary to her but because it sees that intelligence and faith re- judgment, he obviously assumes that he has. late to each other, seek each other. This is why The sub-title of this presentation is, briefly: it is under such pressure today to deny itself “How to Get an Education Even While Still in so that it can accommodate itself to what is be- College.” It implies that hundreds of thousands coming the public order. Catholics, though this of highly degreed people are none the less most- has been coming for some time, have in recent ly uneducated in the highest things even if they months become aware that their very existence are degreed from the best institutions of higher as an organized society in the public world, the learning. It is quite possible to attend what I principles on which it was based, are being de- call the “Resume University” or the highest tu- nied by the culture and the government itself. It itioned colleges, to acquire there a straight “A” is what I have called a “legal persecution” that GPA on all the 128 credits that guaranteed a stu- we do not yet know to what extent it will be dent a “liberal education.” Yet, most still come pursued. The first steps are already taken. It has away with an empty soul, to become, as C.S. already proceeded faster and more thoroughly Lewis called them, “men without chests.” than any one might have imagined five years

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ago. And its logical consequences set the relativ- otherwise intelligent persons can be talked out ist culture and political system that puts it into of them. Aristotle also told us that if we have law or decree directly against things Catholic a good upbringing, we will grasp such when and things rational. we are old enough to understand them. By this Each year, when I read with a class Her- advice, he implied that living an irregular or bert Deane’s book, The Political and Social Ideas immoral life when one is young will inevita- of St . Augustine, I always leave it with this pas- bly prevent the young student from seeing the sage ringing in my ears. Deane writes that in truth of things when he is old enough to grasp Augustine’s view “as history draws to its close, the principles on which they are grounded. In the number of true Christians in the world will this sense, morals come before truths. If we do decline rather than increase. His words give no not live rightly, we will not think rightly at least support to the hope that the world will gradu- about the important things. ally be brought to belief in Christ and that earth- Such considerations are why Aristotle un- ly society can be transformed, step by step, into derstood politics to deal primarily with virtue the kingdom of God.”9 We know this is already and vice. He thought metaphysics followed poli- true for Europe and in many ways for America. tics in the sense that one needed to have his soul People like Philip Jenkins, and even the papacy, in order to admit that the truth was the truth. look with hope to Africa and Asia to counter this Otherwise, he would spend his time not with the dramatic loss. Needless to say, the modern un- truth itself but with arguments that allowed him derstanding of what is our purpose in the world, to do what he wanted or willed to do. The read- to spell it out, is precisely that we can, by our ing of Augustine reminds us again and again own efforts, establish this kingdom of God on how this use of specious philosophy to allow us earth. This has been the driving force of moder- to do what we want to do works. Augustine rec- nity since its inception in the sixteenth century. ognized it at work in himself, something we all need to do if it is our problem, as it usually is. So, how does someone manage to In #73 of The Rambler, for Tuesday, February acquire an education while still in 5, 1751, Samuel Johnson brought up the topic of IV. college? Msgr. Sokolowski once the books that young students read that filled remarked to me, and I think it true, that all that their minds with characters and opinions that a student needs is one or two good professors, they would later be required to abandon when or even classmates. That is very often sufficient. they came later to a more complete knowledge This advice has to be read, however, in the light of things. In the end, Johnson thought that it is of Yves Simon’s admonition that there is “noth- “more natural” for a man of learning and ge- ing to prevent a young philosopher from giving nius to apply himself to writers who have more his soul to an unworthy professor.” Plato’s dia- beauties than faults. “The duty of a critic [sic],” logues, on the other hand, are filled with bright Johnson concluded, “is to hold out the light of and intelligent young men whose souls seek reason, whatever it may discover; and to pro- nothing but power and glory, not truth and wis- mulgate the determination of truth, whatever dom. That is but the other side of the advice that she shall dictate.”10 Thomas Aquinas could not Augustine gave us about oratory and wisdom. have said it better. As Aristotle said, it is use- I think in addition to this advice about wor- ful for us to understand the arguments against thy and unworthy professors, we need to reflect a proposition as a more complete way to know a bit on what Aristotle advised us about why it the good sense of its truth. is we cannot or do not understand the first prin- In conclusion, in the spirit of these reflec- ciples of reason. These are, in themselves, self- tions, I should like to recommend to you five evident, though it is amazing how frequently books and four essays for your education while

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still in college. They are not classics in the sense Together they illustrate the two fundamental of The Confessions of Augustine, or the Gorgias of principles of the liberally educated and Catho- Plato, or St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. They lic mind: 1) that faith is addressed to reason and may or may not have come across your readings, reason is addressed to faith. When we under- if so, great. The four essays are these: 1) Benedict stand these things, we have begun our educa- XVI, “The Regensburg Lecture,” 2) C. S. Lewis, tion. 2) We have a lifetime and more in which to “The Weight of Glory.” 3) Hilaire Belloc, “Jane complete it and we do think it will be completed Austen,” and 4) Dorothy Sayers, “The Lost Tools but not fully in this life. In the end, it all is “to of Learning.” The five books are these: 1) E. F. some purpose.” Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed, 2) Robert Sokolowski, The God of Faith and Reason, 3) G. K. James V . Schall, S J. . is a professor in the Georgetown Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 4) Josef Pieper, An An- University Department of Government . thology, and 5) A. D. Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life. To these, I would like to add my own book, This essay was originally presented as a lecture at On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs. Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania on These are, I think, soul-changing books and March 29, 2012 . essays. I have others, but let these stand for now.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 17 the forum

Niebuhr Contra Gutiérrez on the Nature and Destiny of Man

Justin Hawkins

“What causes quarrels and fighting among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” –James 4:1-2

“If the liberal Church had less moral idealism and more religious realism, its approach to the political problem would have been less inept and fatuous.” –Reinhold Niebuhr, “An Interpretation of Christian Ethics”

he Liberation Theology of Gustavo The critique will focus on two intercon- Gutiérrez was one of a multitude of nected aspects of Gutiérrez’ theology: his view T Christian social philosophies that of man (his anthropology) and his view of the arose during the twentieth century as Christian end toward which man strives within history theorists and philosophers struggled to adapt to (his eschatology). A Niebuhrian critique of these the challenge of the Enlightenment while main- two aspects of liberation theology reveals that taining fidelity to a liberal version of Christi- Gutiérrez operates from a unduly optimistic anity. Yet above the harmonious strains of the view of human nature by accepting an Enlight- choir of twentieth-century historical progressiv- enment anthropology wherein human sin is fi- ism, the realist voice of Reinhold Niebuhr rings nally surmountable. Furthermore, his elabora- cacophonous with prophetic denunciation and tion of the doctrine of sin focuses too exclusively dogged opposition to the optimism of the mod- upon a mere epiphenomenon of sin: unjust eco- ern project. Niebuhr is a peculiar sort of liberal nomic structures. This erroneous interpreta- who positioned himself as a theorist of intrac- tion of human nature leads him to the error of table, original sin and of human nature as im- accepting a quasi-Marxist eschatology in which mutably sinful; he is a skeptic of the efficacy of the advent of the Kingdom of God occurs within liberal institutions to spread peace, and a Prot- history as a necessary outworking of that his- estant. As such he is the quintessential foil to tory. In contrast, Niebuhr asserts that human sin Gutiérrez. This paper is a Niebuhrian critique of is an irremediable fact of all human interaction Gustavo Gutiérrez’ A Theology of Liberation that and therefore any eschatology is flawed which points to significant flaws in that work which does not first identify a divinely-instigated break render it untenable as a guiding Christian politi- with the current state of human nature. Indeed, cal philosophy. the eschatological hopes of the utopianists may

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form a pretext for violence when the desire for rally good or neutral. Furthermore, the project to peaceful attainment of those hopes is seen to be create a new humanity presupposes that human illusory. Niebuhr’s work indicts Gutiérrez for nature is essentially malleable, and if malleable, advocating a philosophy which, informed as it is then perfectible. by insufficient conceptions of anthropology and From a Niebuhrian perspective, Gutiérrez is eschatology, is in tension with and even contra- right in identifying sin as the root of the injus- dictory to essential Christian doctrines. tices of the world, but his notion that sin can be overcome to usher in a new humanity betrays I begin my comparison of the theological an optimistic naivety that is entirely unwarrant- structures of Niebuhr and Gutiérrez with ed and unrealistic. For all his consonance with I.a point of apparent similarity. Both place Niebuhr over the devastating perniciousness of a significant emphasis on the problem and so- sin, Gutiérrez’ tenor changes drastically from cial implications of sin, a peculiarity given that that of Niebuhr when he discusses the possibil- most modern theologians relegated the doctrine ity of overcoming that sin. Gutiérrez speaks of of sin to obsolescence or tended to view it only as sin requiring a “radical liberation, which in turn a metaphor for ignorance. Gutiérrez holds that necessarily implies a political liberation,” and sin is at the root of every unjust social institution he identifies this liberation as a total one: “By and the root cause of every evil in the world.11 his death and resurrection [Christ] redeems us Niebuhr likewise identifies the locus of the prob- from sin and all its consequences.”16 The assertion lems of all social institutions in the evil embed- that even the consequences of sin are removed ded in the heart of man.12 in this life exposes Gutiérrez particularly to a But it would be simplistic to assume since common Protestant critique of Catholicism, that Niebuhr and Gutiérrez both talk often of sin it conflates justification with sanctification by that they mean the same by that language. The presupposing that one’s forensic justification similarity of their rhetoric belies the dissimilar- necessarily and immediately entails their mor- ity of their actual theology, and it is here that al sanctification.17 It is this vision of sin and of Niebuhr’s system identifies the central error in anthropology that makes his entire liberational Gutiérrez’ anthropology. Niebuhr identifies sin project possible, and Niebuhr does not share his as the hubristic machinations of man—both indi- optimism for two reasons: it accepts an Enlight- vidually and collectively—to escape his finitude enment anthropology that underestimates the and arrogate to himself a limitlessness that be- reality of human sin, and it focuses primarily on longs only to God.13 Conversely, for Gutiérrez, the economic symptoms of that sin rather than sin is a real aspect of the nature of man, but it its root causes in the human person. is not primarily a personal issue of the will, but First, Niebuhr opposes Gutiérrez’ hope of cre- rather a feature of social institutions.14 Even more ating a new type of man because that hope is a significantly, the presence of sin in humanity is fantasy sprung out of the anthropology of the En- an eventually surmountable flaw. Gutiérrez lightenment and not based on the historic Chris- maintains that “it is important to keep in mind tian understanding of the nature of man’s rela- that beyond—or rather, through—the struggle tionship to sin.18 Niebuhr identifies himself with against misery, injustice, and exploitation the the historic Christian doctrine of the ineradicabili- goal is the creation of a new humanity .”15 For all his ty of Original Sin.19 While his constant iteration of disdain for European theology, he accepts the the theme of original sin was a source of constant anthropology of the Enlightenment that holds criticism, the target of his “writings on original sin that man’s nature is not essentially and necessar- was always the claim of the possibility of human ily sinful (the historic Christian, and particularly perfectibility.”20 It is not, as Gutiérrez claims, only Reformed Protestant view) but is instead natu- the “subhuman condition [that] is characterized

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by sin and injustice,”21 but the very essence of the Liberation Theology, in order to sup- human condition that is sinful.22 For Niebuhr, sin port its central theme of the progres- pollutes not only man’s actions, but also his per- II.sive maturation of humankind even- sonality, will, and reason.23 To be human is to sin, tually culminating in the kingdom of God within therefore sin cannot be removed unless and until history, is heavily eschatological. Gutiérrez him- one ceases to be human. The redemptive work self makes this explicit when he argues that “the of the cross and all it signifies has made possible full significance of God’s action in history is un- the removal of God’s judgment for sin in eternity, derstood only when it is put in its eschatological but makes possible only the amelioration of sin perspective; similarly, the revelation of the final in history: “Sin is overcome in principle but not meaning of history gives value to the present.”27 in fact.”24 Sin is not only pervasive; it is original This view of the eschaton is predicated upon and therefore indelible. The salvation offered by Gutiérrez’ anthropology of man as a malleable Christ retards the effects and dominion of that sin and perfectible being. Since, under his system, in this life, but neither sin nor its temporal conse- “sin and all its consequences” are being steadily quences are removed. and indefinitely eroded by the incarnation of The second major critique Niebuhr offers of Christ in suffering love which needs no second Gutiérrez’ theology of sin is that it focuses too coming to perfect the erosion, man has already exclusively on the mere symptoms of sin, spe- been provided with all of the requisite resources cifically as they are manifest in unjust economic to surmount his sin and create the Kingdom. If no systems. While Gutiérrez’ focus on economic intervention is necessary other than that which structures is understandable given his theologi- has already been provided by the first coming of cal project of bringing economic justice to Latin Christ, then the Kingdom of Heaven does not re- America, Niebuhr contends that even if the quire a break with history or a new economy of sin manifested in economic institutions could redemptive history but merely a fuller matura- be overcome (and, though himself a socialist tion of the current epoch of history. If “the escha- avowedly committed to social action, Niebuhr is tological promises are being fulfilled throughout clear in his assertion that it could not), it would history”28 then history is itself redemptive and quickly spring up in another place.25 Gutiérrez not in need of another divine intervention. fails to convey the reality that sin corrupts gov- The central rhetorical image that both ernments, the Church, and even the very prole- Niebuhr and Gutiérrez employ to explain their tariat that he champions, just as pervasively as respective theologies of history is the picture it corrupts economic structures. This is because, of the Kingdom of God. Yet just like in the dis- as argued earlier, the locus of sin is in the indi- cussion of sin previously addressed, rhetorical vidual heart, and unjust economic structures are similarity does not guarantee doctrinal same- merely manifestations of a deeper deviance of ness. For Gutiérrez, the Kingdom of God is the human nature. In such a world the ethic of love anticipated and already inaugurated reality to- and mutual brotherhood can exist, but it “must ward which liberational efforts within history continue to be suffering love rather than a trium- are painstakingly but undeniably progressing. phant love”26 just as Christ’s Incarnation was in It comes in history as a natural progression of suffering and not in triumphant love. It is true the prior trajectory of man. Human history is that scripture depicts the parousia as marked itself salvation history, and the world situation by triumphant love, but it is unrealistic to ex- moves seamlessly into the Kingdom just as his- pect love to be triumphant in the world before tory moves seamlessly into the eschaton.29 His God reveals himself in triumphant love, which entire vision is animated toward this eschato- Niebuhr insists will not happen apart from a logical narrative that culminates in the coming definite break with history. of the kingdom of heaven, and social action now

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is inseparable from the fulfillment of the escha- ment. But in Niebuhr’s view, to confuse mere tological promise within history: “the Bible pres- chronological and historical progression with ents eschatology as the driving force of salvific ethical maturity on behalf of nations or civiliza- history.”30 Furthermore, it is unwarranted to ex- tions is to assume a falsehood. The 20th century pect any divine intervention more than what has showed mankind that the spread of democratic already been seen in Christ’s Incarnation.31 institutions is still an imperfect check on human Against Gutiérrez’ vision of the Kingdom of selfishness and ultimately, on human violence. God as the telos of history, in Niebuhr’s theology, Instead of uniting the world into a peaceful the Kingdom of God is the finis of history—the brotherhood of mankind, technology offered radically differentiated and historically unat- man the possibility to shed each other’s blood in tainable ideal that stands in judgment over all newer, more effective, and more creative ways the incomplete, sin-laded efforts of mankind to against which the forces of democracy offered approximate it within history by our own ef- only late and sporadic resistance. Therefore in forts. Niebuhr’s approach is non-eschatological32 Niebuhr’s account, history itself is thus far the and views the kingdom of God as a definite most compelling objection to the argument that break with human history. It is not a total salva- history itself is redemptive. tion that takes place in history, but rather a salva- Within Niebuhr’s framework, history there- tion from history with all of its failed and futile fore has intrinsic value but not redemptive attempts to bring the kingdom.33 This is not to value. It is not true that “to build a just society say that history is meaningless, 34 but only that is already to be part of the saving action,”38 for it is less redemptive than what Gutiérrez’ vision even the advent of the institutions that a just requires. While the exact balance between the society entails would do little to negate the root error of viewing history as meaningless and the problem of social injustices and inequalities error of viewing history as redemptive is incapa- since that root is buried into the heart of man. ble of being precisely expressed, it is necessary Those like Gutiérrez who believe that the advent to maintain the tenuous balance between them. of such institutions would signal the decline of To desire redemption from history is to fail to see oppression and injustice “have a touching faith the meaningfulness of history (as does much of in the power of a formula over the raw stuff Greek philosophy) and to fall into cyclical pessi- of human history.”39 But in Niebuhr’s estima- mism.35 And to desire it fully within history is to tion, it is a faith that is ultimately unjustified give way to the naïve utopianism that Niebuhr’s both by the nature of man and by the words of version of the destiny of man indicts as naïve. Christ: “Whatever may be the meaning of Je- If the vision of the final utopian Kingdom sus’ parables…he certainly does not present the of God is the animus for all of Liberation The- ‘Kingdom’ which has entered into history…as ology, it is also the transgression that solidifies a force which will gradually transmute history Niebuhr’s objection to it, for it is not merely pro- into something quite different from what it is.”40 gressivism to which he was opposed, but the je- Niebuhr rightly observes that the New Testa- june vision of fanatical progressivism climaxing ment does not allow a theology that places the in the realization of perfect justice within his- ultimate telos of history within the temporal pro- tory that historic Christianity does not provide.36 cess of history, but neither does it assent to the Niebuhr identifies this narrative of inexorable other-worldliness that flees from history.41 It nei- and indefinite progress as another hallmark as- ther deifies nor denigrates history, but dignifies sumption of modernity’s philosophy of history.37 it by placing it in proper relation to the eschaton. In Gutiérrez’ philosophy this narrative serves as Christ interprets history as an interim and a ten- an unquestioned supposition; social action now sion between “the kingdom of heaven is here” is aimed toward bringing the eschaton to fulfill- and “the kingdom of heaven is near.”42 History

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 21 Niebuhr Contra Gutiérrez on the Nature and Destiny of Man |

now has a partial embodiment of its own mean- of the coming of God is symptomatic of human ing but yet stands in contradiction to its ultimate pride in our own attempts at self-perfection.47 meaning.43 Christianity recognizes “that there is The meaning of history consists in the fact that no point in history, whatever the accumulations while it is not futile, neither is it self-sufficient; of wisdom and power, in which the finiteness of just like man cannot by his own efforts extricate man is overcome.”44 himself from his situation of sin, so too, history Gutiérrez’ view of history warrants the clas- must be redeemed from itself. Within any view sification of utopian because it posits the neces- of history that sees all of the unfolding of God’s sity of conditions of justice that are prevenient to plan occurring within that history “the Christian the complete advent of the Kingdom of God, and claim that God has been revealed in Christ can- those conditions of justice are to be attained en- not be taken seriously” because the Christ nar- tirely through the human efforts of liberation. In rative interacts with history but is not confined to fact, the advent of the Kingdom is hindered only history and must often alter history to accommo- by that very dearth of justice which man can and date his intrusion into it.48 must eventually overcome: “The prophets an- These variegated conceptions of the escha- nounce a kingdom of peace. But peace presup- ton produce varied understandings of the hope poses the establishment of justice...the struggle that must characterize the expectant follower of for a just world in which there is no oppres- Christ. Niebuhr insists that the hope that ani- sion, servitude, or alienated work will signify mates our action is not tied to the progress of the coming of the Kingdom.”45 That is, God will history but to the interruption of that history by bring his Kingdom of peace if man first creates the coming of an intruding eschaton. This notion the groundwork through justice. If that ground- of hope conflicts with Gutiérrez’ version of it. work is not created then the Kingdom does not Gutiérrez’ hope is a future-oriented acceptance come. But this implies a quasi-utopia that is an- of the continual unfolding of history. He praises terior to the Kingdom, and this utopia is brought Moltmann’s realization that “if hope does not about by purely human efforts. On this view, the take shape in the present to lead it forward, it Kingdom of Heaven is not salvific out of futil- will only be an evasion, a futuristic illusion.”49 ity but comes about after man has already over- Gutiérrez’ hope is not distinct from historical op- come his futility. timism but is rather the engine for bringing the Gutiérrez’ notion that man must create the anticipated eschaton into reality within history. necessary conditions for the Kingdom before it It is hope in the indomitable efforts of man work- will come is denied by Niebuhr as too optimistic ing to move history forward. Hope is to Gutiér- because it attempts to marry a secular utopianist rez’ optimism what the present is to his utopian vision and the Christian understanding of the future; it is the current, tangible assurance of an Kingdom of Heaven. But these are irreconcilable unseen yet predetermined eschatology that oc- for Niebuhr; the utopian vision is flawed and an- curs within history as the present world merges tithetical to the Christian idea of salvation from itself into the kingdom of God. Instead of con- history. Niebuhr notes that “history must be necting hope in the present and optimism in the purged as well as completed; and that final com- future, Niebuhr divorces them into separate per- pletion of history must include God’s destruc- spectives in tension with one another. Hope is tion of man’s abortive and premature efforts to not in the efforts of man but in the knowledge bring humanity to its culmination.”46 So it is not that “the divine power which bears history can that Gutiérrez’ idealism is simply in tension with complete what even the highest human striving the eschatological doctrines of Christianity, but must leave incomplete and can purify the cor- that they are actually contradictory to each oth- ruptions which appear in even the purest human er. To hope in the fulfillment of utopia outside aspirations.”50 This hope is not born of a prideful

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overestimation of human effort but of a humble will devolve into cynicism and violence. Instead acknowledgment of our own limitations. of such unrealistic expectations, one must act out Concomitant with Niebuhr’s concerns over of a hopeful faith that works for progress with- the feasibility of the utopian vision are his pro- out forgetting that the setbacks of history are phetic cautions about the inevitable failure of the nothing less than “permanent characteristics of utopian project. Setting expectations unreach- man’s historic existence.”52 ably high contains a danger even greater than Niebuhr’s critique of Gutiérrez amounts to merely failing to reach that goal, for the anxiety a recognition that the work of liberation theol- that springs out of a continual expectation of the ogy strays from essential Christian doctrines eschaton without satisfaction of that desire forms and from empirically verifiable facts about the the basis of all utopian tyrannies.51 Surveying predicament of man in history. Gutiérrez’ failure the pinnacle of human efforts motivated by the can be explained by his attempt to superimpose purest of aspirations and finding even there the a vision of man and history that is informed by intractable traces of sin, the idealist, frustrated the Enlightenment onto a moral structure that and jaded by this failure, despairs of making any is informed by Christianity. The contradictions progress at all by peaceful means. This frustra- that stem from these two divergent and opposite tion leads him to one of two courses of action. philosophies explain the confusion that pervades Convinced that the error was not in the utopian his system. He neither goes far enough with his goal but in the means employed to reach that Enlightenment Marxism to supersede the Chris- goal, he may find it impossible to resist the allure tian narrative that he operates within, nor does of bringing about that eschaton through violence he go far enough with his Christianity to realize and coercion. Attempting to lift man to a newer, sin as an intractable and defining characteristic higher plain of humanity, he abases himself by of both mankind and of the social order. By try- becoming violent and savage. Or instead of the ing to wed these inimical partners, Gutiérrez of- coercive response, he may lament the impossi- ficiates over a dysfunctional marriage. bility of any progress whatsoever and abandon his noble efforts altogether, leaving a vacuum Justin Hawkins graduated in 2011 from the George- of power quickly filled by an authoritarian real- town College of Arts & Sciences with a Bachelor of ist. For Niebuhr, overly optimistic expectations, Arts in Government . Beginning Fall 2012, he will when directed toward an unreachable eschaton, study Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School .

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Liberating the Mind: Understanding Freedom in America and Antiquity

Alex Henderson

he better angels of our nature war con- tonic philosophy “sees freedom as a matter of tinuously against our worst impulses, knowledge rather than choice.”56 T and the outcome is never a given thing. In the Republic, Plato’s mentor, Socrates, finds What behaviors will predominate within us and, himself in heated argument with the sophist by extension, within our society? Plato thought Thracymachus over the nature of justice. Thracy- the determinate was the nature of our education. machus asserts that the pinnacle of freedom lies Madison, Adams, and Jefferson agreed, as dem- not with the just man, but with the supremely onstrated by their writings. I submit that Plato unjust one. Thracymachus’ ideal is the man who infused their opinions and informed the dawn has dominated everyone around him and stands of our Republic with his thoughts. Freedom and as the master of all he surveys. In the liberal tra- liberty, as conceived by our Founding Fathers, dition, this tyrant is regarded as free, for he can cannot exist without self-mastery, as conceived do whatever he wills to whomever he wills. This by Plato. leads Thracymachus to decide that injustice is “a James Madison depicts democratic society as stronger, freer, and more masterful thing than a fluctuating entity shaped by the competing vir- justice.”57 tue and depravity of human nature. Without the Antiquity’s account of tyranny does not practice of restraint, vices grow so overpower- present the tyrant as a caricatured villain we can ing that, in Madison’s words, “nothing less than easily disregard as hopelessly blind to the mer- the chains of despotism can restrain them from its of a free society. In an essay on the problem destroying and devouring one another.”53 If it is of democratic tyranny, Father James V. Schall true that despotism can overtake a wicked elec- notes that, “for the classics, the tyrant came to torate, then the inner life of the citizen is the ulti- power usually out of a democracy.”58 The clas- mate center of freedom. The shaping of one’s in- sical tyrants were like the Athenian Alcibiades: ner life is the focus of much of Plato’s teachings. smart, handsome, well spoken, and beloved by Professor R. F. Stalley of Glasgow University the people they sought to rule. This sort of tyrant warns modern readers of Plato that the concept is a crowd pleaser; “He hates not to be loved and of freedom valued by the ancients bears little re- admired. He has no principle of his own except semblance to that endorsed by the “liberal tra- what the people want, something he constantly dition” that now dominates western society.54 seeks to know”59 for it is through satisfying their The liberal tradition tends to regard freedom as wants that he satisfies his own lust for power. “some faculty of free choice.”55 In contrast, pla- These tyrants were the most glorious men of

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their age. It is reasonable that Thracymachus “knowledge, or at least a certain kind of knowl- takes the position he does, for who could deny edge that Plato is particularly interested in, is a these men were the freest of their peers? highly personal achievement,”70 involving not Plato, through the character of Socrates, just awareness of truth, but the ability to live in challenged this vision by asking Thracymachus accord with it. Alexander Nehamas argues that, to reflect on the psychological impact of this to Plato, this kind of knowledge is so powerfully kind of supreme political authority. Though the convincing that “there is no such thing as know- tyrant may appear to be master of all, a closer ing the better and doing the worse: there is only look will find him to be the most abject of slaves. ignorance of the better.”71 His soul is “riven by dissention;”60 torn between Wisdom is a blending of truth and willpow- the vacillation of the people, his sense of justice, er. In order to possess it a person must perceive and what he must do to hold his position. He the truth and have the willpower to have that is unable to be his own master because he must perception influence his actions. A tyrant like always be the advocate of what the people want, Alcibiades, who is made aware of truth but lacks and they want “anything and everything.”61 His the will to improve his conduct, is only made to appetite for power requires heeding the siren feel the misery of his condition more acutely. call of the people even though he knows, in the Andreas Esheté has argued that the will to order words of Alcibiades, that “my life – my life! – … the soul to higher goals is “perhaps best char- [is] no better than a miserable slave’s.”62 acterized as self-mastery.”72 The person who This state of spiritual slavery affects the ty- has ordered his soul in this way and has come rant’s inner life. In The Need For Roots, the mod- to believe that living in accord with truth is the ern Platonist Simone Weil lists what she calls the best way to live is what Plato describes as the just “needs of the soul,”63 including order, obedience, man.73 responsibility, equality, hierarchism, honor, Thracymachus’ tyrant may have every physi- punishment for wrongdoing, freedom of opin- cal choice available to him, but that doesn’t seem ion, security, private and collective property, relevant to an understanding of freedom. With- and truth.64 The tyrant is a spiritual drug addict, out the knowledge and willpower needed to or- bound by his lust for power and “unable to re- der his inner life, the tyrant is left at the mercy of sist his craving.”65 He is unable to provide for the whichever appetites pull him the strongest. His majority of Weil’s “vital needs of the human be- platonic ignorance makes him, in Esheté’s terms, ing.”66 The result is a wilting of the spirit where, a “prisoner of his own conflicting desires.”74 He in the words of Weil, “little by little we fall into a is anything but free. state more or less resembling death, more or less If freedom is not the number of choices avail- akin to a purely vegetative existence.”67 able to us, what is it? Plato says it is a condition The tyrant's inner life falls into decay because of a person’s inner life rather than the sum of he lacks the wisdom needed to order his soul. choices available to them. It consists of the “ca- Plato conceived of wisdom as “knowledge of pacity to recognize the truth” and live by it.75 what is beneficial for each and for the whole.”68 The person who can live in this way is, in Plato’s Platonic knowledge is not just awareness of eyes, just. The just man is liberated from the dis- facts. Alcibiades illustrates this point. In the sonance that imprisons the tyrant because he un- Symposium he bemoans his inability to respond derstands the needs of his soul and has ordered to Socrates’ teachings, saying “I know perfectly his life around fulfilling those needs. well that I can’t prove he’s wrong when he tells While Plato’s explanation clarifies the nature me what I should do; yet, the moment I leave of freedom, it doesn’t provide a clear picture of his side, I go back to my old ways.”69 Alcibiades’ what the just life looks like. To understand this case illustrates Michael Frede’s conviction that we can look to Plato’s teacher, Socrates, whom

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he viewed as the paradigm of the just man. tal questions of virtue “are central to our whole Socrates would call the just life the examined life, to who we are. To examine the logical con- life; a life grounded in the pursuit of truth, do- sistency of those beliefs, when undertaken cor- ing what Socrates calls the “very best thing that rectly, is to examine and mold the shape of our a man can do.”76 Socrates did not claim to have self.”84 In the process of pursuing truth and in- a perfect understanding of what truth in human corporating it into our lives we become differ- living looks like. He admitted his ignorance on ent people. To Plato the acquisition and incor- the topic, but was devoted to getting as close to poration of truth is a transformative process that the truth as possible.77 The admission of igno- liberates us from the internal conflicts of an im- rance left him with one foundation on which to properly ordered soul. build his identity: the questions themselves. This For Plato, education is the process most help- way of handling universal questions of human ful to creating a just order in the soul, and con- living is what the poet Rainer Maria Rilke calls sequently, the most essential tool for attaining the “need to live the question.”78 freedom. We see this in book seven of the Repub- Living the question is a metaphor for a cer- lic through the allegory of the cave. The prisoner tain perspective on life. It encompasses a devo- of the cave is freed from the world of shadows tion to truth, recognition of one’s limitations, into the world revealed by the light of fire. Even- and a determination to put theory into practice tually, he emerges from the cave and experienc- as best one can. Socrates lived the question by es the true world in the brilliant light of the sun. devoting his life to understanding virtue and Stalley notes that Plato’s point in the allegory seeking knowledge from his fellow Athenians.79 is that “ignorance and false belief constrain the He became convinced that the care of the soul mind much as chains constrain the body,” such consisted of pursuing virtue.80 Defining excel- that an ignorant man with all the choices in the lence in the pursuit, rather than the attainment, world can still be in a state of abject slavery.85 was a way of recognizing the ambiguity of the Through the process of education, we begin human condition. Though it is unlikely any of to liberate ourselves from mental shackles and us will come to definitive conclusions about the find our conceptions of reality broadened. Edu- good life, concerning ourselves with it in speech cation helps to train discipline. Discipline assists and deed is among the most important things a in justly ordering our souls. The connection be- person can do. This simple commitment, when tween the Platonic idea of mental freedom and articulated clearly, has great power. more conventional notions of political freedom In this view, achieving freedom is an “art cannot be emphasized enough. Edmund Burke of living,”81 that stresses the importance of con- notes that education “renders men acute, in- structing one’s identity around the search for quisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in truth. As Nehamas points out, “Philosophy is defense, full of resources.”86 The educated man not here a matter only of reading books: it is a is freer than his ignorant counterpart because he whole way of life, even if…it does not dictate a is able to understand the world around him and single manner of living that all should follow.”82 react to it in a way appropriate to what it actu- Living an examined life doesn’t mean living like ally is. He is able to think ahead, to use reasoning Socrates, instead one can “interpret his activity to predict misfortune and avoid it. His ignorant on a more abstract level and imitate not the con- counterpart is shackled to reacting to his envi- tent but the form of his life.”83 One doesn’t need ronment, never anticipating it. to pursue the same path as Socrates to live an The level of education of the average citi- examined life built around truth. zen is relevant to the viability of freedom within The examined life is a process around which democratic forms of government. An ignorant identity forms. Our beliefs regarding fundamen- populace is subject to the same competing im-

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pulses as the ancient democratic peoples. If the writes that our fledgling nation is a providential citizenry of a democracy is not educated, they dispensation “for the illumination of the igno- are unlikely to achieve the justice of the soul that rant and the emancipation of the slavish part of allows them to control their appetites, prioritize mankind all over the earth.”90 Many quotations their goals, and live in harmony with their fel- of Adams stop at this point and wax about gener- low citizens and the law. Such a people will elect alities of political freedom that one typically as- leaders as debauched as they are. The dema- sociates with the American Revolution. Adams gogues that come to power in an ignorant polity feels this way about the settlement of America take their “cue from what the people want at any not because of some sense of political opportu- given moment”87 instead of committing them- nity, but because “Provision was early made by selves to principle and the just application of the law that every town should be accommodated law. Such leaders will trample on the integrity with a grammar school under severe penalty, of the law and the liberty of the community in so that even negligence of learning was made a order to satisfy the passions of the moment. An crime.”91 Adams saw a direct link between the ignorant citizenry will, if given time, opt for a emancipation of the slavish part of man and the tyranny if only to end the unsustainable chaos of liberating power of an educated mind. democracy gone awry. Here our Founding Fathers bring us full This course can be reversed by education. circle. They show us that true freedom is the Thomas Jefferson writes at length on the relation- inheritance of an active mind, a mind that has ship between a free society and an educated citi- been disciplined through the rigors of educa- zenry. In Notes on The State of Virginia, he writes tion, and that has an arsenal of knowledge with that laws regarding public education have the which to guide its decisions and order its life. It explicit purpose of “rendering the people safe, as is education that, in the words of Plato, “gives they are the ultimate guardians of their own lib- the man within us complete dominion over the erty.”88 In a letter to John Adams in 1813 Jefferson entire man and makes him take charge of the divulges his hopes for a bill calling for universal many headed beast”92 that represents the appe- education, he writes, “This [bill] on education tites pulling us away from the life we know we would have raised the mass of the people to the should lead. Platonic justice is centered on the high ground of moral respectability necessary to liberating power of the search for truth and liv- their own safety, and to orderly government…I ing according to the fruits of that discovery. That have great hope that some patriotic spirit will… power is what animates the responsible, intelli- call it up, and make it the key-stone of the arch gent, and active citizenry that is essential to the of our government.”89 In the eyes of the author maintenance of good government and political of The Declaration of Independence, the institution freedom. of civil society that is the backbone of a free re- Freedom is more complex than the liberal public is education. It is a clear endorsement of tradition allows. While the liberties of political the necessary link between freedom of the mind freedom are desirable, they are contingent on the and political freedom. An educated people are possession of inner freedom. Inner freedom is able to understand the workings of government centered on the search for truth and the posses- and the world around them. This understanding sion of a justly ordered inner life. It is cultivated is their shield against the honeyed words of the by self-mastery achieved through discipline, demagogue and the passions of the moment that which itself is developed and strengthened brought ruin to the democracies of antiquity. through education. An educated citizenry is This view was not unique to Jefferson. In thus a critical element of a free society engaging a dissertation written for the Sodalitas Club (a in self-government. While universal education small group of fellow philologists), John Adams has long been a priority of our society, the role

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of education in shaping citizens for self-mastery in the self-discipline necessary to perpetuating a and, ultimately, self-governance has often been free society. obscured by a focus on the economic advantages that accrue to an educated work force. If we take Alex Henderson is a senior in the Georgetown Col- the Platonic argument seriously, as the Found- lege of Arts & Sciences studying Government and ing Fathers seem to have done, it follows that Philosophy . economic advantage is only a part of the larger educative project. Our efforts at repairing the This paper was originally delivered at the 5th Annual defects of our public education system should Undergraduate Scholars Conference on the American not focus simply on test scores and graduation Polity hosted by The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots rates, but on what sort of people we are graduat- of American Democracy, Georgetown University ing and whether or not they have been trained on March 17, 2012

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Managing Progress: The Dangers of Technological Excess, and What Liberal Societies Can Do About It

Eric W . Cheng

n Introduction: The Problem of Technology, plications. Certainly, we have significant differ- Leon Kass promotes a comprehensive ences - I do not oppose the ‘technological way of I conception of technology that extends far thinking’ with Kass’s vigor, and I hold a friend- beyond the ‘common’ view that technology is lier attitude towards technological abundance. the morally neutral accumulation of humanity’s However, as I do believe that the most imme- ability to control the environment for its own diate concerns created by technology are those benefit.93 For Kass, technology is a way of life, which Kass would label as ‘common,’ I shall “a way of thinking and believing and feeling, a focus on a different concern: how can liberal de- way of standing in and toward the world... to or- mocracies address the negative excesses associ- der and predict and control everything feasible... ated with technology when doing so requires all in the service of human benefit”94 that has liberalism to restrain its own impulses? integrated its mechanistic system of knowledge deeply into the human experience.95 He proceeds Technology as an Amoral Means to detail how technology creates serious prob- Technology can be seen on a non-philosoph- lems for liberal democracies, from the uninten- ical level as a means through which people try tional creation of integral negative effects96 and to harness nature’s hidden powers to pursue a the annihilation of a societal moral compass97 to variety of ends, from the extension of life to the the destruction of satisfaction and the transfor- development of weapons capable of tremendous mation of old desires into new dependencies.98 destruction. Whether one uses technology to Ultimately, Kass concludes that liberal democ- support human dignity or to erode dignity by racies must reject the rationalist/utopian dream treating humanity as merely a means101 ultimate- of the attainment of human perfection99 and that ly depends on the reasons for which one uses liberal democracies must endorse self-rule over technology and on the intended or unintended the self-indulgence afforded by technology, re- consequences of that use, not on the initial deci- assert the importance of privacy, and appreciate sion to use technology. the importance of the non-technological knowl- From this perspective of utility, liberalism102 edge of liberal education.100 has utilized technology remarkably well to pur- I agree with many of Kass’ observations, sue its goals.103 Liberal technological advances from the importance of moral awareness to the have enabled liberal societies to pursue distribu- complexity of technology’s philosophical im- tive justice, and to replace the former aristocratic

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order based on relative scarcity with a robust if their ends contribute to the enhancement or egalitarianism (at least in terms of opportunity) the denigration of human dignity109 whenever based on unprecedented abundance.104 While they utilize technology. Unfortunately, it is not some have complained that this abundance has that simple. On a philosophical level, asking lib- rendered liberal societies too dependent on tech- eralism to restrain technology is very much akin nology105 and resulted in a tremendous sense of to asking liberalism to restrain itself. As children uniformity or homogeneity that inhibits indi- of progress and of the Enlightenment, liberal- vidual expression,106 it is hard to imagine how ism and modern technology share certain core societies like the United States can maintain both philosophical tenants and motivations that sig- order and liberal democratic norms/practices nificantly complicate their relationship beyond without the use of technology to satisfy eco- liberalism’s dependence on technology. Indeed, nomic needs and ensure the efficient transpor- although the potential use of technology to fa- tation of goods, information, and people. The cilitate the pursuit of illiberal or destructive ends robust egalitarianism that liberalism has pur- is certainly a problem, the deeper - and perhaps sued, as permitted by technological advances, more probing - problem posed by technology to has enabled them to better live up to one of their liberal democracies is how liberal democracies central creeds - that all people be treated as indi- can effectively manage technology’s excess: how viduals with equal moral worth. can liberalism morally constrain technology’s However, it is also clear that technology can potentially negative excesses when it is exactly facilitate the pursuit of distinctly illiberal ends, excess, along with their other philosophical not to mention its potential contribution - inten- similarities, that drives liberal democracy? Af- tional or unintentional - to human destructive- ter describing the shared roots of liberalism and ness. Regarding the former, technology tempts technology and explaining why this relationship governments (liberal democracies included) and complicates liberalism’s ability to manage tech- private actors with the ability to collect infor- nology’s excesses, I shall submit that liberalism mation to an unprecedented scale,107 to destroy must execute a rather delicate balancing act to privacy, to transform liberal societies into sur- manage technology’s excesses; that it must ex- veillance societies, and potentially to control the pand technology’s possibilities while adding a lives of individuals sociologically and biological- holistic dimension to its conception of inquiry in ly. Regarding the latter, as the result of interna- order to induce a moderating force on the pace of tional power politics, humanity has harnessed, progress and thereby allow for greater reflection in weapons of mass destruction, the capacity on the ends for which technology is employed. to destroy at almost unfathomable scales. Simi- larly, mass consumption of natural resources The Close Philosophical has unintentionally altered the planet so that it may no longer be suitable for human living in Relationship of Liberalism & the long term.108 Technology Both liberalism and technology are members The Real Problem of Technology of a larger movement dedicated to progress - described by Arthur Melzer as “the commitment for Liberalism to humanity’s gradual self-liberation through To address these harmful excesses of technol- its progressive appropriation of the natural and ogy, one may simply suggest that liberal democ- historical worlds”110 - that was initiated by hu- racies develop greater appreciation for technol- manism and the Enlightenment’s triumph over ogy’s amoral power. That is, liberal democracies traditionalism. Traditionalism had sought to should encourage their citizens to ask themselves reign in human power and freedom, as such no-

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tions undermined the foundations of traditional through moderation and recognition of natural legitimacy - namely, the reverence of an immu- limits117 and instead embraced interminable (or table past and a deeply communal way of life.111 seemingly-interminable) projects like the protec- The Enlightenment transformed the individual tion of human rights, the avoidance of death,118 into the final arbiter of knowledge and of po- and the realization of widespread prosperity litical consent, undermined authority based on (which, specific to the liberal case, is necessary to custom, religious dogma, and traditional con- pursue its brand of egalitarianism). That is, liber- sensus, and altered the focus of human affairs als dismissed the notion that they must merely to be forward looking and progressive.112 With work with what they have in favor of an ambi- the Enlightenment, liberalism - the philosophy tious and never-ending expansion of rational of consent of the governed and rule by (ideally) control over as much of ‘nature’ as possible, be reasonable debate - eventually emerged as the it the expansion of economic wealth, the attain- primary organizer of political life, while technol- ment of knowledge, or the lengthening of life. ogy became the primary vehicle of progress and, Unsurprisingly, liberalism has treated technol- thus, replaced tradition to become the moral ogy as the primary tool to satisfy its insatiable center of liberal life.113 desire to achieve progress and, in doing so, has Due to this shared heritage in individualism, grown technology to unprecedented scales. Lib- progress, and rationality, liberalism and tech- eralism’s goals of excess have created technol- nology share several core philosophical tenents. ogy’s excesses. Both are traditions of artificiality that are unsatis- fied with naturalness and exert human suprema- The Solution cy over nature. Technology unleashes forces that Given that its desire for continual expansion are alien to natural experience,114 allows human- motivates the realization of technology’s excess- ity to manipulate nature to enhance human comes, liberalism cannot comfortably constrain its fort, and is furthered not by understanding its use of technology without constraining its own greater, metaphysical purpose (which it doubts), impulses. To refresh, technology is, in many re- but by decomposing nature into its component spects, an amoral tool that anyone - liberal or il- parts and subsequently devising new, artificial liberal - can use to pursue certain ends. Although combinations of those component parts.115 Like- its excesses are not problematic per se - that is, wise, liberal theorists, from Thomas Hobbes (a dependence on technology is not that significant quasi-liberal) and John Locke to John Rawls, of a problem as long as it enhances human dig- have treated community and the state not as nity - technology needs to be restrained because natural, but as artificial arrangements that are its excesses, if used for destructive purposes, can binding because rational individuals either have lead to calamity and deep violations of human consented to the arrangement (in Hobbes and dignity. Similarly, technology’s unintended con- Locke’s cases) or would have consented to the sequences, such as climate change, can threaten agreement’s principles had they participated in the livelihood of many and, perhaps, human- the Original Position (in Rawls’s case).116 ity’s existence. Yet, as I have demonstrated, lib- Furthermore, as members of the league of eralism and technology do not merely share in- progress, both liberalism and technology are credibly close philosophical tenents; liberalism’s motivated by excess (in the sense that both seek excessive goals continuously push technology constant expansion, not in the sense that both to increasing levels of excess. Thus, any realis- hold unreasonable expectations). Specifically, tic proposal regarding how liberal democracies liberalism’s excess motivates technology’s ex- can manage technology’s destructive excesses cess. Through the Enlightenment, liberals reject- would be a proposal that would show how liber- ed the ancient sense that happiness is achieved alism can restrain itself.

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One solution is to ‘double-down’ on technol- means ‘to understand.’ Currently, liberalism en- ogy, to essentially place faith that future tech- dorses an Enlightenment - or, as Melzer infers, a nology can solve technology’s current negative technological - mode of inquiry which rejects in- excesses.119 This attitude would suggest that we tegral wholes in favor of decomposition.122 That should trust that the future technology will be is, liberals pursue knowledge by decomposing able to solve the climate crisis or to shield societ- nature into its component parts, learning about ies from weapons of mass destruction. Certainly, the quantitative aspects of those parts, and ex- even though it is somewhat risky to entrust fu- perimenting with new combinations of those ture salvation to as-yet unimagined and perhaps parts.123 We should not be surprised that liber- unrealizable technological development, liberal als have largely dismissed more abstract, holistic democracies must continue to push the bound- inquiries: contemplation about purpose requires aries and possibilities of technology in order to time, and time slows down the pace of progress. defend themselves from the potentially destruc- However, such contemplative inquiry is ex- tive ends sought by their enemies and/or certain actly what liberalism needs to incorporate into illiberal actors; liberals ultimately cannot control its pantheon of understanding. While the de- how others choose to utilize technology. How- composition method of inquiry remains, this ac- ever, this option cannot really be considered a tive process of inquiry blinds liberal democracies solution, as it obviously protects liberal democ- from contemplating more grandiose questions racies from the negative excesses of technology like, “What is technology’s purpose?” or, “How by further increasing the excessive scale of tech- does this particular piece of technology affect or nology, by increasing the ability to manipulate relate to the broader liberal project?” This expan- life and to monitor and collect information. Such sion of liberal inquiry to include broad contem- an increase in power would further tempt lead- plation would inject a renewed appreciation for ers and decision makers of liberal democracies the ethics and virtues that anchor liberal society to pursue illiberal ends like the strangling of pri- and, with that, a new sense of moderation - not vacy or ignoring inadvertent threats to human of the liberal goals which I described earlier as existence (i.e., climate change) in the name of ef- ‘projects of excess,’ but of the pace at which lib- ficiency and security. erals seek to transform the fruits of new knowl- Liberalism must manage its own excess edge into actual technology that can do good or (and, thus, technology’s excess) by refining the harm. core moral system that grounds its institutions More than simply dictate that liberals utilize and politics. First, we must clarify that there is a technology more responsibly, this new dimen- long-standing misconception that liberal democ- sion would provide liberals with the ethical racies function simply through the “invisible framework necessary to judge or at least con- hand”-styled, self-regulation of self-interested template when it is suitable for a particular tech- individualism.120 William Galston correctly ob- nology to be used. Likewise, it would motivate serves that liberal societies have always been an- liberals to ensure that their political system con- chored by the widespread acceptance of certain tains the institutional safeguards necessary to core values including the rule of law, the neces- defend liberal society from illiberal or destruc- sary protection of the political community, plu- tive uses of technology. ralism, tolerance, individual respect, and work For instance, technology has given society an ethic.121 In other words, liberalism possesses and unprecedented ability to collect information; to is anchored by a core moral system. electronically store and harmonize medical re- To deal with its problem of excess, liberalism cords and to constantly survey streets in the name must refine this core moral system by adding to of security. Certainly, this ability is not entirely its system of inquiry a new dimension of what it negative; the electronic storage and harmoniza-

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tion of medical records can help make patient I will not rebuff this claim, for I agree that my care much more efficient by eliminating a lot of solution has an uncomfortable uncertainty re- bureaucracy, and surveillance can help law en- garding how it can be accomplished. I do not forcement better ensure order and identify those claim to know how it can be accomplished; I am who threaten society and its members. However, merely stating what sort of change is necessary. it should also be clear that, if unchecked by an How this change can be achieved - and, even understanding of what purpose they serve in a more seriously, whether or not this change can liberal democracy, electronic records can be sold be achieved before the temptation of using tech- to public or private entities and carelessly used nology’s excesses for illiberal or destructive pur- for sinister purposes, while the fear of being con- poses becomes too great for liberals to resist - is stantly surveyed can restrict people’s ability to indeed too unclear for comfort. But, that lack of live free lives. A greater understanding of the clarity is the reality of the situation. greater purpose of technology would safeguard Although it can be interpreted as a compre- society from such uses of powerful technology. hensive philosophical system, technology can be With this greater awareness, liberals could then viewed on a non-philosophical level as an amor- define with greater clarity and moral impetus al tool which can be used for the enhancement or what constitutes acceptable use of a given tech- the denigration of human dignity; and, as it has nology: for example, electronic sharing of medi- grown to extraordinary scales, technology can be cal records is permissible, but only if there are used to create the material abundance necessary clear safeguards against and strict penalties for for the pursuit of a liberal egalitarian society and inappropriate uses of such technology; surveil- for the facilitation of illiberal and (intentionally lance is acceptable, but only in strategic areas or unintentionally) destructive ends. However, and with strict provisions on how the govern- it is difficult for liberal democracies to restrain ment may use that information - or, perhaps, the the negative excesses of technology while main- idea of constant surveillance by the government taining the benefits of positive technological ex- is absolutely unacceptable by liberal standards cess because liberalism’s philosophical similari- and cannot be tolerated, even if such a prohibi- ties (with technology) drive both good and bad tion makes law enforcement less efficient. technological excess. I have proposed that even though it cannot abandon technology, liberalism The Unclear Future must learn to restrain its use of technology by adding a new holistic (or metaphysical) dimen- One might argue that my proposal is un- sion to its understanding of what it means to un- feasible and that this is apparent by my not derstanding. This new dimension would act as having explained how liberals can add a new a moderating force on the pace of progress and dimension in their method of inquiry (and ultimately allow for a greater awareness regard- thereby moderate the pace of action). Indeed, it ing the ends for which technology is employed. seems like revising a method of inquiry rooted in a 300 year-long tradition would take a very Eric W . Cheng is a junior in the Georgetown Col- long time, even though current and poten- lege of Arts & Sciences studying Government and tial problems created by the negative excesses Philosophy . of technology are imminently threatening.

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The Loss of Community in a Pluralistic America

Margaret Beedle

ncreased mobility and the rise of the cre- a variety of ways with a focus on volunteering, ative class in the United States over the club participation and membership, voting par- I past fifty years have led to a decrease in ticipation, political campaign participation and social capital and, thus, a breakdown of the civic level of trust. Each different definition leads to associations that are consistently seen as essen- a different understanding of its value as either tial to democracy. Heterogeneity of the commu- interactions between citizens or a deeper connec- nity is not the main cause for this breakdown; tion that unites people. rather the economic benefits of loose social ties These kinds of social capital characterize a encourage a focus on financial self-interest and community that encourages social and political the individual over the community. Many theo- participation. In Democracy in America, Alexis de rists see the loss of social capital as undermining Tocqueville remarks on Americans’ “infinite art” democracy; others argue that economic capital to unite groups with “a common goal” and “to compensates for this loss. The origins of this de- advance it freely,” which he believes is “neces- cline go beyond economic pressure to the very sary” to democracy.142 Associations bond people founding of America and the debates over the and develop the “reciprocal action of men upon meaning of individual liberty; these debates not one another.”143 Putnam also emphasizes the only anticipated the current social capital prob- benefits of associations, especially in controlling lems but warned against them as dangerous to a “education, urban poverty, unemployment… functioning democracy. crime and drug abuse” as well as in facilitating Social capital is the main unit of measurement “job placement.”144 He views “organized reci- for analyzing a community and its members’ ori- procity and civic solidarity” as a “precondition” entation to the whole. If the social capital is high, for a successful government.145 Strong commu- then the community creates an environment that nity ties as measured by social capital are im- benefits democracy. Robert Putnam defines so- portant for their immediate benefits to the com- cial capital as different “features” of a commu- munity and for a functioning democracy. Given nity that foster “coordination and cooperation Tocqueville’s and later Putnam’s emphasis on for mutual benefit.”139 Dora Costa and Matthew the importance of social capital, the following Kahn argue for an individual-focused definition, authors examine the ongoing and potentially the “social characteristics” that allow a person detrimental decreases in social capital as com- to obtain “market and nonmarket returns from munities become more diverse. interactions with others” analyzed with regard Authors Costa and Kahn argue on the strength to “the social structure” in which the person of several studies that increased diversity de- lives.140 The World Bank describes social capital creases the social capital in any area. The studies as not only “’the sum of the institutions which on which they focus use one of three measures underpin a society” but “the glue that holds of “civic engagement: group participation, state them together.’”141 Social capital is measured in spending, and trust.”146 In each type of survey, the

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researchers find that participants living in areas cases, heterogeneity is not the only reason for with more racial and economic diversity are less social capital’s decline. Communities that are likely to participate in an organization, to agree to homogeneous in many ways but heterogeneous income redistribution, or to trust others of their in geographic origins thus lead to declines in community.147 Costa and Kahn also discover that social capital, because the largely homogenous people aged between twenty-five to fifty-four are citizenry lack shared experiences. less likely to volunteer in heterogeneous commu- Disputing heterogeneity as a negative in- nities-especially in those with income disparity. fluence on social capital, David Campbell, in Moreover, a control for heterogeneity explains “Community Heterogeneity and Participation,” “anywhere from one-third to almost all of” these argues that two different types of social capital declines.148 In Americans over sixty-four, the most exist and thrive in different communities. He de- influential factor in social capital is “birthplace scribes these two types as “civic and political,” fragmentation.”149 Costa and Kahn conclude that which thrive in homogeneous environments and community heterogeneity in terms of socioeco- heterogeneous environments respectively.156 nomic class, ethnicity, or geographical birthplace The “fundamental distinction between them” decreases social capital. is “their means” rather than “their ends.”157 He Bill Bishop also studies the impact of geo- defines political capital as anything “directed graphic diversity in communities with otherwise at influencing public policy” while civic capital homogeneous lifestyles in his book, The Big Sort “does not have a policy focus” and can include which highlights the migration of the “creative- anything from volunteering to participating in a class workers” to specific high-tech cities and its group without a specific policy focus.158 Camp- economic and social consequences.150 He divides bell cites several studies to support his thesis cities by those with more working-class jobs and that community heterogeneity and homogene- those with more creative-class workers.151 Little ity encourage different kinds of social capital. overlap of the two job types exists in the same Political capital increases in heterogeneous ar- cities. Age also sorts young people into more eas because “political engagement is sparked “central cities” that produce more patents and by conflict,” whereas participation in “voluntary have a higher economic status and older people associations” is due to “commonality” and thus into “less dynamic” and less patent-producing civic capital increases in homogeneous environ- cities with more social capital.152 Bishop asserts ments.159 The studies that Campbell cites mea- that, in high-tech cities, the only measures of so- sure political capital through “turnout in local cial capital above the national average are an in- elections and…localized political involvement” terest in politics and “a high degree of interracial including “displaying a campaign sign,” work- trust.”153 He also discovers more civic participa- ing for “a candidate or political group,” and tion in organization membership, volunteering, “protesting.”160 Campbell attributes this increase and social activities in low-tech cities.154 Bishop in political involvement to people’s desire “to attributes this migration and its effect to a per- advance or defend their interests” and, there- son’s increasing choice in their location which fore, to “participate more when they feel that creates a “kind of cultural separation” as people those interests are threatened.”161 While hetero- pick cities by social engagement or “anonymity” geneity discourages social capital, ideological and “opportunity for self-invention.”155 While differences increase political capital. the high- and low-tech cities have generally Although Campbell argues that heterogene- become, more homogeneous in socioeconomic ity does not discourage all social capital, political class, education, and lifestyle, the creative class’ capital does not have the same function as civic lifestyle of individual freedom and loose bonds capital. In other analyses of social capital, the leads to a decrease in social capital. In these authors generally rely on what Campbell would

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define as civic capital in terms of volunteering, surmise that while Americans today are “uncom- participating in clubs and trusting neighbors. fortable with diversity,” this attitude will change They also discuss voting turnouts and interest over time and end its negative effects, because in some political topics, but the importance of this kind of “social change” occurs frequently “in social capital is in its role as a community event any dynamic and evolving society.”166 However, rather than as a political movement sparked by Putnam’s idea of the long-term benefits of diver- conflict. In Bishop’s study, one of the only fac- sity such as creativity and problem-solving does tors with an above average score in the high-tech not address the current loss in social capital and cities was political interest, which arguably does may not answer the overall problem of declining not foster a greater sense of connection in the community ties. Creativity and problem-solving community. Political social capital, especially are more economic and work force-based ad- when sparked by conflict, does not lead to the vantages than the currently declining measures same “desire to associate with each other” that of social capital such as volunteering and trust. allays people's “natural repugnance…for acting Therefore, the long-term benefits that Putnam in common” and allows them to act together, a lists simply demonstrate the overall victory of quality that Tocqueville finds vital for democ- economic influences over the community and do racy.162 Thus, while Campbell makes an interest- not lead to the close community ties necessary for ing argument, his idea of political social capital the individual and democracy. ultimately rings hollow. This movement toward economic and in- However, even if meaningful social capital dividual-based benefits over social or political is declining, authors such as Robert Putnam benefits developed in the rise of the creative still see possible positive effects of this diver- class. While the trends of the creative class do sity. Putnam continues his study of social capi- not necessarily reflect all Americans, the lead- tal and analyzes the possible long-term benefits ing role of the creative class will likely lead to of diversity, specifically ethnic diversity, in “E a trickle-down effect as their status increasingly Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in becomes a national goal. Richard Florida exam- the Twenty-first Century.” He begins by declar- ines in detail the rising creative class and their ing “increased immigration and diversity” as tendencies in The Rise of the Creative Class. As “not only inevitable” but “over the long run… highlighted previously, the creative class, while also desirable.”163 While admitting to diversity’s living in somewhat homogeneous communi- negative impact on “social solidarity and…so- ties, scores low on most measures of social capi- cial capital” in the “short to medium run,” he be- tal due to their choice of communities without lieves these negative influences can be improved high social capital. This trend underscores the and will later lead to positive benefits, including common characteristics of the creative class that “creativity” and “better, faster problem-solving” Florida finds. as well as “more rapid economic growth.”164 The first quality of the creative class, “a strong Putnam thus views the current decrease in social preference for individuality,” results from a de- capital as less worrying than it may seem and as sire to avoid conforming to “institutional direc- a positive influence to the better community and tives and…traditional group-oriented norms.” nation over time. 167 This tendency to avoid groups, especially Putnam concludes “diversity, at least in the those that encourage commonality, is diametri- short run, seems to bring out the turtle in all of cally opposed to community as a cohesive group us.”165 Geographic self-selection, group identity, with a common goal. Therefore, this aspect of and economic level have, according to his stud- the creative class actively works against the role ies, little additional effect on an already ethnically of community and could account, at least in diverse area. These findings then lead Putnam to part, for the decrease in social capital. Second,

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the creative class has a desire for a “diversity of democratic perspective of the individual as a part peoples.”168 While the diversity of the creative of a whole, which was an association necessary to class is limited by required educational and achieve one’s full potential. employment standards, the people within this Stephen Marglin also discusses the effect of emerging class favor “diversity” of “race, ethnic- economics on community in The Dismal Science ity, gender, sexual preference or appearance.”169 and emphasizes the “limits of thinking of human The desire for diversity is due to its “merito- behavior in terms of individuals calculating their cratic norms” of placing talent over all else and self-interest” and its effect on community.175 He the comfort it provides the members’ feeling of begins by highlighting the “essential” aspect of a being an outsider.170 This trend again leads to a community as its “rarely…freely chosen” iden- movement away from a connected community tity, at least in the past.176 However, instead of to a diverse community that is unlikely to unite inherited community ties, the ties have become a its occupants under commonality and, thus, lose choice due to “the American Dream…of mobil- high civic engagement. ity.”177 Mobility not only allows people freedom The characteristics of the creative class and to change their location but also encourages and their approach to community are all indicative even expects movement of the younger genera- of the emphasis on self-interest in the economic tion away from their birthplace, increasing the and political structure of America. Florida con- weakening of community ties. tinues his discussion of the creative class and Marglin argues that “the importance of ties of economically viable social ties in his article necessity” leads to a conflict between the “com- “Cities and the Creative Class.” The emerging munity” and “the foundational assumptions of workforce prefers “weak ties to strong,” because economics.”178 The market encourages and relies the “social structures” of strong communities, on “voluntary…opportunistic relationships” which were previously important, “now work which are “diametrically opposed to the long- against prosperity.”171 The previous ideal of “a term commitments” in a community.179 These close, cohesive community” now inhibits “eco- two aspects of American culture, the self-serv- nomic growth.”172 Florida also questions the ing, economic and the inclusive, community-fo- value of social capital which can both “reinforce cused, actively work against one another, result- belonging and community” and “raise barriers ing in an economic victory. As Marglin writes, to entry and retard innovation.”173 The emerging “the apparatus of economics itself influences the economic system is changing the needs of the kinds of choices both individuals and societies population; in doing so, a close-knit community make” and, therefore, the current economic sys- of place may lose its former value. tem “is part of the problem” of decreasing social Florida argues that the worry over decreasing capital.180 The two competing views of both the social capital and the interest in simply recreat- individual and their proper environment cannot ing the older form of community is both unpro- exist together and currently result in a move- ductive and likely impossible. Instead the focus ment away from community and the strong ties should be on what he terms the new “communi- originally thought to be necessary for democra- ties of interest” which are “defined by weak ties cy as well as individual well-being. and contingent commitments.”174 Florida’s out- This tension between self-interest and com- look again demonstrates the increasing focus on munity outlined in this literature review origi- self-interest given the word “interest” in the name nates from the founding of America and its instead of the traditional idea of a community as two conflicting presuppositions of human na- an inherited rather than chosen association. The ture. While the Federalists and Anti-Federalists economic system and its view of the individual as agreed on the end of government, “namely the a consumer now takes precedence over the older security of individual rights,” their disagree-

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 41 The Loss of Community in a Pluralistic America |

ments over the idea of liberty originated from and personal desires are more important to eco- different views of man and his natural state. 181 nomic prosperity than any group commitment. The Federalists agreed with the Lockean concept While the American economic system and the that “the individual takes precedence over the Federalists’ system encourages satisfying per- political community.”182 In this view, the human sonal desire, the Anti-Federalists considered the characteristics of “ambition” and self-interest encouragement of self-interest as dangerous to are encouraged “to counteract” opposing in- disturbing “’the public tranquility by interest- terests.183 Unrestricted choice is the ideal and, ing too strongly the public passions.’”189 Instead, thus, the Federalists worked to create a system the Anti-Federalists championed a small, com- that gives the individual as many options and as munity-based republic “to set bounds” on the much power to choose as possible with a repre- individual’s “passions and appetites.”190 With sentative democracy. With the ability to choose the current trend of disassociation from the com- whether to participate in government and which munity, Americans and their increasing focus representatives to pick and, additionally, the on personal and economic benefit are moving chance to spend time exploring other interests toward a destruction of the community and in- without the burden of political participation, the dividual benefits that a community provides, Federalists’ new model of democracy for Ameri- while individuals become increasingly secluded ca allows the country and its political, social and from one another and the places that they live. economic structures to all be dictated by indi- The risks of separating from community are vidual and personal choice. anticipated by Tocqueville. He writes that “as- In contrast, the Anti-Federalists believed that sociations are more necessary” in democratic community is central to democracy and saw “de- countries than other political systems.191 Close- votion to the community as the basis of liberty knit communities are essential to counteract the and good government.”184 They drew from Ar- encouragement democracy gives people to loosen istotle’s concept of man as “a political animal,” their familial and community ties and to “have who requires political participation to fulfill his interest” for “only those nearest.”192 Bit by bit telos.185 A community provides an individual democratic citizens are pushed to separate and, with the ability to “play their part in the whole ultimately, “confine” themselves “wholly in the in order to become fulfilled as individuals.”186 solitude of” their “own heart.”193 While democ- The whole that a community creates is “greater racy requires community to function properly, than the sum of its parts” or its citizenry and, it also encourages avoidance of associations and therefore, gives the individual more power as increasing individualism. Tocqueville cites “pros- part of a group than they would have alone, ac- perity” as “the greatest danger that threatens the cording to the Anti-Federalists.187 A community United States” as it leads to “envy, distrust, and is necessary to teach citizens “a love of liberty” regret.”194 The economic prosperity of America and to act as “a school of citizenship as much as directly endangers democracy by dividing citi- a scheme for government.”188 The Anti-Federal- zens and fostering isolation as economic inequal- ist adhered to the ancient science of politics that ity leads to tension. Thus, the economic viability viewed community as a necessary condition for of loose social ties aggravates an already present democracy without which democracy will fall pressure toward individualism that is present apart and the individual will become completely within but detrimental to democracy. separated from the government. The current trends in decreasing social capi- These two contrasting views of government tal are a result of not only the influence of the reveal the origin of the current conflict between economy but also the central concept of a citizen the economic benefits of loose ties and the com- on which the nation was founded. If American munity advantages of close ties. The individual society continues to foster self-interest through

42 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | Margaret Beedle

movement and choice, community ties are likely The majority of authors surveyed here see to dissolve completely. Diversity and loose ties the increasing heterogeneity and diversity in promote economic well-being but do not en- communities as the reason for the decline in so- courage similar individual and political well- cial capital, but the true origins of this decline being. Data revealing an overall preference for are clearly more complex and originate with our the individual’s interests over the group’s ques- nation’s founding, since the Federalist and Anti- tion the overall goal of individual development Federalists debated the same underlying ques- and force us to ask whether economic benefit tions on the eve of our republic. While Ameri- has become the sole measure of personal well- cans were once known for their ability to create being. If citizens continue to focus on benefitting many and varied associations, increased mobil- economically from separating themselves from ity and individualism in the second half of the society and avoiding close ties, then will every twentieth century have led to a decrease in so- other measure of personal success be forgotten? cial capital in communities. Nevertheless, these The role of community and the strong support factors, which negatively impact community, structure that it provides both for the individual positively influence economic prosperity and in- and for government may no longer have its for- dividual self-interest leading to an inherent con- mer worth. The Federalist idea of individual lib- flict between the economy and the community erty has thus become the primary national goal. that threatens to dissolve close community ties While this may have some personal and mon- and, in so doing, prohibit the functioning of an etary benefits for citizens, the erosion of commu- effective democracy. nity will lead to limited potential for individual development and flourishing as well as the even- Margaret Beedle is a sophomore in the Georgetown tual breakdown of a functioning democracy. College of Arts & Sciences studying Government .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 43 the chamber

Popular Protest and Regime Change

Daye Shim Lee

opular protest occasionally brings weak and dispersed in regional and ethnic pro- down tyrants, but rarely replaces tyr- tests, it is highly concentrated in a nationwide P anny with democracy. In this essay, mass mobilization. Consequently, the latter has I argue that popular protest is an inadequate much more potential to spark a revolutionary means of democratic regime change for three fervor that can drive people out to the streets to reasons that encompass structure and agency. challenge the tyrannical regime. First, popular protest seldom wins the support However, the role of popular protest is lim- of the entrenched elites, who generally maintain ited to bringing down tyrants as it often fails to their political, military and economic power af- carry its democratic momentum all the way to ter the fall of a tyrant. Second, mass mobiliza- consolidation. Building on Juan J. Linz and Al- tion alone lacks the resources to establish formal fred C. Stepan’s definition of consolidated de- democratic institutions that self-enforce rules mocracy as a state that has successfully complet- and facilitate active political participation among ed a democratic transition, I further define it as citizens. Last, a close association between popu- a stable democratic system in which governance lar protest and violence can greatly undermine follows the rule of law and politics reflects the the democratic legitimacy of the new regime. Al- true interests of the citizens.197 Why is popular though popular protest can provide momentum protest not a good instrument for attaining con- for democratic transition, it does not offer long- solidated democracy? First of all, popular pro- term solutions for democratic consolidation. test does not entirely remove the remnants of In order to discuss the details of why popu- the old regime, especially the elites. Historically, lar protest hardly consolidates democracy, it winning the support of the country’s entrenched is important to first address the conditions in elites by guaranteeing their privilege and wealth which popular protest can lead to democratic has been key to the survival of many tyrannical transition. Here, I define democratic transition regimes. For example, more than 500,000 core as the movement away from dictatorship and members of the Pyongyang elite have served as toward the beginning stages of democracy. For a foundation for the North Korean regime. Most a democratic transition to begin, popular protest of them are high-ranking members of either the must be accompanied by a strong sense of na- Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) or the Korean tional unity among the people.195 It is thus neces- People’s Army (KPA) and have enjoyed lavish sary for the public to share a prolonged political privileges such as wearing designer clothing and struggle that is characterized by “crosscutting living in an exclusive quarter of luxury homes cleavages.”196 In other words, popular protest built by Kim Jong-il himself for their loyalty to needs to carry a common cause that can unite his regime.198 Although ordinary North Kore- people across different regional and ethnic divi- ans live in extreme poverty, North Korea is no sions within a state in order to successfully over- less than a paradise for its elites. Unlike tyrants, throw a tyrant. Whereas power of the masses is however, the masses are unable to provide simi-

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lar incentives for the ruling class to cooperate, that provides them higher chances of becoming leaving many of them largely dissatisfied. This vocational politicians.201 Therefore, if the entire directly affects the post-revolutionary political class of political elites is cut off from the citi- outcome, because the elites are likely to main- zenry, the country is likely to remain in a state tain their influence over the national politics, of “feckless pluralism.”202 Given no particular military and economy even after the fall of a dic- incentives by the protesters, the elites will tend tator. The failure to win the support of the elites to pursue their self-interests rather than those of thus brings three main obstacles to democratic the people. consolidation. Furthermore, such disconnection between On the individual level, the elites’ decision the elites and the citizenry can also create a to not cooperate with the masses can lead them “dominant-power system,” in which every as- to cling to power. The elites can always take pect of power falls into the hands of the ruling advantage of the power vacuum that exists be- class.203 There is no clear line of distinction between the removal of the dictator and the next tween the state and the ruling class in a dom- national election to establish one of their mem- inant-power system, because the elites have bers as a new ruler; in this case, the result is a become the source of money, jobs and public restoration of dictatorship as opposed to an es- information. Here, the concentration of wealth tablishment of a new democratic regime. The at the top is particularly problematic in consoli- Romanian Revolution of 1989 serves as a good dating democracy. As the long hold on financial example. Although the revolutionary forces suc- power and resources by one group continues, the cessfully overthrew the Communist ruler Nico- masses are likely to suffer from poverty and star- lae Ceausescu, Ion Iliescu, a second-rank leader vation. Under such circumstances, people natu- of the communist party, soon emerged to fill the rally place the survival of their family as a higher resulting power vacuum.199 As the previously priority than the democratization of their state; second-ranked communist party members of the it is difficult to expect that the starving people National Salvation Front took over the political will care much about expanding their freedom scene, the Romanian masses were thrown back and political rights. As a result, the public will be into the politically disconnected status that had excluded from national politics once again and characterized them under Ceausescu’s regime. the revolution will be left without direction in This is also a trend in the contemporary Arab the aftermath of a dictator’s overthrow. world, where the army and previous ruling class In addition to the problem of entrenched show few signs of receding from power after elites, popular protest lacks the resources to es- the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni tablish formal democratic institutions that can Mubarak, and Muammar Gaddafi.200 ensure the rule of law and facilitate active po- Shifting the focus from individual to class, the litical participation among citizens. In order to elites can also become a structural issue. Even if achieve a consolidated democracy, there must the immediate political acquisition by the ruling be constitutional arrangements to protect both class does not occur, the public still needs to seek the civil and the political realms of the state.204 cooperation from the elites in order to run the It is especially important that the government state affairs and stabilize the new regime in the and other state apparatuses exhibit the charac- long-run. This is because the elites will eventu- teristics of a Rechtsstaat; the power of the state ally be the ones representing the interests of the is limited by law in order to protect its citizens masses as newly elected officials in the govern- from the arbitrary exercise of authority. This will ment. Unlike the majority of the public, who lack allow citizens to turn to courts and defend them- the material implements, the elites have the suf- selves in the case of the governmental abuse of ficient amount of time, education and resources the state power.205 If the system lacks the insti-

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 45 Popular Protest and Regime Change |

tutional measures that hold the legislators also democracy requires people to resolve any type accountable to the law, it is not a complete form of crises within the parameters of democratic of democracy. Without the rule of law, the po- procedures. When people become used to the litical rights of citizens cannot be guaranteed full democratic norms, they begin to realize that us- freedom and independence. ing violence to resolve political issues is not only Another structural mechanism that consoli- ineffective but also costly.208 But once violence is dated democracy requires is the development of used to achieve political goals, it serves as a prec- political parties. Political parties are significant in edent that creates a notion of violence as accept- that they “bridge the gulf between the citizenry able and leaves the future open to similar occur- and the formal political system.”206 They listen to rences. One instance of violence is likely to lead demands from society, discuss and evaluate these to another; the habit of protesting thus increases issues and formulate them into policies. In that the chance of instability rather than consolida- process, political parties improve the number and tion of the new democratic regime. The norm quality of political actors by recruiting people for of nonviolence is the structural variable that is the government and the legislative office. Without largely missing in popular protest. the parties that create a link between the masses Popular protest may seem like an effective and political society, citizens cannot fully partici- means of regime change at first. In fact, it can be pate in national politics and the system thus can- quite successful at bringing down tyrants from not be called democratic. While popular protest is power. Nevertheless, popular protest is inad- sometimes good at bringing down tyrants, it fails equate in terms of both structure and agency to to provide these structural mechanisms that help continue the democratic transition into consoli- sustain democracy. dation. For structure, popular protest neither re- Moreover, popular protest is a dangerous duces the gap between the masses and the ruling means of regime change due to its close asso- class nor develops formal democratic institutions ciation with violence. Although a great level of that will self-enforce rules and facilitate active public discontent can quickly unite people and political participation among citizens. It also un- sometimes successfully remove tyrants, the use dermines the democratic legitimacy of the new of violence as a political tool in these upris- regime through the use of violence. For agency, ings can hinder democratic consolidation by popular protest does not provide incentives for undermining the legitimacy of the new regime the elites to make decisions that are favorable to and leaving its future vulnerable to instability. the masses. Based on these reasons, I conclude How can a regime that came to power through that popular protest more often fails to replace violence simultaneously claim to rule by law? In tyranny with democracy than it succeeds. fact, such a regime might be perceived as no different from the old dictatorship, since tyrannical Daye Shim Lee is a sophomore in the Edmund A . regimes often attain and sustain power through Walsh School of Foreign Service studying Interna- violence.207 On the other hand, a consolidated tional Politics .

46 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 the santuary

From East to West: The Architectural, Liturgical, and Theological Implications of Orientation

Kieran Raval

"When we rise to pray, we turn East, where heaven begins. And we do this not because God is there, as if He had moved away from the other directions on earth…, but rather to help us remember to turn our mind towards a higher order, that is, to God."209 –St. Augustine, De sermone domini in monte

n the preface to the English edition of of Christ Himself.211 So central is the altar to the Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper Church’s liturgical life that Steven Schloeder as- I offers an uncommonly fascinating obser- serts that “[The church] is to be planned around vation: “Culture depends for its very existence the altar. The altar is the center of the church, it is on leisure, and leisure, in its turn, is not possible the raison d’etre of the building.”212 Indeed, the al- unless it has a durable and consequently living tar, perhaps better than anything else, expresses link with the cultus, with divine worship.”210 If the intimate relationship between architecture architecture may reasonably be considered a and liturgy. Yet, within the past fifty years, this constituent part of culture, then the indispen- harmony between liturgy and architecture that sible link between worship and culture of which is expressed in the prayer of the Church at the al- Pieper speaks becomes clearer. One need only tar, has been violated. The nearly universal shift consider the great medieval cathedrals or the from ad orientem worship to versus populum wor- baroque genius of St. Peter’s Basilica to begin to ship213 that the Church witnessed in the wake grasp Pieper’s point. of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Central, then, to divine worship is man’s Council has had profoundly negative architec- offering of sacrifice to God. Such has been the tural, liturgical, and theological consequences.214 mode of worship for millennia, from pagan sac- In discussing the consequences of this shift, rifices to the offerings burnt at the Temple in Je- it is imperative that we first consider the history rusalem, and finally, to the Christian sacrifice of of orientation in the Church’s worship. Serious the Mass. To offer to God what God has given scholarship on the period of Christ’s life has seems to be a primordial impulse in man. Criti- shed light on the event that is the genesis of the cal to the act of sacrifice is the altar, that particu- Church’s liturgy: the Last Supper. According lar physical location whereon or wherein sacri- to the table arrangements of antiquity, the Last fice is offered. The Christian altar, upon which Supper would have witnessed everyone reclin- the Eucharistic sacrifice takes place, is of such ing on one side of a long table, facing the vacant importance that it is even identified as a symbol side, from which food was served; the seat of

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 47 The Architectural, Liturgical, and Theological Implications of Orientation |

honor, presumably that of Christ, was that one east in prayer, the early Christians expressed farthest to the right.215 Louis Bouyer notes: their eschatological hope in the second coming of Christ, who would “appear as the rising sun The idea that a celebration facing the people which will never set.”221 This orientation evokes must have been the primitive one, and that a dynamism of the pilgrim moving, praying, especially of the last supper, has no other and gazing hopefully toward the east to “meet foundation than a mistaken view of what a the coming Christ.”222 In later centuries, as it be- meal could be in antiquity, Christian or not. came practically impossible to build every altar In no meal of the early Christian era, did the in an eastward orientation, the Church relaxed president of the banqueting assembly ever its regulation that every church be constructed face the other participants…The communal with its apse facing geographical east. However, character of a meal was emphasized… [by] the Church retained the practice of priest and the fact that all the participants were on the people together facing “theological east,” that is, same side of the table.216 towards the cross to express the same theological and liturgical principle of a people hopefully This analysis of the Mediterranean culture of gazing towards the Lord: “…The symbolism of antiquity dispels the myth that the Last Supper the Cross merges with that of the east. Both are mandates a liturgy in which everyone “gathers an expression of one and the same faith, in which around the table.” the remembrance of the Pasch of Jesus makes it Considering the arrangement of early present and gives dynamism to the hope that churches, critical scholarship demonstrates that goes out to meet the One who is to come.”223 “historically there is a strong, and practically Given that eastward orientation in prayer conclusive, argument for preferring the priest was the tradition of the Church for centuries, and people to face the same direction.”217 As the stemming from the earliest Christian com- seminal study by M.J. Moreton shows, this communities and rooted in significant theological mon direction of prayer was to the East, and we principles, it is curious, if not alarming, that the find evidence in early Christian buildings and Church all but abandoned this practice in a mat- archeological remains of such an orientation in ter of a few short years following the Second early prayer and liturgy.218 Citing F.J. Dolger Vatican Council. Perhaps more curiously, the and E. Peterson, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Council is entirely silent on the matter of the ori- writes: “…from early times, this orientation of entation of prayer at the altar. In no document of prayer towards the East, by which the cosmos the Council is there found any instruction to re- becomes a sign of Christ and thus a space for verse the longstanding and ancient practice of ad prayer, was underlined visually by the tracing of orientem worship: “One would look in vain for a a cross on the east wall of the buildings where statement in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy the Christian assembly met.”219 of the Second Vatican Council that said that Holy The decision to face east in prayer is hardly Mass is to be celebrated facing the people.”224 arbitrary. Such orientation (the word itself is What, then, was the justification for the sudden from the Latin oriens, east) is steeped in pro- shift to versus populum worship that led to a radi- found eschatological and cosmological theology, cal reordering of liturgy and sanctuary? which is often lost on modern man. As Cardi- Some point to the Roman basilicas as an early nal Ratzinger notes, “Early Christians, as they example of versus populum worship.225 Some ba- prayed turned towards the East, the rising sun, silicas, such as St. Peter’s, were constructed with which is the symbol of the risen Christ who rose a western apse, so that in order to offer the Mass from death’s night into the glory of the Father facing east, the priest would be facing the nave, and now reigns over all.”220 In looking to the and, thus, the people. However, Louis Bouyer re-

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veals the flaw in this conception of early church Bishops, by its own admission, has said that liturgy, namely that, prior to the consecration, the the document never carried the force of law, as people would be instructed to turn and face east, it was never approved by the entire conference with their backs to the altar.226 Though this seems of bishops; it was merely a commentary, though to be an awkward arrangement by modern stan- clearly a potent one.232 Regarding the GIRM, the dards, it underscores the importance the early Congregation for Divine Worship and the Dis- church placed on unity of orientation in prayer. cipline of the Sacraments issued a clarification Aiden Nichols traces the origins of versus pop- on paragraph 299 in which the Congregation ulum worship to the Enlightenment and a “con- denies that this paragraph abolishes ad orientem scious effort to divert attention away from the worship. The Congregation goes on to say that Eucharist as a sacrifice...and toward the much paragraph 299 does not constitute an obliga- more comprehensible notions of the Eucharist as tion to versus populum worship, but an option assembly and as meal.”227 In more recent mani- to be exercised according to “the topography of festations, the practice of versus populum worship the place, the availability of space, the artistic began in the German youth movements of the value of the existing altar, the sensibility of the early 20th century.228 This established a precedent people participating in the celebrations in a par- of practice and a foundation of expectation that ticular church etc.”233 This clarification echoes was brought to fruition by reading what was not the Vatican’s 1971 letter Opera Artis, which was there into the liturgical reforms mandated by the written, it seems, as an attempt at “damage con- Council. trol,” to stem the tide of post-conciliar church The most explicit call for versus populum reorderings that saw the outright removal and orientation in the Mass seems to come from destruction of priceless works of art, most nota- the General Instruction of the Roman Missal bly ornate altars and reredos. There even exists (GIRM), which contains the official rubrics for good argument that, based on the rubrics for the how the Mass is to be celebrated. Paragraph 299 Mass found in the GIRM (namely, instructions of the GIRM states: “The altar should be built for the priest to ‘turn towards the people’ and apart from the wall, in such a way that it is pos- then “turn towards the altar”), the post-conciliar sible to walk around it easily and that Mass can liturgy envisions the ad orientem position as the be celebrated at it facing the people, which is norm.234 Thus, while the versus populum orienta- desirable wherever possible.”229 This directive tion has been the de facto post-conciliar norm, it is echoed and expounded upon in Environment is, in liturgical practice and discussion, increas- and Art in Catholic Worship, a booklet issued by ingly becoming a point of contention at best and the U.S. Catholic bishops to interpret and direct, a point of confusion at worst. in a specifically architectural and artistic sense, Since liturgical orientation is expressed as an the liturgical reforms of the Council: “[The al- action that takes place in a space designed for tar] stands free, approachable from every side, such action, it follows that any confusion about capable of being encircled.”230 This document, liturgical orientation would be reflected in the which echoes the thought of Edward Sovik, is very space where such action takes place. At considered by many to be the impetus and guid- present, we consider churches constructed being principle for much of the “reordering” of fore the Council and reordered thereafter. Such churches witnessed since its publication.231 churches poignantly exemplify and manifest the While it appears that the post-conciliar shift Church’s confusion about liturgical orientation in orientation finds its justification in these doc- and the problems with versus populum worship. uments, it is not that simple. Despite the wide- Theological and liturgical confusion thus be- spread impact and influence of Environment and comes architectural confusion. Art, the United States Conference of Catholic Churches built prior to the Council were

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designed and constructed for a liturgical dyna- God, of which Ratzinger speaks.240 That liturgi- mism very much tied to ad orientem worship. cal process is reflected in Kieckhefer’s summa- Generally speaking, such churches exhibited a tion of the theological undertones present in the cruciform shape, or at least a linear nave, lead- longitudinal plan: “The ebb and flow of liturgical ing to a demarcated sanctuary. Within the sanc- movement echoes the rhythms of spiritual life tuary the altar was further elevated on a number and the Neoplatonic theme of procession and re- of steps and a crucifix was placed prominently turn: all things flow out from God and return to in the center, which, together with the altar, be- God; the worshiping soul turns to God in prayer came the focal point. Richard Kiechefer refers to and returns into the world.”241 By echoing and this traditional church design as the “longitudi- facilitating the movement of the spiritual life, in nal plan.”235 the context of the liturgy, the longitudinal plan It was within the architectural context of the is perhaps the highest expression of Sullivan’s longitudinal plan that the dynamism of the litur- maxim that "form ever follows function.” gy unfolded. The priest, in procession down the The harmony between the architectural nave, establishes the unity and relation among movement of the longitudinal plan and the spiri- clergy and congregation.236 Emerging from the tual movement of the liturgy breaks down when people, the priest enters the sanctuary and, in the orientation of the liturgy is turned complete- the Missal of 1962, begins the Mass with the ly around. The epicenter of this breakdown is antiphon Introibo ad altare Dei, “I will go to the the altar, which is the architectural and liturgical altar of God,” taken from Psalm 42. These ini- focal point of the church. In the post-conciliar re- tial words of the Mass announce the dynamism ordering of churches, two modes of introducing of the Mass that is then manifested as the priest versus populum worship have emerged, both of ascends the steps of the altar to lead the congre- which disrupt the architectural and liturgical dy- gation in prayer and journey to God. The unity namism of the longitudinal plan. of priest and people is maintained and under- The first model of reordering consists of the scored in their common orientation in the liturgy complete removal of the old high altar and in- and it is in the context of this unity that the priest sertion of a new freestanding altar (see Figure 1 offers the sacrifice of the Mass in an echo of the below). This approach has the common result of Old Testament Temple liturgy.237 The longitudi- leaving behind bare, stripped sanctuaries, often nal architecture facilitates and invites both phys- at the cost of the destruction of priceless altar- ical movement towards the altar, and spiritual pieces. Furthermore, it flies in the face of Vatican movement in prayer towards God, both of which directives on the preservation of art: “Disregard- converge and culminate at communion.238 This ing the warnings and legislation of the Holy See, liturgical and architectural movement reaches many people have made unwarranted changes its highest expression at both the elevation of in places of worship under the pretext of carry- the Eucharist wherein everything and everyone ing out the reform of the liturgy and have thus in the space, in the entire cosmos, converges in caused the disfigurement or loss of priceless adoration of the Body and Blood of Christ. works of art.”242 It is evident then that the longitudinal plan The alternative reordering model inserts a is intimately bound up with the cosmological new freestanding altar within the sanctuary in dynamism and imagery of ad orientem worship: front of the old altar, which is left partially or “There is perhaps no better space [than the lon- totally intact (see Figure 2 below 2). Arguably, gitudinal plan] for inviting movement, for sug- this presents more problems than the first ap- gesting a sense of passage or of kinetic dyna- proach, chief among which is the existence of mism.”239 Such “kinetic dynamism” is precisely two altars in the sanctuary. The unity of liturgy that liturgical process of “going out to meet” and architecture is violated, for the sanctuary is

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left with two distinct focal points.The new altar, the vision of the Second Vatican Council’s Con- the site of the celebration of the Mass, becomes stitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the tradition the liturgical focal point while the old high altar, and experience of the Church in light of that vi- elevated and often highlighted by reredos or a sion. Two principles set forth by the Council are ciborium, remains the architectural focal point of particularly critical: “The liturgy is the summit the church. In 1993, the Congregation of Divine toward which the activity of the Church is di- Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments pub- rected,”244 and: “There must be no innovations lished an editorial that, in part, addressed this unless the good of the Church genuinely and issue: certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some The placement of the altar versus populum… way grow organically from forms already exist- is not, nevertheless, an absolute value over ing.”245 It is within this context that one considers and beyond all others. It is necessary to the scholarly research, which definitively shows take into account cases in which the sanc- that ad orientem worship is the ancient and long- tuary does not admit of an arrangement of standing practice of the Church. It is also with- the altar facing the people, or it is not pos- in this context that one considers the Church’s sible to preserve the preceding altar with its hesitation about versus populum worship, as evi- ornamentation in such a way that another denced in ambiguous documents and clarifica- altar facing the people can be understood tions of such documents. to be the principal altar. In these cases, it is Thus, one must inevitably come to the con- more faithful to liturgical sense to celebrate clusion that the only long term, viable solution at the existing altar with the back turned to to these problems that is architecturally, litur- the people rather than maintain two altars gically, and theologically coherent is a return in the same sanctuary. The principle of the to ad orientem worship. Recent developments, unicity of the altar is theologically more im- including Pope Benedict’s liberalization of the portant than the practice of celebrating fac- Tridentine Mass and a growing respect for tradi- ing the people.243 tion in ecclesiastical architecture,246 suggest that the Church is slowly recovering her understand- The Congregation’s statement reveals an ad- ing of the importance of liturgical orientation. mission of the architectural and liturgical confu- Only therein will the Church find a true end to sion that arises when spaces that were designed the current confusion that besets her sanctuaries and constructed for ad orientem worship are sud- and her liturgies. Only “by turning to the east, denly transformed in a way that literally turns [does] the community [declare] the temple to be the entire intention of the space on its head. It superseded by Christ who is the true temple, the remains, then, to find a solution to the confusion world’s future in the world’s present.”247 of orientation that, with few exceptions, plagues the Church’s liturgy and architecture. Any such Kieran Raval is a junior in the Georgetown College of solution must begin with first principles, namely Arts & Sciences studying Government .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 51 the sanctuary

Christianity and the Fulfillment of Plato’s Quest for Absolute Justice

Brandon Sharp

“If we are just, our only gain is not to be punished by the gods, since we lose the profits of injustice. But if we are unjust, we get the profits of our crimes and transgressions and afterwards persuade the gods by prayer and escape without punishment.”248 -Plato, Republic, 336a

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and he was raised to life for our justification.”249 -Romans 4:28

ollowing the death of Socrates in 399 these, two stand out as the most significant. BC, Plato spent the remainder of his First, are there consequences for all evil deeds F life meditating on how Athens, the given that no human polity can possibly render best existing city, could kill a truly just man. perfect justice? If not, does this mean the cosmos We find his obsession with the pursuit of ascer- is created in disorder? taining what justice is reflected in nearly all of Profoundly concerned with the order of his dialogues. In the Republic, perhaps his most justice in the polis, Plato, in both Book II of the famous work, Plato methodically examines this Republic and Book X of the Laws, notes that the very question. While he thoroughly deliberated young men of Athens believe they can get away and discussed the virtue of justice for over half with committing evil deeds because they do not a century, his extant writings indicate that he believe that the gods exist and, consequently, died without a satisfying answer as to why the there is no authority in the afterlife to pun- city could kill the just man and the philosopher ish their hidden transgressions. For those who seemingly without consequence.250 Plato, like did believe in the existence of the gods, Plato his mentor Socrates, operated within the philo- writes that most of them believed that the gods sophical framework of natural law according do not take interest in the affairs of men or that to which justice necessitates that the perpetra- the wrath of the gods can be appeased through tor of a crime fully compensate the victim and simple supplications and gifts.251 For Plato, this publicly acknowledge his wrongdoing, accept- presented a significant political issue for thepolis ing the proper punishment of his deed. As we because he knew that men would commit evil see in the Gorgias, only through this procedure deeds without restraint if they knew these deeds could the disorder, writ small in the criminal’s would go unpunished.252 soul and writ large in the society as a whole, be Plato fails to fully resolve these issues be- rectified. Yet, in supporting this position, Plato cause his concept of justice premised on the nat- still fails to answer several vital questions. Of ural law was intended to bring out order in the

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polis and was not intended to render “absolute The dialogue then addresses the hypotheti- justice.”253 Yet four centuries following the death cal question of whether man does not or cannot of Plato, Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians re- acknowledge his sins and accept the punishment gard as the Savior of the world, introduced just deemed necessary to restore order to his soul. In such a transcendent order of justice. By paying stating that, “Not paying what is due when one for every single sin and wrongdoing man ever has done what is unjust is by its nature the first committed with his divine sacrifice on the cross worst thing,” Socrates reveals that the refusal and not excusing or dismissing a single one of to truly acknowledge what is wrong and to ac- man’s transgressions, Jesus delivered absolute cept the penal consequences deserves nothing justice and order. The questions Plato leaves less than the worst punishment, which for the open, therefore, Jesus answers, and hence the Greeks would mean some sort of eternal suffer- Passion is the true consummation and fulfilling in the afterlife, somewhat analogous to the ment of Platonic justice. Christian concept of hell. Let us first examine Plato’s concept or notion Thus we see that, for Plato, the rendering of of justice. In the Gorgias, Socrates engages in a dis- justice involves several key components. First, cussion on the use and purpose of oratory with the evil deed must be brought to light by the the sophist Gorgias and several young men whom wrongdoer’s own admission, which is a sign of we might identify as potential philosophers. But the contrition necessary to rectify the disorder when the question of whether it is worse to suffer resulting from his action. The community must evil or to do it arises, the topic of justice enters then be able to assess and administer a penalty the discourse and Plato, through his interlocutor that renders to the criminal what is objectively Socrates, presents his understanding of proper due to him. A subjective feeling on the part of the justice. One of the potential philosophers, Polus, judge of what is just does not suffice to restore echoing Thrasymachus’ positivist definition of order in the community and the cosmos more justice articulated in Book I of the Republic, claims broadly. Also, if recompense is due to specific that justice is simply whatever is in the interest individuals harmed by the infraction, it too must of the stronger man and that it is far better to do be objectively determined by the polity and ex- wrong than to suffer it. Socrates, who repeatedly acted from the wrongdoer. in the Platonic dialogues champions the principle But this conception of justification has a se- that it is never right to do wrong rebukes Polus rious problem. No human polity can possibly and states that “doing what’s unjust is actually render perfect justice because most crimes will the worst thing there is.”254 He proceeds to assert never be brought to light and hence will go un- that doing wrong creates a disorder in the perpe- punished. If this is the case, then how will jus- trator’s soul and should lead that person to feel tice ultimately be rendered for hidden trans- miserable and shameful. gressions? Without a complete revelation of all Socrates goes on to say that this shame will crimes committed in a society, complete harmo- continue to afflict the culprit until he accepts and ny and absolute justice cannot be realized. And receives a punishment,255 which demonstrates even if every crime were to be revealed and pub- his acknowledgment of his sin and his willing- lically acknowledged, this concept of justifica- ness to suffer to make it right. Thus, much to the tion suffers another obstacle on the path towards amazement of the young potential philosophers, achieving absolute justice for the arbiter whose Socrates declares that an unjust person could objective assessment of the penalty is needed to never be happy while his sins go unpunished fully restore order in the polis, are naturally fal- and that society as a whole is only reordered lible and non-omniscient human beings. With when the unjust actions of a man are corrected such judges, how can a “sinner” ever know if through punishment.256 he has “properly” atoned for his sins? How can

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human beings quantify sinfulness in order to de- came to earth incarnated in order to bestow the cide on the truly proper punishment? world with Godly teaching and, ultimately, to Believing that the order of things was in- be offered up as a perfect sacrifice on behalf of deed a cosmos and not created in injustice, mankind so that all of our sins could be forgiv- Socrates proposes in the eschatological myth of en. Previously, those who “knew” God’s law, the Gorgias that the soul is immortal and will be primarily the Hebrews, tried to achieve justifi- judged in the afterlife by the deistic judges for cation by following the commandments handed its actions on earth. When the immortal judges down to them from God via Moses. When they Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus will judge inevitably failed to perfectly observe these laws, the actions of each individual, they would take they would offer up an animal sacrifice as an act in account all crimes, including those com- of repentance.258 As recorded in the Tanakh,259 mitted and not punished and atoned for, into the Hebrews, for hundreds of years, continually consideration when deciding each soul’s place sinned and displayed wavering faith and obedi- for eternity. While this concept of justification ence to God.260 Eventually, God ended the need seems to solve the dilemma of crimes going for this ceremonial animal sacrifice when he sent unpunished and of dealing with mortal, infal- his Son to the earth to willingly offer himself as lible judges, it still fails to bring about absolute a divine sacrifice so that all who accepted his act justice. For, when these deistic judges arbitrate would be “credited” as redeemed.261 whether a soul before their court, based on its And so, by this act of propitiation, he assumes worldly deeds, deserves either a favorable eter- these transgressions and pays the objectively just nal dwelling or eternal punishment, the judges penalty, the penalty necessitated by God’s own must somehow weigh all of that soul’s good perfect justice, for all mankind. With man’s sin- and evil actions. If they decide that a soul’s ful debt having been paid, man was then given good deeds have outweighed the evil ones and the option to choose Jesus Christ’s sacrifice as a that the soul therefore deserves eternal reward, substitution for his own punishment, a punish- these judges have failed to achieve absolute jus- ment any sinner fully deserves, and for those tice because they have effectively ignored all of who choose to substitute the punishment Christ the evil transgressions committed by the soul, took on their behalf, they are “credited” with the since nobody, with the exception of Jesus, is full atonement. Jesus’ resurrection on the third truly blameless. Even if the judges disregard day both revealed to the world that Christ had those crimes committed in the name of mercy, indeed overcome the consequences of sin, death, the judges still fail to achieve absolute justice and signaled to the world that Jesus’ perfect and because mercy, by its very definition, comes at divine sacrifice truly fulfill God’s desire for jus- the expense of justice. In short, how could the tice. Only the example of the paschal mystery judges possibly justify their decision to permit does mercy not come at the expense of justice, the soul’s entry into Elysium when it has not for God’s desire for absolute justice was fulfilled properly atoned for all of its crimes? This ques- when Jesus, who as the second part of the trin- tion is never sufficiently answered, and Plato ity was fully God, bore the punishment for the remained troubled by it throughout his life. world’s sins on the cross, yet as a result, allowed Yet this question does have an answer, though for mercy to be extended to all. one which Plato could never have fathomed, At this point we begin to see how Christian for it remained unknown in Greece for nearly revelation is the natural answer to the questions four hundred more years. The solution is Jesus involving absolute justice that troubled Plato all Christ’s divine sacrificial death on the cross his life. While the judges of the Greek afterlife that paid for all the sins of mankind. According took all crimes into consider, so many injustices to Christian theology,257 Jesus, the Son of God, were dismissed and thusly went unatoned for

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when these arbiters decided that these injustic- hundred years later, he would have definitively es did not deserve eternal punishment. On the found that the world is made in justice, man’s contrary, Christ’s sacrifice left no injustice un- actions do have consequences in eternity, and the paid for and put to rest Plato’s worry that there universe is indeed an ordered cosmos. And I am would be no consequence and justice for men’s sure Plato would have enjoyed discussing these actions in the world. This is not to say Jesus gave topics with the architect of the cosmos when he the world a “free pass” by taking on their pun- came into the world in the first century AD. ishment, for the faith that the believer places in this sacrifice is false if not accompanied by genu- Brandon Sharp is a junior in the Georgetown College ine repentance. Had Plato lived in Athens four of Arts & Sciences studying Government .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 55 the archive

The Age of “Great Upheaval:” American Democracy from 1865-1905

Michael Budzinski

ost Americans are familiar with the in medias res, as it were, with Mrs. Lee’s trip to story of Rip Van Winkle. Falling Mount Vernon. It is here that we truly feel the M asleep before the American Revo- sense of a bygone era. Beginning in pre-revolution, Rip awakens twenty years later to find lutionary times, and continuing well into the that everything in his village has changed: the 19th century, much of America survived on an people are restless; the village has increased in agrarian lifestyle. Slaves, indentured servants, size; even the portrait of King George III has been plantation owners—all were removed from the replaced by that of George Washington. Rip is, urban way of life. Indeed, this setting gave rise to in short, bewildered by the staggering amount what would be known as the “leisured aristoc- of change that has taken place over the course racy” of the South: slaveholding aristocrats who of a mere twenty years.262 It could be said that enjoyed a life of relative ease.263 As the century Americans of the late 19th century faced a similar progressed, however, forces of industrialization identity crisis; they no longer lived in Abraham drove the urbanization of America, effectively Lincoln’s America. From the end of the Civil War eradicating the possibility of a pastoral or agrar- to the dawn of the 20th century, American life ian lifestyle for many. Mrs. Lee, herself a product experienced transformation on virtually every of this urbanization, points out: level: culturally, socially, economically, industri- ally, and perhaps most significantly, politically. Is not the sense of rest here [at Mount Ver- Such changes raised some very important ques- non] captivating?...Look at that quaint gar- tions. Above all, how should American govern- den, and this ragged lawn, and the great ment deal with these changes? Could it deal with river in front, and the superannuated fort them? Men and women of all backgrounds grap- beyond the river! Everything is peaceful, pled with these questions, often without coming even down to the poor old General’s little to a satisfactory answer. bedroom. One would like to lie down in it This essay will focus on two literary works in and sleep a century or two. And yet that particular: Henry Adams’ Democracy: An Ameri- dreadful Capitol and its office-seekers are can Novel and William Riordon’s Plunkitt of Tam- only ten miles off.264 many Hall. Though there is significant overlap in the themes of these two books, I will evaluate This idea of a moderately restful, rural life- them separately; to evaluate them side-by-side is style is now a quaint memory of the past. Mount to primarily engage in a literary, not historical, Vernon may only be ten miles away from the endeavor. By doing so, I hope to elucidate the in- Capitol, but it might as well be a hundred, nay, dividuality of each work, the historical contribu- a thousand miles removed. Work on the farm or tion each makes to this era in American history. plantation has been replaced by ceaseless hours Let us begin our discussion of the novel at the textile mill, the slaughterhouse, the shoe

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factory. Farmers and slaves alike have become terests masquerading as a force for public good. mere wage-earners; they are but small cogs in These, of course, are political parties; any politi- the growing machine of corporate America, cian who appeals to the “public good” is either a wholly divorced from the fruits of their labor. simpleton or master propagandist. What’s more, it seems that the power of polit- What—or who—were these “private inter- ical parties has grown alongside that of the cor- ests,” then? Broadly speaking, one can group porations. In George Washington’s eyes, parties them into categories of competition: North vs. were the tools that “cunning, ambitious and un- South; city vs. countryside; laborers vs. own- principled men” used “to subvert the Power of ers; “Americans” vs. immigrants (the list could the People and to usurp for themselves the reins expand almost without end). The salient point of Government.”265 A century later, for men like is this: in the decades following the Civil War, Ratcliffe, loyalty to party is only (supposedly) there would inevitably be “winners” and “los- surpassed by loyalty to country.266 Reelection is ers.” Furthermore, it is immensely difficult to what really matters most: “Public men...cannot label a certain side as morally “right” and the be dressing themselves today in Washington’s other “wrong.” By making this claim I do not old clothes. If Washington were President now, mean to suspend all historical judgment whatso- he would have to learn our ways or lose the next ever, but rather to highlight the moral ambiguity election.”267 Adams, then, has purposely chosen in this epoch of American history. Henry Adams Mount Vernon as the site of this comment, for it makes this point clear in his choice of charac- is the place to which George Washington retired, ters. The morally sound man, Carrington, is a in Cincinnatus-like fashion, after eight years former Confederate rebel—in other words, for as president. The United States had effectively many of that age, Carrington defined immorality. written Washington a blank check concerning Conversely, we find the antagonist, Ratcliffe, to the extent and duration of his power—“many be from a “respectable” New England family.271 people, including [Thomas] Jefferson, expected Whatever the case may be, it is evident that that he might be president for life, that he would competing interests led to innumerable politi- be a kind of elective monarch.”268 Washington cal problems. By the end of the novel, the reader did not cash this check, however, and instead cannot help but feel that these problems are left returned to his idyllic abode at Mount Vernon. unresolved. Through this trip to Mount Vernon, Adams con- George Santayana once stated that Ameri- trasts Washingtonian virtue and humility with cans don’t solve problems, they leave them be- the rapaciousness and lust for power of Ratcliffe hind. This spirit is epitomized in Mrs. Lee’s deci- and other modern politicians. sion to flee to Egypt at the end of the novel. She Party politics of the late 19th century merits came to Washington “bent upon getting to the some further consideration. Time and again, Rat- heart of the great American mystery of democ- cliffe insists that political parties are necessary, racy and government,”272 and soon discovered if for no other reason than to bring unity to the that American politics is hardly a mystery at nation.269 But is such a statement true? Was the all. More importantly, though, we see this spirit country united on any issue at all? These ques- embodied throughout the novel as a whole. tions lead to the ultimate question of all, which Race relations, perhaps the most fundamental Ratcliffe asks twice in the novel: “What is most issue in the postbellum period, are mentioned for the public good?”270 Here, it seems that Rat- less than a handful of times, and even then only cliffe tacitly admits there is no such thing as the obliquely. It appears that even the government “public good” in a society so fractured among wants to leave certain issues behind rather than regional, racial, and economic lines. Instead, solve them. Washington’s predictions have now there can only be an aggregation of private income to fruition: party politicians subordinate

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 57 The Age of “Great Upheaval” |

the good of the people to their own personal am- To fully understand the meaning of Plunkitt, bitions. Much of the book thus deals with brazen it is useful to draw a comparison to political phi- political corruption—using taxpayer money for losophy. Plunkitt often rejects philosophy and personal gain, etc. But politicians like Ratcliffe “book learning”—“Tammany leaders are not engage in a deeper, more pernicious sort of rob- bookworms”274!—in favor of a more practicable bery as well: failing to provide citizens—black or form of politics, yet it becomes increasingly clear white, farmer or wage earner, male or female— that he himself adheres to a specific political phi- with viable solutions to the most divisive issues losophy—namely, that of Machiavelli. Machia- of the day. In this regard, Adams’ novel casts se- velli, it is well known, propounded rious doubt on the government’s ability to effect positive change. a politics guided exclusively by consider- We now turn from the national scene to late ations of expediency, which uses all means, 19th century New York City. Given the stagger- fair or foul, iron or poison, for achieving its ing urbanization of America during this time, ends—its end being...the self-aggrandize- one could say, without much exaggeration, that ment of the politician or statesman or one’s the city was a microcosm of the nation at large. party.275 Nevertheless, we must not conflate the national with the truly local, for politics at the citywide Stated differently, the successful politician level was—and remains—something altogether (i .e ,. the Prince) must dispense with any ideas of different than the politics of Washington. In New “virtue;” since most people are driven by viscer- York City, the term “political party” morphed al passions most of the time, those passions must into the institution of political machine, in turn form the foundation of any type of politics. By guided by a political “boss.” These bosses—and playing to popular desires, the Prince can suc- George Washington Plunkitt in particular— cessfully maintain his grip on power. Plunkitt enjoyed incredible (though often overstated) seems to have grasped this reality: “There’s only amounts of power and wealth. In many respects, one way to hold a district; you must study hu- Riordan’s Plunkitt commands more respect and man nature and act accordin’.”276 He is, in other power than the bumbling President depicted in words, the Machiavellian Prince par excellence. Democracy. The remainder of this essay will thus We must, however, refine our definitions— devote itself to the examination of the complex for example, what do we mean by “passions” relationship between the political machine and in the context of 1890s New York? Most simply, the constituents it purports to serve. we mean the basic necessities of living: food, It must be remembered that Plunkitt of Tam- employment, shelter, etc. Plunkitt boasts that he many Hall is not, as it were, an “objective” ac- “can always get a job for a deservin’ man,”277 an count of George Washington Plunkitt—it is, ability which no doubt earned him the loyalty above all else, “a piece of persuasive or argu- of those he helped. He assisted citizens in other mentative writing.”273 Even so, this fact does not tangible ways as well, covering their housing preclude the possibility that Plunkitt contains rent or paying off fines, for instance.278 The re- kernels of the truth, or indeed that it is largely sults of this beneficence, Plunkitt hoped, would truthful. The veracity of Riordon’s account is not be felt at the ballot box, and he proved to be cor- what is at stake. Rather, considering the book’s rect. He held his position for about 35 years.279 almost ubiquitous and immediate acclaim According to Plunkitt, the relationship be- among American readers, I shall treat it as a por- tween boss, political machine, and everyday trayal of Plunkitt and Tammany Hall, focusing citizen was thus a symbiotic one: “The politician on the spirit it is meant to convey rather than its looks after his own interests, the organization’s historical accuracy. interests, and the city’s interests all at the same

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time.”280 While it is tempting to reject this state- of the people, by the people, for the benefit of ment out of hand, the quote certainly contains senators.”284 Though the quote is delivered in a some truth. Many immigrants, such as Irish- lighthearted way, its implications are profound- American Catholics, could not have fed their ly serious. Indeed, these implications lie at the families without the support of George Wash- heart of both Democracy and Plunkitt: if American ington Plunkitt. Tammany Hall helped fulfill democracy is comprised of the people and by the the basic needs of countless others, as well. It people, why does it fail to work for the people? is, therefore, simply incorrect to label Tammany Who is to blame? Ratcliffe provides a facile an- Hall as an inherently evil institution, capable of swer: “[N]o representative government can long doing no good. be much better or much worse than the society Perhaps it would be more accurate to call the it represents. Purify society and you purify the political machine a predatory organization. The government.”285 It doesn’t take much imagina- working poor of New York City had nowhere tion to dismantle this totalizing statement. else to turn to for help; they were essentially So what do Adams and Riordon mean to tell “forced” into their support of Tammany and us? On a basic level these men share a mistrust in of Plunkitt. Plunkitt’s definition of the political an increasingly centralized government, as well machine—that it helps the politicians and the as in powerful political parties. The major trends city at the same time—is therefore technically of their time—growing urbanization, industrial- true, though highly misleading. Over time, ization, politicization—raised issues heretofore what was once a symbiotic relationship—and unknown to Americans. Through their writings, I use that term loosely—corrupted into a de- Adams and Riordon at least acknowledge many cidedly parasitic one. People began to realize of these major problems. where Plunkitt’s true loyalties rested: he used Perhaps above all else, these authors have his political knowledge “for the benefit of his their misgivings about men (and women) with organization and himself,”281 not for the welfare totalizing worldviews—people like Ratcliffe. of the people. With this realization evaporated Evil can be found as much in politicians as it the political machine’s claim to the best form of can in the populace at large. Consequently, any governance. Out of this environment grew the “solutions” to societal, cultural, or political evils Progressive Era, with people like Jane Addams must be met with suspicion, especially when the and Lincoln Steffens calling for a different sort of government is involved. Since democracy is the reform, one that would meet the “human needs” rule of “the people,” everyone plays an equal of everyday people.282 In short, Plunkitt and oth- role in its health and particularly in its sickness. ers like him forgot Machiavelli’s other key piece The problem of democracy, in other words, is of advice for the successful Prince, namely: to democracy itself. avoid hatred and contempt.283 Henry Adams humorously writes that “de- Michael Budzinski is a sophomore in the Georgetown mocracy, rightly understood, is the government College of Arts & Sciences studying Government .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 59 the archive

A Gilded Microcosm Mark Twain as an Exploration of the Latter Half of 19th Century America

R .J . Barthelmes

ark Twain was the man of his time. it is real. I wonder if it is?”286 In this personal A study of the esteemed author’s example we see Twain reflecting, perhaps in a M life, habits, difficulties, struggles, boastful manner, upon the incredible opportuni- questions, and writings yields a compelling and ties he had enjoyed and the experiences he had surprisingly complete narrative of life in late 19th been able to cultivate over his lifetime. In a sense, century America. Twain was, after all, the man he lived a dream. who gave title to his time period, the Gilded During the second half of the 19th century the Age; but beyond a title, he contributed so much idea of the American Dream became prominent more. As a man and a writer he serves perfectly in the public discourse. There was a fundamen- as a medium to explore the greater picture of tal belief that in the United States of America, America during his time. Twain’s contributions opportunities existed beyond those of Old to the topics of American exceptionalism, the World Europe. Whether due to the belief in the transition from Victorian to American culture, vast availability of uncultivated land or simply the changing of the West, travel, and confusion in the character of the American people, having over moral subjects can be used as a microcosm won their independence from the tyranny of Eu- of ideas corresponding to the greater state of rope, Americans felt they had something special America. in their cultural framework. Twain, despite his During the time of Mark Twain, particularly later wariness of imperialism, was at the fore- the latter half of his life, America was in a place front of inspiring this belief in the idea of Ameri- of transition. Coming off of the hugely destruc- can exceptionalism which would perpetuate the tive Civil War, America struggled to find an sense of an American Dream. He traveled abroad identity amidst the rapidly changing character- extensively and wrote with fondness about the istics of the industrializing world which domi- opportunities in America and his affinity for his nated the late 19th century. During this period homeland. He conversed with the leading fig- there were opportunities for men and in some ures of his time, all living their own American cases women to do exceptional things with their dreams, and his novels romanticized quintes- lives. One case of an exceptional life lived was sentially American cultural elements. In explor- Mark Twain himself. Twain reflected upon this ing the latter half of the 19th century, Twain first fact in a March 19, 1893 letter to a Ms. Susan lands us in a culture oriented towards American Crane, saying: “I dreamed I was born, & grew exceptionalism. up, & was a pilot on the Mississippi, & a miner & The notion of American exceptionalism journalist in Nevada, & a pilgrim in the Quaker stemmed from the cultivation of a unique Amer- City, & had a wife & children & went to live in a ican identity, which was still very much under- Villa out of Florence- & this dream goes on & on way throughout Twain’s life with the movement & sometimes seems so real that I almost believe from Victorian ideals towards modernization.

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As Alan Trachtenberg, the noted American The modern man was accompanied by, or Studies scholar, discusses extensively in his perhaps created by changing dynamics in the landmark book The Incorporation of America: Cul- West, which Twain both experienced and docu- ture and Society in the Gilded Age, there existed a mented throughout his life. In general, through- strong overtone of Victorian cultural sentiment out his writings Twain exhibited “the tendency in the United States both during and immediate- to romanticize the past, especially life in small ly following the Civil War, particularly among towns and rural areas.”290 He had great nostalgia the Southern gentry. Even in American cities, for the past state of life along the river and in there was “a double-edged tradition [which] the West in general. Indeed, Twain once wrote in bequeathed (with the help of Bunyan) images of his personal notebook, “the romance of boating Vanity Fair as well as of a city upon a hill, a fab- is gone, now. In Hannibal the steamboatman is ric of images of corruption, sin, and destruction, no longer a god…Their pride is apparently rail- which colored the secular perceptions of many ways …an affectation which prevails all over the Americans in these years.”287 America was flirt- west.”291 The West slowly changed: “As railroads ing between the Old World adherence to Victo- replaced old transportation systems and bridged rian ideals and the onslaught of a new culture the nation’s open space, vast demographic, so- brought forth by modernization. Twain, as an cial, political, and cultural changes were on their individual, played the line between the modern way, as Twain, nostalgically notes.”292 With the man and the Victorian man fairly often. Known rise of the railroad and the increasing industrial- by some as a traveling vagrant, he married into ization of America, the prospects of mining out as Victorian of a family as possible through Oliv- West and the mass production of food, the West ia Langdon. He could in many ways fit into both gradually changed from the romantic notions worlds. Thus his occasional ventures into the Twain loved to write about in works like Adven- life of a modern man, which generally included tures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry drinking alcohol and being crude in a workplace Finn . setting, conflicted with society’s expectations That Twain could even have this romantic of a Victorian mannered gentleman. Take, for perspective on the past relied on his ability and instance, the Whittier Dinner Speech (given by privilege to travel and see many different as- Twain in honor of General John Whittier’s birth- pects of changing America. Here we encounter day in December 1877 in front of a gathering of another key in exploring the 19th century: the famous American writers including Emerson, upsurge in the amount of travel by Americans. Longfellow, and Holmes) which “provides an Twain’s travels are legendary and took him not excellent account of both [Twain]’s motivation only all over the country (including modern day for using his humor to deconstruct this cultural Hawaii) but all around the world. Along the idol, and middle-brow American society’s an- way, Twain found himself examining the social gry response to the speech.” “On December 26, and cultural fabric of the places with which he for example, the Globe reprinted an attack from came into contact. This much is clear through the Cincinnati Commercial that accused Twain of his many letters and writings documenting his lacking ‘the instincts of a gentleman.’”288 As far journeys. In his life of travel, “Mark Twain…in away as Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News, addition to questioning his own assumptions while poking fun at Boston’s excessive outrage, about America, also confronted the larger world called Twain’s “bar-room” speech offensive to of colonialism, by Western European powers, as every intelligent reader.”289 Twain’s involvement well as the Russian conquest of Central Asia and in this affair perfectly represents the tension be- the Ottoman domination of vast stretches of the tween the end of the Victorian era in America Middle East.”293 Having the opportunity to inter- and the rise of the modern man. act with the cultures and political frameworks

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of this vast number of places, Twain was on the Fishkin, in her famous work Was Huck Black?, cutting edge of the travel movement. He specifi- points out an exceedingly important aspect of cally writes about his experiences in these inter- Twain’s writings by highlighting “the role previ- national places in Innocents Abroad and A Tramp ously neglected African-American voices played Abroad . Throughout these accounts and just in in shaping Mark Twain’s art in Huckleberry his own thinking, Twain became emblematic of Finn ”. 296 Twain understood the role that African- the new type of American traveler, one who was Americans played in American society, and de- not just touring Europe for the sake of a tradi- spite his short stint in the Confederate Army, he tional survey of the Old World but instead trav- was a fairly outspoken critic of slavery. His rep- eling for leisure, travel’s own sake, and in order resentation of the struggle Huck Finn has with to glean material for literary works. regard to dealing with the realities of slavery are As Twain travelled, he encountered a num- a perfect depiction of the identity crisis America ber of issues abroad, around America, and at was going through leading up to the Civil War. home, all of which left him flustered, like much Further, it captures the portrait of America after of American society, as to the state of the country the Civil War, as the nation had to figure out and world. Twain was “ultimately dominated by how to move on following the end of the slavery the world around him, (as he was always) strug- system. Managing to reconstruct the nation with gling to understand his role within it.”294 This, African-Americans in society as freemen was as the world around Twain in the 19th century was confusing as Huck’s struggle to figure out how characterized by complex moral issues in the ar- to relate to Jim on his raft. Here again, Twain’s eas of religion, race, and imperialism. writings and real life struggles with a complex Foremost, on the subject of religion, in analy- issue parallel the wider dynamics at work within ses of his works, Twain is often characterized as the American public. hating Christian religion. In reality, his struggles The final moral qualm which was particu- with religion reflect the confusing and unclear larly noteworthy in the life of Mark Twain was trends at work within American culture regard- the growing sentiment of imperialism in Amer- ing Christianity, the dominant religion. Twain’s ica. Exploring Twain’s perspective on this issue musings about God through the voice of Huck- demonstrates the confusion within American leberry Finn are extremely well known and they society as to whether the country should en- highlight a vast dichotomy in American culture: gage in imperialism or not. Twain himself was how a religion could be practiced by both the staunchly on one side of the issue. For “Twain’s slave-owners and the enslaved of society. Twain writing in The Innocents Abroad can be contextual- could not stand the hypocrisy committed by ized in a nearly lifelong anti-imperialist position, Christians over slavery and other issues during perhaps inaugurated on this voyage across Eu- this time. His direct writings concerning reli- rope and the Near East.”297 His experiences in gion, such as his novella The Mysterious Stranger, the Old World left Twain believing that Amer- often concerned and “affirmed a darker view of ica had a duty to rise above the impulse to take humanity.”295 But Twain’s grappling with reli- over other territories as a rising powerhouse in gion highlights the fact that in late 19th century the world order. However, his moral objection America, religion was changing and seeking to to the issue, juxtaposed with the political ben- find its place as people looked hard at the ques- efits of overtaking land beyond the boundaries tions which Twain raised in his works and opin- of America, perfectly describes the macro level ions. argument regarding imperialism in America in Second, Americans at the end of the 19th cen- the late 19th century: whether America should tury were grappling with the results of the Civil extend its influence for reasons of gaining more War and the aftermath of slavery. Shelley Fisher power through imperialism or uphold a moral

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standard by not subjugating other populations America’s 19th Century. Twain served as a mi- for control of their lands. crocosm of America in his time, and the amount As demonstrated by these key issues— that can be gleaned from the exploration of his American exceptionalism, the transition from life and writings regarding America in the 19th Victorian to American culture, the changing of century is truly remarkable. the West, travel, and confusion over moral subjects—Mark Twain’s writings and lifestyle are R .J . Barthelmes is a senior in the Georgetown College woven into the very fabric of the latter half of of Arts & Sciences studying American Studies .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 63 the archive

Boundaries and Brother Mobberly, S.J. Justifications for Slavery from the Margins of the Antebellum South

Bridget E . Power

istorians disagree over the bound- these physically demanding duties. In addition aries of the American antebellum to harvesting crops, slaves cared for planters’ H South. For some, the South exists families and maintained their homes. For land- below the Mason-Dixon Line or in the states owners, slaves were an extension of their prop- that joined the Confederate States of America; erty and had “measurable monetary value.”298 for others, it crosses the Mississippi River and As historian James Oakes writes in The Rul- extends westward. What is certain, however, is ing Race, “If the initial price was exorbitant the that there were edges of the South where slavery slave was still a profitable investment as far as was contested. Here in the geographic margins slaveholders were concerned.”299 Slaveholders there were individuals who felt distanced from felt that if they managed their slaves well, they the institution of slavery. But by examining the could create a larger, more self-sustaining work- life and writings of Joseph Mobberly, a Jesuit force. Even if an individual was not a landowner brother from Maryland, it becomes clear that himself, he might be an overseer, a slave-trader, support for slavery was strong in these margins, or a merchant who in some way benefited from although people here weighed the economic, the income that planters were earning because moral, and social justifications for slavery differ- of their slaves. ently than Southerners for whom slavery was a White Southerners connected to the web of more central part of their lives. Mobberly’s per- slavery in different ways, yet the “majority of spective demonstrates the resiliency of slavery; white families in the Deep South had a direct in geographically and demographically diverse material interest in the protection and preser- regions, slavery was a uniting force for South- vation of slavery.”300 Planters, overseers, trad- erners. An examination of Mobberly’s Mary- ers, buyers, and newspaper publishers all had a land, at the margins of South, will show how in vested financial interest in slavery as an industry, such places this was true. whether it was earning money from the crops Before we can understand how people from that slaves harvested or from advertisements in the margins valued certain justifications for slav- local periodicals. In Soul by Soul, Walter Johnson ery over others, it is necessary to establish the ex- suggests that while people facilitated the pres- tent to which economic motivations compelled ervation of slavery in a myriad of ways because people in the heartland of the South to support of its economic profitability, they often justified slavery. For white Southern planters who grew their involvement by adopting “paternalistic” cotton or sugar or rice, slavery was logical; plant- attitudes.301 Oakes agrees when he writes that ers purchased slaves, and gleaned free labor for “Paternalism was an articulate ideology in the

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antebellum South,”302 but he acknowledges that slavery until “social and economic change had there were unique “areas of settlement around encouraged Evangelicals to assimilate.”311 For the South’s perimeter,” where “political and so- thousands of Evangelical Southerners, economic cial traditions were…distinct from the typical pressure eventually overpowered and reshaped patterns of slaveholding.” 303 He suggests that their moral convictions concerning slavery. paternalism was more pronounced in these re- Although they believed in the institution gions as slaveholders here had a “sense of isola- of slavery, many white Southerners, including tion [which] was soothed only by their pride in Evangelicals, did not own many slaves since “sta- the patriarchal ideal.”304 However, Oakes fails to tistically...the typical slaveholder was not even a note the religious influence on such paternalism. planter.”312 White Southerners across socio-eco- Many slaveholders reasoned that as owners, they nomic levels tended to support slavery since rac- provided slaves with religion, familial stability, ism “made believable an ideology that placed all or support, but this paternalism had a high de- whites on an equal social and political level.”313 gree of “plasticity.”305 While economics were the Many lower-class white people believed that one most significant reason for supporting slavery in day they or their children could be slaveholders securely-Southern areas, vocalizing economics as because of opportunities for “social mobility.”314 the main reason made some people feel uncom- These economic motivations for supporting fortable, and so they attempted to justify their re- slavery were also present in Southern cities as a lationships with slavery as “paternalistic.” tenth of slaveholders lived in urban settings.315 This religiously informed paternalism was In Origins of the Southern Middle Class, Jonathan especially prevalent among Evangelical Chris- Daniel Wells suggests that instead of viewing tians who initially rejected slavery because of the slavery as something removed from capitalism, moral evils that it propagated, but later changed Southerners were in fact capitalists. “Industrial- their position on slavery, claiming that it was a ization and urbanization… tended to facilitate force for moral and social good. Writing during the maturation of abolitionist sentiment in the the 1820s, before the change of Evangelical opin- North, [but they] only strengthened the hold of ion, Joseph Mobberly criticized Evangelicals for slavery in the South”316 since Southerners viewed their abolitionist views. He was not aware that slavery as “the foundation upon which southern an “Evangelical metamorphosis from alien- manufacturing could build.”317 While the South ation to influence”306 was already taking place was mostly characterized by vast rural planta- as Evangelical Christians began to accept and tions, Southern cities like Charleston and New promote slavery. They went from being viewed Orleans were rapidly industrializing. Urban ar- as “a movement with radical implications to a eas should not be considered marginal locations model of social propriety.”307 Georgetown Uni- within the broader “South,” as the people who versity’s own Professor Adam Rothman writes lived here had strong financial and personal ties in Slave Country that “strong pressures muted to slavery. evangelical antislavery,”308 and as a result, these White people who lived incontrovertibly “pious white people in the Deep South turned in the South (as opposed to those who lived in their attention to improving slaves’ condi- the margins) supported slavery primarily be- tions instead of attacking slavery.”309 Donald G. cause they viewed it as financially beneficial, Mathews explores this further in Religion in the regardless of their socioeconomic status. While Old South, suggesting that Evangelicals’ change they might have justified slavery because they of views was due to their realization that slav- perceived its positive moral and social implica- ery was economically beneficial. He argues that tions, they ultimately engaged in the slave-trade Evangelicals, who made up a substantial portion because of its enormous economic impact on of the South’s population,310 were opponents of Southern life. How then do we explain the at-

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tachment that those in the geographic margins he becomes.’”331 He also blamed slave-owners of the South felt towards slavery, although they for their harsh treatment of the land, saying that were not financially profiting from it? The life they had wrecked “poverty of the soil.” Howev- and writings of Brother Joseph Mobberly, S.J. er, he recognized that this agricultural practice demonstrate how the economic, moral, and so- was necessitated by the fact that “Their slaves cial justifications for slavery were adapted in the must have employment – hence they must cul- margins of the South. tivate extensive fields which are much to [sic] Born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in large for their stocks of manure – but their peo- 1779, Joseph Mobberly enrolled nineteen years ple must not only be employed they must also later at Georgetown College where he began be supported – hence the necessity of the corn & studying for the priesthood.318 However, at some tobaccos systems.”332 point during the next several years Mobberly de- After observing slavery’s destructive effect parted, but “returned to Georgetown as a brother on the agriculture of Maryland plantations, of the Society of Jesus” in 1805.319 In a written ac- Mobberly concluded that slavery was an unwise count from 1825, Mobberly remembered, “After practice at St. Inigoes and the other Jesuit plan- remaining about 6 months at the College in dif- tations. R. Emmett Curran, a Jesuit historian, ferent occupations, I was, in June of 1806 sent explains that “As early as 1815 Mobberly was to St. Inigoes farm in St. Mary’s County.”320 St. urging that the mission rid itself of its slaves and Inigoes was one of several Jesuit-owned planta- entrust the land to tenant farmers and the pro- tions in Maryland, and Mobberly “managed” this duction of wheat.”333 The timing of Mobberly’s property from 1806 until 1820,321 when he “was position on this issue is significant: in 1814 “an relieved of his plantation duties”322 by the Jesuits’ abortive uprising had occurred within sight of Corporation of the Roman Catholic Clergymen.323 St. Inigoes.”334 However, Mobberly’s views were Peter Kenney, an Irish Jesuit, visited St. Inigoes in also motivated to a lesser degree by economic 1820 and reported that the plantation was in debt factors. In 1823, he reflected on his time at St. and the slaves were living in poor conditions.324 Inigoes, writing, “I formerly made a calculation At this time, “only fourteen of the sixty-one slaves of what the farm expended in the support of the at St. Inigoes [sic] were working the land.”325 Blacks – the amount of that year was more than Mobberly’s slaves “compiled a litany of com- $1800 – I repeated the calculation a few years af- plaints to cite against” him, which they presented ter, & found that it exceeded $2000.”335 Mobberly to Kenney.326 As a result, Mobberly was forced to then proceeded to consider other factors, such return to Georgetown.327 In his writing from the as the price of bread and wood and rechecked 1820s, Mobberly “referred longingly to the land his work before stating, “Having duly consid- and people of St. Inigoes during his self-perceived ered all things, I then thought as I do now, that exile”328 at Georgetown College. the farm would do much better without [slaves] Between 1823 and 1825, 329 Mobberly record- than with them.”336 ed his version of some of the events that had oc- While Mobberly recognized that he was just curred during his fourteen years at St. Inigoes. one of many Maryland Jesuits who had opinions He reflected on his interactions with slaves and on the issue, he believed that allowing slavery slavery to such an extent that historian Thomas to continue on the Maryland Jesuits’ plantations Murphy, S.J. calls Mobberly “the most prolific did not make sense. Economically, it was proving Jesuit author on the slavery issue.”330 In his writ- difficult, and the slaves were becoming “more ing, Mobberly criticized slaveholders and slave restless under the influence of abolitionists”337 managers, complaining, “The present white as time went on. Mobberly believed that selling generation seem to lose sight of the old obser- the slaves was the solution because it did not vation ‘the better a negro is treated, the worse undermine the institution of slavery. The social

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order would remain intact, just not on St. Inigoes ther agricultural nor economic stresses as rea- or in Maryland. Eighteen years after Mobberly sons to end slavery. What was most important was fired from his managerial role at St. Inigoes to him was that slavery continue to exist because the Jesuits chose to sell their slaves, as Mobberly of the social structure that it provided. He advo- and others had suggested. Henry Johnson, the cated for the existence of slavery broadly (he did former governor of Louisiana, and his business not make any specific references to St. Inigoes, partner bought all 272 of the Maryland Jesuits’ the Jesuits’ plantations, or Maryland), implicitly slaves in 1838 for $115,000, $17,000 of which suggesting that these agricultural and economic “was applied to the $30,000 debt Georgetown reasons were less significant to him. had incurred through [Fr.] Mulledy’s ambitious In “Slavery, or Cham,” Mobberly argued that building campaign when he had been rector.”338 slavery played a critical role in society, stating, European and American Jesuits differed in “Where slavery exists, beggars are rarely found. their views on the place of slavery on Maryland We must therefore conclude that slavery is not plantations, but neither group viewed econom- only lawful, reasonable and good, but that it ics as its chief priority. One of Mobberly’s letters is also necessary.”343 His racism permeated the reveals that there was a diversity of opinion be- whole document. At one point he said, “It may tween international and American Jesuits when be asserted with confidence that at least two he wrote, “Our Society (as it seems to me) is di- fifths of the human family are deficient in parts vided into two factions, of which one is made of intellect.”344 up of the Americans and the Irish, the other the To justify his position, he looked to the Bible, Germans and other Europeans.”339 Interestingly, but also relied heavily on secular sources. Mob- the Irish were already aligning themselves with berly mentioned Thomas Jefferson’s opinion on Americans, perhaps because of their shared lan- slavery’s necessary social function in three dis- guage. The division among Jesuits grew as the tinct places within “Slavery, or Cham.” He ap- possibility of selling the Jesuits’ slaves increased, preciated the Old Testament because it presented and “It was the Europeans [Jesuits] who were evidence for slavery and hierarchy in Abraham’s most vocal in opposing the sale.”340 These for- life, and criticized interpretations of St. Paul’s eign Jesuits believed that slavery needed to be writings that suggested that St. Paul viewed slav- sustained on their plantations, probably because ery as immoral. Mobberly insisted that when they saw themselves as having a greater moral “St. Paul often mentions spiritual freedom,” he role to play in the lives of their slaves. Curran is advocating for Christian mastership, and not explains: “Had the alliance between European physical freedom since St. Paul “never would Jesuits and local procurators had its way, there have requested Philemon to receive and set free might well have been increasing efforts to make his slave Onesimus that had absconded for a time; the Jesuits’ estates models of Christian slavery, but he would have commanded him to do it.”345 such as Christian evangelists were attempting Informed by his textual engagement with Bibli- to create elsewhere in the South.”341 Conversely, cal and non-Biblical sources, Mobberly’s racism Mobberly, who had died in 1827, was interested caused him to see slavery as socially necessary. in preserving slavery, but not in Maryland. The Some could argue that as a member of the institution of slavery was not functioning prop- Jesuit community, Mobberly would have been erly there, so slaves needed to be transplanted to less interested in the economics of slavery than places farther south, like Louisiana, where slave- the average Southerner who lived in Maryland holders and the land could better support slaves. or in other parts of the geographic margins of the Thus, in his 1823 “long philosophical defense South. But Mobberly’s economic concern shows of slaveholding in his private diary”342 titled that he shared a concern with laymen on this is- “Slavery, or Cham,” Mobberly mentioned nei- sue, and it was this concern that compelled him

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to advocate for the sale of the Jesuits’ Maryland government by congregational participa- slaves. He recognized that slavery was financial- tion rather than centralized authorities. All ly draining the Maryland Jesuits’ plantations, four denominations posed a direct threat to but he continued to support slavery as an insti- the social paternalism nurtured by the Jesu- tution because of the structure that it provided its… Mobberly’s hostility to them showed to Southern society. that clericalism was a major but unappreci- Interestingly, the moral ramifications of slav- ated reason why Jesuits generally resisted ery do not appear to be a significant concern abolitionism.352 for Mobberly. He rarely mentions Christ in his writing,346 although his Christian outlook is evi- In addition to this vulnerability toward congre- dent in the way that he viewed the responsibili- gational Protestants, it is possible that Mobberly’s ties of masters to teach and offer sacraments to position as a Jesuit brother, and not a priest, ac- their slaves.347 He saw no conflict in being both centuated his feelings of clerical vulnerability, a slaveholder and a Jesuit, and he directly ad- since brothers traditionally “supported the So- dressed the issue of his concurrent identities in ciety by undertaking the daily domestic chores “Slavery, or Cham,” writing, “Can a man serve and craft trades necessary for maintaining the God faithfully & possess slaves? Yes.”348 Mob- Society’s communities and institutions” and did berly’s main concern about slavery was that it not have to be as accomplished as Jesuit priests.353 uphold its important social function of main- With experience as the manager of a St. Ini- taining social hierarchy. Just as economic strains goes, Mobberly feared insubordination, and were secondary concerns for Mobberly, so too wanted to protect the social structure that slav- were any moral advantages that slavery could ery provided. In “Slavery, or Cham” he argued provide. that “Man, being the noblest work of God’s As mentioned earlier, Mobberly was highly Creation is constituted Master and King over critical of early Evangelical Christians because all living creatures,”354 taking this to justify slav- of their abolitionist tendencies and their “wish ery. Mobberly saw the dark skin of slaves as a to meliorate the temporal condition of the hu- direct correlation to Cham’s curse as recorded in man race.”349 In “Slavery, or Cham,” Mobberly Genesis: “a resemblance exists between the cir- enjoyed mocking Martin Luther and his fol- cumstances of Cham’s crime, & those of negro lowers in the “Presbyterianism, Baptism [sic], infants at the present day.” He transposed the Quakerism and Methodism”350 traditions. But racial hierarchy that he read of in Noah’s lineage Mobberly’s references to Evangelicalism reveal in the Old Testament into the Antebellum South. his own insecurity that these Protestant revival To soften his pronouncements, Mobberly said traditions were challenging systems of author- that black people “do not differ in their nature ity in the South. Mobberly wrote numerous lines from the rest of men. The only distinction that of “Slavery, or Cham” in Latin, emphasizing his exhists is the mark of a particular crime.” Mob- education and intellectual superiority, whereas berly’s acceptance of his own position in this Evangelicals were just beginning to value formal ordered hierarchy is evident through his defer- education to a greater extent during this time. 351 ential tone and diction in his December 7, 1824, Thomas Murphy, S.J. agrees that Mobberly felt letter to the Jesuit’s Father General, where he threatened by these congregations of Protestants uses phrases such as, “It is not appropriate for and that this made him an opponent of abolition, me to write anything to you because I am lowly explaining: and of humble station.”355 Mobberly’s writing also reveals that South- It is pertinent that [Mobberly] chose four erners still strongly viewed themselves as part sects [to mention] which were all noted for of a united “America” during the 1820s. He was

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equally connected to his country as a whole as supported the institution: it created a rigid so- he was to his region, although he lived right on cial hierarchy that automatically placed white the border where the divide would develop over people at an elevated level. While his perspec- the next several decades. As a Southerner and tive is at times surprising given his vocation as an American, Mobberly would have viewed the a Jesuit brother and his writings as a proponent eventual sale of the Jesuits slaves as morally de- of slavery, Mobberly shows why slavery was fensible and financially savvy. supported by so many people across the broader Mobberly’s writing is widely accessible “South” and why slavery as an institution ex- thanks to the transcribing done by those in- isted for so long. His actions and writings reflect volved with the Jesuit Plantation Project. His the struggles that many people at the margins essays and journals demonstrate that economics of the South experienced as they tried to sort was not the only, or even the strongest, factor in- out the economic, moral, and social demands of fluencing the institution of slavery in the South’s slavery in their regions. margins. Mobberly’s view from the margins of the South explains why white people who did Bridget E . Power is a senior in the Georgetown Col- not greatly benefit financially from slavery still lege of Arts & Sciences studying American Studies .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 69 the parlor

Blood and Holy Water: Dueling Moralities in Le Morte Darthur

Kevin Baird

n Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory code. By adhering to its tenets, one is honored by presents two moral codes for the Knights others and receives material rewards. The most I of the Round Table. The first, prevalent likely path to this illustrious future is through through most of the work, values a knight’s skill conquest – on the fields of battle and at the joust- in battle, service to ladies, and loyalty to kin ing tournament. Martial prowess becomes the and lords – the classic conception of chivalry. key to future happiness. The second, introduced in the quest to achieve Bors’ next return to prominence in the plot, the Holy Grail, expects knights to be penitent, in “The Book of Sir Tristan,” serves as a vehi- chaste, and devoted to God above all – essen- cle to introduce spiritual worthiness as a key tially the morality of monasticism. Unsurpris- element of knighthood. The knight comes by ingly, most knights live in accord with the val- chance to the Castle of Corbin, where he sees ues of the former, yet the fall of Camelot points a vision of the Grail. Bors is amazed, but King to the code’s ultimate hollowness. Nevertheless, Pelles warns him, “Here shall no knight win it retains an allure for Arthur’s knights, despite worship but if he be of worship himself and of their failure within its confines. These dueling good living, and that loves God and dreads God moralities are encapsulated in the character of – and else he gains no worship here, be he never Sir Bors, kinsman of Lancelot and achiever of the so hardy a man.”357 Bors, undeterred, requests Holy Grail. In turns chivalrous and chastened, to stay the night, and is shriven. At this point in proud and penitent, Bors illustrates the deep the narrative, it is revealed that Bors has only hold of knightly values, the rewards of adhering lapsed from his chastity once, resulting in a son, to monastic ones, and the relationship attained but has not strayed since. In the course of the between the two moralities by the last pages of night, Bors is pierced by a spear, battles Sir Be- Le Morte Darthur. divere of the Straight Marches, kills a lion, and When readers are first introduced to Bors, witnesses a battle between a dragon and a leop- they see a young knight who wants to establish ard. Finally, an old man enters, sings a song of his reputation. Bors urges his companions to Joseph of Arimathea (who brought the Grail to carry out an assignment to escort prisoners de- Britain), and tells Bors to leave, “for here shall spite a possible ambush, and in doing so reveals you have no more adventures; yet full worship- his own motivations: “Let us set on them fresh- fully have you achieved this – and better shall ly, and the worship shall be ours and cause our you do hereafter.”358 Bors’ evening in the cham- King to honor us forever and to give us lordships ber at Corbin is a turning point in the concep- and lands for our noble deeds.”356 Bors’ state- tion of knighthood. Although known as a good ment highlights the incentives of the chivalric knight, it is not his physical prowess or defer-

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ence to the customs of chivalry that enable him moralities can be. Bors agonizes over yielding to complete the trial at Corbin, but rather his to the lady and saving his brother, actions ex- piety and pure lifestyle. pected of knights, but the heightened spiritual As the Grail Quest begins, the link to mo- atmosphere of the Grail Quest alerts him to the nastic values is further strengthened, not least value of purity. Such tests prove ongoing. because hermits are frequently guides on the After many adventures, the Grail is achieved. quest. Soon after departing Camelot, Bors en- Strikingly, for Bors’s companions Galahad and counters a holy man who predicts that Bors Percival, this essentially means the end of their shall achieve the Grail. To aid in his adventures, earthly lives. Soon after the conclusion of the the hermit recommends a diet of only bread and quest, Galahad proclaims his desire to leave his water and gives Bors a scarlet overcoat to wear mortal life, one which is quickly fulfilled, and his for mortification.359 These penances highlight companions glimpse the knight’s soul assumed that Bors is a man not only of chastity but gen- into heaven. Percival, too, maintains no interest uine holiness. Beyond his physical mortifica- in the secular world and enters a hermitage, dy- tion, he consistently prays at moments of crisis ing after a year. These two knights, unlike Bors, throughout the quest and seeks guidance from never lapsed in their chastity, making them ex- holy men.360 Contrast his spiritual goodness ceptionally well-suited to the morality of mo- with that of other knights such as Gawain, who nasticism. Their utter disinterest in the pursuit hears a voice declaring, “Knights full of evil of glory and favor indicates their expectations faith and of poor belief, these . . . things have for this morality’s viability in the world. Depart- failed you; and therefore you may not come to ing from the scene after the Grail Quest suggests the adventures of the Grail.”361 Bors learns early that the virtues that won them the Grail will in the quest that he shall be one of the few to prove either unhelpful or unappreciated in the achieve the Grail. His previous holy living is secular world. The continuing saga of Bors, who enhanced by measures that demonstrate spiri- does return to Camelot, shows the incompatibil- tual rigor. By taking seriously the quest and ity of monasticism with a knight’s world. not treating it as another adventure, Bors sets Once back at Camelot, Bors reunites with himself apart from the worldly knights of the his cousin Lancelot, who tells him, “Know you Round Table. well, gentle cousin Sir Bors, that you and I shall Bors’s penances do not secure his escape never part in sunder while our lives may last,” to from continual trials of his purity. He encoun- which Bors fatefully replies, “Sir, as you will, so ters a woman who threatens to kill herself, will I.”364 Throughout Le Morte Darthur up until joined by all of her ladies-in-waiting, if the the Grail Quest, Lancelot served as the epitome knight does not yield to her love, but he tells of chivalry. He was a valiant, nearly invincible her, “There is no lady in this world whose will knight. Always fighting in the name of Queen I would fulfill as of this thing.”362 The ladies ap- Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur, Lancelot’s pear to carry out their threat, only for Bors to prowess earned him renown throughout the learn that the whole episode was a devilish il- land. His closeness to Guinevere, however, also lusion. Bors also faces the difficult choice of res- attracted attention. Through much of the narra- cuing his brother Sir Lionel from evident death tive, until near the downfall of Camelot, Malory or a maiden threatened with rape. Recognizing is cagey about the nature of the relationship be- that “if I help not the maiden, she is shamed, tween Arthur’s best knight and his queen. Some and shall lose her virginity which she shall characters are not so reluctant to opine. In fact, never get again,”363 he saves the woman but during Bors’ night at the castle of Corbin, the old earns his brother’s enmity. These trials illumi- man he encounters gives a message for him to nate how divergent the chivalric and monastic take to Lancelot:

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This adventure had been most convenient the Grail Quest. Guinevere proves too tempting, for him of all earthly knights; but since so however, and with the Grail a remote idea re- foul in him that he may not achieve such quiring stringent asceticism compared to the im- holy deeds, for had not been his sin, he had mediacy of the queen’s charms, Lancelot’s fidel- past all the knights that ever were in his ity to religious principles lapses.367 Immediacy days. And tell Sir Lancelot, of all worldly plays a large part in Bors’ conduct as well. No adventures he passes in manhood and longer is the Holy Grail held as a great, divine prowess all others, but in this spiritual mat- reward for righteous living, and holy men evi- ter he shall have many his betters.365 dently no longer dot the wilderness to offer encouragement and warning. With the glory of the In the world of monastic morality, Lancelot’s Grail receding into memory, the tangible ben- knightly exploits are insignificant. His sinful efits of the earthly conception of knighthood re- relationship with Guinevere nullifies his cour- gain their desirability. Having already acquired age, honor and overall loyalty to Arthur and his the Holy Grail, Bors puts aside his holiness when knights. On the Grail Quest, Lancelot learns that confronted with the urgent requirements of a fa- his sinfulness costs him the chance to achieve vored and popular relative. the holy vessel. This grieves him and makes As Camelot crumbles, Bors remains Lance- him vow to change his life, but no long-lasting lot’s closest adviser, which ultimately leads him change results. back to a holy life and seemingly finishes off the Bors’s behavior in the final two tales of Le golden age of chivalry. Bors predicts the trap Morte Darthur reflects the hold of knightly mo- lain for Lancelot and Guinevere by the jealous rality. The achiever of the Holy Grail leaves knights Aggravain and Mordred, but Lance- aside the aura of holiness that enabled that lot persists in the affair and it is revealed to the achievement. He now becomes Lancelot’s loyal kingdom. Bors affirms, “As we have taken much sidekick, guarding the great knight’s interests weal with you and much worship, we will take and offering advice. Bors’ new role clashes with the woe with you as we have taken the weal,”368 his status as a holy knight, for most of Bors’ ac- and prepares to serve his kinsman as war with tions aid Lancelot in continuing his affair with Arthur looms. Serving as Lancelot’s right-hand Guinevere, the very sin which prevented him man leads Bors to behave as any earthly knight, from achieving the Grail. Thus the chaste knight prepared to fight for honor and on behalf of becomes complicit in an affair that threatens family. He remains by Lancelot’s side as Arthur Camelot’s stability. besieges his castles, first in England, then in Why is it so simple for Bors to revert to the France. Then, when Arthur returns to England world of knightly morality, after the wonders he to wrest back control from his usurping son partook of during the Grail Quest? In the narra- Mordred, Bors urges him to avenge the king and tive, great emphasis is placed on their blood re- Guinevere. They return to England and learn of lationship, and Lancelot’s earthly glory remains Arthur’s demise. Guinevere, now a nun after undiminished.366 Yet it had once been Bors who the death of her husband, shuns Lancelot, driv- had chosen to save an unknown maiden’s vir- ing him to seek a hermitage. Bors and Lancelot’s ginity over the life of his own brother. It may other knights eventually join him. As monks, the be asked, as well, why Lancelot so quickly re- knights reject their old lives of glory-seeking and turns to Guinevere’s embrace despite its cost. adventures, instead embracing penitence, fast- He seems to be undergoing a kind of “spiritual ing and prayer. This time there is no going back, sloth.” Immediately after learning that the Grail no return to old habits. In a poignant scene, a is beyond his reach, Lancelot accepts his sinful- hermit finds Lancelot weeping over the grave of ness, does penance, and promises reform during Guinevere. Although the hermit initially believes

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the old knight’s sadness stems from his lust for died upon a Good Friday for God’s sake.”370 the late queen, Lancelot’s grief arises from guilt: Even these last sentences of the narrative contain an ambiguity about the knights’ true loyalties. Truly, I trust I do not displease God, for He They remain holy men, and do their work in the knows my intent; for my sorrow was not, name of God – yet that work is fighting, just as nor is not, for any rejoicing of sin – but my it was in the days of Camelot, and they do it at sorrow may never have end. For when I re- the last request of their leader Lancelot. To the member of her beauty and of her noblesse, end, there is a reluctance to devote everything to that was both with her king and with her, God, an inability to fully abandon the lifestyle of so when I saw his corpse and her corpse so knighthood and its earthly trappings. lie together, truly my heart would not serve Though the legend of King Arthur and his to sustain my troubled body. Also, when I knights is often raised up as the epitome of remember how by my failing and my ar- chivalry, yet Sir Thomas Malory’s treatment rogance that they were both laid full low, of the story belies this narrative. His depiction that were peerless that ever was living of does not attribute the fall of Camelot only to Christian people, know you well, this re- one jealous antagonist of Arthur or one adul- membered, of their kindness and my un- terous relationship, but to the whole system of kindness, sank so to my heart that I might values that undergirds the kingdom. The chi- not sustain myself.369 valric thirst for glory, the defense of kin despite the costs, the role of women within the court, Faced with the consequences of his sin, and actually hastens Camelot’s demise. The moral with its enjoyment long evaporated, Lancelot fi- code of the knight sowed the seeds of its own nally and fully recognizes the error of his ways. destruction. It was not the only alternative, It took the complete collapse of the kingdom, though. Even before the quest to achieve the and the vanishing of all the sources of his earthly Holy Grail, a morality of renunciation emerged pride. Even in the way he mourns, Lancelot is as a path to bounties far beyond those of the shown to be a changed man. No sweeping ges- jousting tournament and battlefield. By living tures or ritualized moments indicate shame to a life of chastity, devotion to God, and humil- a court of knights and ladies. The disillusioned ity, the knights who achieved the Grail were knight has internalized his guilt and, before the able to participate in the divine. Yet even this hermit intrudes, expresses it only to God at the did not suffice. Bors, the only successful knight graves of those he has wronged. Lancelot be- to return from the Grail Quest, enabled the in- comes a monk, and adheres to its morality, be- fidelity of his cousin Lancelot, who knew the cause he has nothing left. cost of his sin but disregarded it. This return to Lancelot passes from the scene soon after the the old chivalric code obliterated Camelot, and death of Guinevere, but the surviving knights the remaining knights adopted the morality of persist in their lives as holy men. Bors and his monasticism only amidst the ruins of the old fellows Ector, Blamour and Bleoberis venture to morality. But the allure of chivalry survived, the Holy Land: “And once they had established and as seen in the enduringness of the legend their lands – for the book says, so Sir Lancelot of King Arthur and Camelot, it survives still. commanded them to do before he passed out of this world – these four knights did many battles Kevin Baird is a senior in the Georgetown College of upon the unbelievers or Turks; and there they Arts & Sciences studying History .

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Amor in Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics

Roseann Day

“Omnia uincit amor.” –Virgil, Eclogues, 10.69

hese immortal words celebrate the significant image introduced in Eclogue II is that power of love and exalt love as the of love as fire, burning, and heat. The first line T most desirable goal in life. Yet a closer contains the word ardebat, and later Corydon la- contextual examination of these words reveals ments, me tamen urit amor.386 Corydon’s desire is that the sentiment of their author is not so sim- a spark that can be extinguished or reignited at ple. Indeed, Virgil’s treatment of amor in Eclogue any moment; in later poems the fire of love will X, and in the Eclogues and Georgics as whole, is be much more consuming and relentless. a complex and dynamic reflection that explores The fire of love is not confined to mankind. both positive and negative aspects of love. The Indeed, an idea that will come up again in both role of love in his poems becomes more serious the Eclogues and the Georgics is the universality and layered as Virgil moves through the Eclogues of love’s effects. Corydon compares his passion and into the Georgics. Along the way, he evokes to that of animals (torva leaena lupum sequitur, imagery of love as frustrating and burning, ex- lupus ipse ca pellam, / florentem cytisum sequi- amines the destructive nature of love, and re- tur lasciva capella, / te Corydon, o Alexi; trahit sua flects on love in the context of its paradoxical re- quemque voluptas).387 Indeed, love is hardly a lationship to poetry. Ultimately, his conclusions lofty ideal here, but rather an animalistic and iron love affirm Virgil’s identity as a powerfully rational urge that can lead to destruction. This inspired poet. potential for damage is only hinted at in Eclogue In Eclogue II, Virgil introduces several motifs II, through the mention of Corydon’s neglect for concerning love that continue throughout sub- his crops as a result of his amorous pursuits. His sequent poems. In contrast to the other poems, vines untended, Corydon remarks that his ener- Eclogue II has a much lighter tone. The poem, a gy could be better spent on agricultural pursuits monologue by the shepherd Corydon about his (semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo . / quin tu aliq- love for his master’s slave Alexis, is modeled on uid saltem potius, quorum indiget usus, / viminibus Theocritus’ Eleventh Idyll, a monologue by Poly- mollique paras detexere iunco?).388 The description phemus about his unrequited love for Galatea. of Corydon as perditus389 looks forward to love’s Like Polyphemus, Corydon is frustrated by the potential for destruction, an idea that will be de- futility of love, a prevalent motif in Eclogue II. veloped further in later poems. He has little hope (nec quid speraret habebat)383 and Within Eclogue II, the subject of love never his words are spoken in vain (ibi haec incondita becomes too serious. The poem’s interaction with solus / montibus et silvis studio iactabat inani).384 its Theocritan precedent is significant in this re- The use of imperfect tense and choice of words gard; just as readers are aware of the Greek mod- such as adsidue385 denote that the frustration of a el, so does Corydon seem to have some sense of rejected lover is constant and unending. Another self-consciousness throughout the poem.390 His

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awareness and his ability to poke fun at himself amores.397Again Virgil uses the imperfect tense prevent the situation from adopting dark tones. to convey repeated frustration, and words such Indeed the monologue is humorously self-dep- as peribat recall perditus from Eclogue II, high- recating at times (nec sum adeo informis; nuper me lighting the destruction of love only hinted at in litore vidi, / cum placidum ventis staret mare . non before. 398 Gallus’ words are useless (amor non ego Daphnin / iudice te metuam, si numquam fallit talia curat, / nec lacrimis crudelis amor nec gramina imago).391 Corydon openly recognizes his own riuis / nec cytiso saturantur apes nec fronde capel- foolishness (rusticus es, Corydon).392 Virgil makes lae).399 Amor is not only unsympathetic, but also it clear that the situation is not dire—there are explicitly characterized as malevolent (crudelis other objects of affection available to Corydon. amor).400 The military metaphor heightens this This idea is hinted at as the speaker recalls sev- sense of violence associated with love.401 In ad- eral past lovers, 393 and is returned to at the condition, the image of love as madness appears clusion of the poem when Corydon resolves to again in Gallus’ monologue. Apollo asks Gallus find alium Alexin.394 what has driven the man to the insane pursuit Thus the first foray into the subject of love: of an unfaithful woman (insanis).402 Love is la- though Virgil hints at love’s potential as a burn- beled insanus amor; this word choice—literally ing, powerful, and destructive force, he ulti- “not well”—reflects the damaging, masochistic mately has created a light-hearted poem about nature of an enamored individual. 403 an individual whose love is not so serious as to Gallus’ situation is hopeless. Though he cause him any great devastation. In Eclogue X, briefly toys with the idea from Eclogue II of en- Virgil continues to develop many of the themes tertaining other lovers, he ultimately rejects the introduced in Eclogue II, including the irratio- notion. 404 While Virgil limits Corydon to an idyl- nality of love, its universality, and the harm that lic pastoral setting, Gallus imagines his lover tra- it can inflict. Unlike the earlier poem, Eclogue versing cold, dangerous lands (Alpinas, a, dura, X has more serious undertones, and here Virgil niues et frigora Rheni).405 There is no light-hearted begins to expand and layer his treatment of the conclusion, no way out of his torment (omnia concept of love. uincit amor: et nos cedamus amori).406 The speaker of Eclogue X is an essential part This line signals the introduction of a fur- of these shifting themes and purposes. He is not ther layer of meaning surrounding love: its re- an amusingly love-struck shepherd with a stock lationship to poetry. The paradoxical interaction pastoral name,395 but rather one of Virgil’s close between love and poetry is first outlined in Ec- friends and a respected contemporary poet. Gai- logue X and expanded later, specifically in Geor- us Cornelius Gallus (69—26 BC) was a promi- gic IV. Love’s torments are not alleviated by Gal- nent political and military figure as well as a lus’ words, yet his words are inspired by love. poet who was highly influential in Latin elegiac Gallus’ poetry (and by extension, Virgil’s poetry poetry.396 The choice of Gallus is significant not about him) can exist only because of his experi- simply because Virgil wished to pay tribute to ence with love. Yet his verses bring him no relief him in the poem, but also because his very pres- from the pain of love (amor non talia curat).407 As ence elevates the seriousness of the poem. While much as Gallus, or any poet, might labor over Virgil encourages a mixture of amusement and his poetry, it will make no difference (non illum pity towards the rusticus Corydon of Eclogue II, nostri possunt mutare labores). 408 The connection such bemusement has no place in Eclogue X to- between Gallus’ monologue and written poetry wards a figure like Gallus. is explicit (certum est in siluis inter spelaea ferarum The frustration and torment that love / malle pati tenerisque meos incidere amores / arbori- causes Gallus is indicated from the start of the bus: crescent illae, crescetis, amores).409 His love will poem, whose subject is labeled sollicitos Galli grow as his words grow, and his words are in-

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spired by his love—an inextricable relationship. of animals in love are closely related to those Virgil carefully crafts the line so as to conflate the of men. For example, the anecdote about a bull two concepts; love is equated with poetry even defeated in a contest for a female mate focuses as the pair are placed in contrast elsewhere in the on the bull’s expulsion. Virgil uses words such poem. This complex dynamic—at times casting as exsulat414 and regnis415 that are often applied love and poetry in opposition, at times equating to human exile and the kingdoms of men, thus the two—will be revisited in the Georgics. drawing a close parallel between the similar ef- When viewed from a broader prospective, fects of love on man and animal.416 the treatment of love in the Eclogues and Geor- Perhaps most notable for this poem in par- gics has a synchytic pattern of arrangement, with ticular is its virulent treatment of the madness of Georgic III closely paralleling many of the motifs love. In Georgic III, this motif reaches a feverish introduced in Eclogue II and Georgic IV incor- pitch. Virgil achieves this effect by listing the un- porating these themes into a more complex dis- usual behaviors of a wide range of animals that cussion of love in its relation to poetry, a discus- result from the insanity of passion in a crescendo sion initiated in Eclogue X. This synchesis and (e.g. quid quae imbelles dant proelia cerui?).417 The the development of themes about love began in story of Glaucus represents the ultimate exam- the Eclogues and continued in the Georgics allows ple of love’s lunacy: love, symbolized by Venus, Virgil to bridge the gap between his pastoral and drives his mares to kill their own master. agricultural poems. This is significant because it Clearly, Georgic III contributes to the testa- establishes continuity between the two works, ment to love’s destruction that has already been an important effect that will be discussed in seen in earlier poems. Virgil’s description of the more detail later. young, pathetic Leander, who perishes after at- The Georgics focus on a different subject mat- tempting to swim across the Hellespont to reach ter yet still reinforces the imagery of love seen his lover Hero418 captures this idea. The waters the Eclogues. In Georgic III, love is again imag- are caeca, as blind as Leander himself has been ined as burning and fiery (ignem; calor redit os- rendered by love. The image of parents standing sibus) .410 Unlike in Eclogue II, here the fire of over their miseri son, an inversion of the natu- love cannot be extinguished or lit with ease; it ral order, highlights the sad destruction of love. penetrates into the very bones of the lover’s be- When describing Hero’s reaction to Leander’s ing (magnum cui uersat in ossibus ignem / durus dead body, Virgil uses a line almost exactly iden- amor?).411 And just as love caused Corydon to ne- tical to a line from the Aeneid describing Dido.419 glect his vines, rendering them lifeless, the pas- The link between the Eclogues and Georgics in- sion of love drains strength from animals. It is for troduced earlier now extends forward to the Ae- this reason that Virgil outlines strict procedures neid as well. The cohesion between Virgil’s three for the separation of male and female livestock works becomes clearer; the significance of this at specific times, should one wish to raise a ro- effect in relation to his treatment of love emerges bust herd (sed non ulla magis uiris industria firmat only at the conclusion of the Georgics. / quam Venerem et caeci stimulos auertere amoris,).412 Returning to Georgic III, we notice that be- Georgic III reinforces Corydon’s earlier remarks fore Virgil moves on from his discussion of love about the universal effect of love on humans and in the context of livestock care to other aspects animals (omne adeo genus in terries hominumque of instruction, he inserts a transition that fore- ferarumque / et genus aequoreum, pecudes pictaeque shadows his return to the relationship between uolucres, / in furias ignemque ruunt: amor omnibus love and poetry, an idea first touched upon in idem).413 Though the poem is ostensibly about the Eclogue X. Reminding himself of other topics proper care of animals, the serious nature of its he has yet to cover, he remarks that he has got- subject matter is evident; the nature and habits ten caught up and carried away by love, much

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like the subjects of the preceding lines (sed fugit The application of Virgil’s bee treatise to hu- interea, fugit inreparabile tempus, / singula dum man themes is controversial. Does the poet in- capti circumuectamur amore).420 The diction is tend bees to serve as a model for humanity? It is significant; Virgil uses the same phrase captus tempting to conclude this, since some very tan- amore when referring to a reader entranced by talizing links exist between bees and mankind in love of poetry.421 The parallel use of the phrase the poem. Indeed, bees encounter many of the again conflates love and poetry even as it jux- same obstacles that the farmer encounters in taposes them: caught up by love, Virgil must the preceding books of the Georgics, such as dis- break free from it to continue his poem, yet his ease,426 a main focus of the end of Georgic III. The reader is ensnared by poetry just as one might personification of bees leading a funeral proces- be by love. Here, then, is another layer to add sion out of the hive strongly invites comparison to the ever-growing picture of love: the element with men (tum corpora luce carentum / exportant of control. The entire passage on love in Geor- tectis et tristia funera ducunt).427 Likewise, the de- gic III is marked by a loss of control caused by scription of civil war between swarms painfully the madness of love. This pattern is underlined calls to mind the many instances of civil discord at the close of the section when Virgil admits that have arisen in the history of man, most es- he has lost control of the poem and needs to pecially for Virgil’s contemporary readers, the reign in his subject matter. Though it can cer- recent civil war between Octavian and Antony. tainly be argued that Virgil intended this loss of Should one conclude, then, that Virgil in- command the whole time, the end result is the tended bees as the utmost model, indicating same: the message conveyed is that both love that mankind would be better off if humans and poetry can exert an influence that causes abstained from passionate activity just as bees loss of control. do? While making any definite claims about a Georgic IV delivers the culmination of Vir- poet’s intentions—particularly of an author of gil’s multi-layered presentation of love. As in such complexity as Virgil—is impossible, I be- the above poems, Virgil draws comparisons believe that when viewed in the context of Virgil’s tween humans and animals. While before, Vir- overall development of love, one can conclude gil highlighted the similarities between love’s that bees are not meant to be humanity’s model. effects on mankind and animals, in Georgic IV Ultimately, humans are not bees and despite the he presents bees as the antithesis to the human destruction that love can bring us, we cannot live experience of love. Unlike the rest of the ani- without it. Though Virgil toys with the idea that mal kingdom, bees do not reproduce sexually, humans should emulate the bee lifestyle, the end according to Virgil’s account (Illum adeo placui- of Georgic IV suggests instead that for Virgil, sse apibus mirabere morem, / quod neque concubitu love, like poetry, is essential to life. indulgent nec corpora segnes / in Venerem solvunt In the last half of Georgic IV, Virgil introduc- aut fetus nixibus edunt).422 The placement of adeo es his final lover-poet figure. From stock shep- directly before illum is used similarly in Ecl. 4.11 herd to contemporary friend, he now comes to and G . 1.24 to denote something particularly the mythological figure Orpheus. He could not remarkable.423 Indeed, the bee’s strange custom have chosen a more elevated focus for his final should be admired; they do not simply accept poem, and indeed the picture of love becomes their way of life, rather it pleases them (placui- the most serious and complex in Georgic IV, as sse). Bees are exalted as a species with divine Virgil ties in various strands of meaning from links. Virgil refers to the caelestia dona of honey424 the previous poems. and mentions the conviction that bees hold a The story of Orpheus coalesces ideas about heavenly wisdom, though he does not confess to love seen throughout the poems. While Orpheus’ believe it himself.425 pain comes from love lost through death rather

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than rejection, the end result is the same: continu- the complex dual nature of love, we must always ous, unending torment (veniente die, te decedente choose it, just as Gallus, Orpheus, and Virgil canebat).428 His love is madness (quis tantus furor)429 himself must always choose poetry. and he is ultimately destroyed by the crazed pas- While Virgil has courted the idea of abandon- sion of the Ciconian women.430 The idea of love as ing poetry and shunning love, seeing the former destructive is particularly graphic here. as futile and the latter as destructive, the conclu- In addition to these images, if there was any sion of Georgic IV suggests that he ultimately doubt before regarding the connection between chooses both while recognizing the loss of con- love and poetry, Virgil dispels it by includ- trol and potential for damage that comes with ing Orpheus’ story. Orpheus is the ultimate both love and poetry. His decision to pursue mythological poet. His verses have the power poetry is clear, as the end of the Georgics looks to sooth tigers and gather mighty oak trees.431 forward to the Aeneid, the finishing piece of his Poetry makes Orpheus so powerful that he can literary career. As mentioned earlier, establish- safely visit and return from a place where no ing the link between the Eclogues and Georgics living person is supposed to venture—the Un- was important in terms of creating continuity derworld. Yet as we saw with Gallus, Orpheus’s between his works. At the end of the Georgics, poetry stems only from his loss of Eurydice. He Virgil extends this continuity forward, looking sings of nothing else; his love is his only subject ahead to his final work. The epic content and matter, the only fuel for his poetry. Like Gallus, style of the end of Georgic IV looks forward to no matter how long he sings, he is still miserable. the Aeneid, while use of the imperfect canebam Ultimately, his unbearable desire for his wife indicates that Virgil is ready to move on to a dif- brings disaster upon them both when he cannot ferent genre. In the concluding line, he mentions resist looking back at her, breaking his promise Tityrus, a figure from the very first line ofthe to Proserpina and banishing Eurydice to death Eclogues, making a clear connection between the once again. first and second works once again. That Virgil Love has given Orpheus the power of poet- took such care throughout to establish his writ- ry, but he has no control over his power. While ings as a cohesive unit shows his dedication to Virgil imagines his readers capti amore, just like the poetic career and his ambitions to model the tigers who soften to Orpheus’ song, Orpheus himself as an influential, career poet. Clearly, surrenders control to love in the same way that whatever the drawbacks of poetry may be, Virgil Virgil surrenders Georgic III, if only briefly, to has demonstrated that he has chosen this power the tantalizing discussion of love. Overall, love for himself, and with this choice has surrendered is a powerful force that through its madness can himself to uncontrollable, maddening, and in- inspire powerful poetry. Yet this poetry can do spiring love. nothing to protect the author from the inevitable pain and loss of control caused by love. Ulti- Roseann Day is a senior in the Georgetown College of mately though, we are humans, not bees; despite Arts & Sciences studying Classics .

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“Little Things Mean a Lot” Dust, Our Mutual Friend, and the Capitalization Function

Michelle K . Dailey

rom the very beginning – the title of dust, vegetable-dust, bone-dust, crockery the introduction, no less – of Joseph dust, rough dust, and sifted dust, – all man- F Anthony Amato’s Dust, readers learn ner of Dust.”437 “little things mean a lot.”432 This core concept fuels his book, which is, as the title suggests, all This man was the father of John Harmon; about dust. Amato comments that this subject this man’s will is the main impetus behind the “would appear to be neither a subject worthy action of the novel’s plot. Without the specifica- of reflection nor meritorious enough to serve a tions of the will – which explains that Harmon’s history of smallness.”433 Yet, he wrote an entire son would inherit his fortune only if he married book about it, which indicates that there must be a particular woman (Bella Wilfer), and that if he something more to it than just what meets the did not, the wealth would transfer over to Har- eye. “Unnoticed, trodden underfoot, [dust] is mon’s servant (Mr. Boffin) – the drama would associated with the lowliest things, with what is be severely lacking, and the novel itself would broken, discarded, and formless.”434 However, it struggle to exist in any readable or intriguing is also “found within all things” because it is so form. small and amorphous.435 This relationship cre- This description of Harmon is entirely ates an odd paradox of the tiny suddenly becom- couched in terms of “dust.” He is described ing ubiquitous and important. One can see this through his profession (Dust Contractor), his paradox in Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend by way estate is described as a mountain range of dust, of the “Dust”; this essay will seek to describe the and his wealth came from dust. Thus, Amato’s capitalization of that word is a critical compo- paradox of the infinitesimally small being found nent to this understanding. in everything is here in play: dust, which “once At its most literal level, dust first appears in more than anything literally and metaphorically Our Mutual Friend early in the course of the text. defined smallness,” is so pervasive throughout Readers are introduced, via Mortimer talking to the novel that its presence has become critical for Eugene, to a man described as “a tremendous the main plot.438 Furthermore, it should be noted old rascal who made his money by Dust.”436 As that Harmon profited by this particle that was as- Mortimer explained, sociated with “what is broken, discarded, and formless.”439 This observation feels out of place, [H]e grew rich as a Dust Contractor, and as one does not usually profit from broken and lived in a hollow in a hilly country entirely discarded things. Perhaps, then, “dust” is func- composed of Dust. On his own small estate tioning in ways other than just the most literal. the growling old vagabond threw up his On one hand, readers get a list of possible own mountain range, like an old volcano, definitions straight from Dickens himself: and its geological formation was Dust. Coal- “Coal-dust, vegetable-dust, bone-dust, crockery

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dust, rough dust, and sifted dust.”440 However, it, he would not have capitalized it sometimes this list at first seems rather puzzling: Crockery while leaving it lowercase other times. When dust? Vegetable dust? Isn’t dust that fine, usu- one chooses to capitalize a noun, he does so in ally gray or white, powdery substance? Accord- order to signify that there is some greater meaning to the Oxford English Dictionary, though, ing behind the word that simply cannot be ex- the word “dust” is “often extended to include plained by more words. It is an attempt to bring ashes and other refuse from a house.”441 Thus, the reader’s attention to this deeper meaning by “dust” would seem to be able to be equated with setting the word apart from the other words in other words such as “trash.” Harmon’s profes- the sentence. Throughout the remainder of this sion could then turn from “Dust Contractor” essay, I will refer to this phenomenon as the into “Trashman,” and the dust heaps on his es- “capitalization function.” tate could be viewed as trash heaps. Nonethe- One good example of this capitalization func- less, this distinction, however accurate it may tion that can help our understanding of “Dust” is be, feels rather inadequate on its own. Why did the treatment of “nature” versus “Nature.” The Dickens choose the word “dust,” then, if it were word “nature,” like the word “dust,” can mean only to be completely synonymous with words many things. People talk of “human nature” and like “rubbish” and “garbage”? “animal nature,” referring to specific character- Adrian Poole dealt with this question of the istics that make a particular living being dis- composition of the dust-heaps – and thus the tinctly “human” or “animal.” People also talk of definition of the word “dust” itself – in the notes “nature versus nurture,” intending the term “na- to the Penguin Classics edition of Our Mutual ture” in this context to refer to one’s hereditary Friend. He called attention not only to its “ma- background and things about oneself that one terial meanings,” but also to its “religious con- cannot control (such as who one’s parents are, notations of the word, above all the judgment where one was born, and what genes one was incurred by Adam in Genesis 3.19 (‘for dust born with). In other instances, the word can be thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’),” as used in an attempt to describe the natural world well as to Humphry House’s declaration that the – the “environment.” However, even here, the “dust-heaps must have contained human excre- word does not have a singular meaning. It can be ment.”442 However, he also stated that whatever used to describe the seas or the skies, the desert “these dust-heaps are composed of is a riddle or the countryside, the jungles or the mountains. without an answer,” and later said that, “[i]n the Thus, it is clear that “nature” is, as Raymond course of this novel, ‘dust’ takes its elusive place Williams puts it in his essay, “Ideas of Nature,” amongst all sorts of shifting matter, solid and “both complicated and changing”– which ex- liquid, dense and dispersed, ashes and ooze.”443 plains why one might turn to capitalization in One must turn away from straight literalism to- an attempt to pin down this complex concept.444 wards more metaphoric and symbolic layers to When one talks of “Nature,” with a capital “N,” make any sense of this slippery term. he is generally making an attempt to describe all When revisiting the grounding paragraph of the splendors of the natural world in a single for this essay, something rather odd should be- word. Williams alludes to this massive undertak- come apparent: the word “dust” is incongruous ing by explaining that “just as in religion the mo- to itself. The word appears ten times in a single ment of monotheism is a critical development, paragraph, but on four of those occasions, Dick- so, in human responses to the physical world, is ens capitalizes the word. Thus, the question of the moment of a singular Nature.”445 Here, Wil- what this capitalization is doing to the term aris- liams both uses “Nature” with a capital “N” and es – what is the difference between “Dust” and explains how the appearance of this particular “dust?” If Dickens hadn’t meant something by framework becomes a “critical development” for

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“human responses to the physical world.”446 He A single, seemingly unimportant, thing that links this development to another development suddenly becomes absolutely crucial to some – that of monotheistic religion. other concept should sound familiar, as this Religion is another instance where the capi- trope is the exact same one as that of dust itself. talization function can clearly be seen at work. To return to what Joseph Anthony Amato said in For the purposes of creating one strong and co- Dust – and to the title of this essay – “little things herent example, I will focus here on the mono- mean a lot”!447 Tracing the capitalization function theistic religion of Christianity. Within Chris- through both “Nature” and religious terminology tianity, there are many words that gain new helps one to examine the role of “Dust” within meaning when they are capitalized. For instance, Our Mutual Friend. “Dust” appears to have two “Father” with a capital “F” means something roles in the novel – first, it can be read literally, radically different from “father” with a lower- both as the tiny powdery particles that accumu- case “f”. “My father” means a father figure in the late everywhere, and as trash. This literal reading human sense – whether that refers to biological, must not be brushed aside or taken for granted, as adopted, or honorary fathers. A “father” in this it is, I believe, crucial for understanding the para- sense is ideally someone who loves you uncon- dox of profiting or benefiting from something ditionally and who is willing to provide for you that is supposed to be useless and meaningless. and be there for you in times of need. However, The literal meaning is also useful for studying the it also is used to refer to someone who is – or was oddity of the idea that something small and/or – present on this Earth, in flesh and blood form. unwanted could end up being extremely mobile In Christian theology, however, “My Father,” and important, even to the point of being essen- refers to God. In this understanding, too, God tial to the forward movement of the novel’s plot. is supposed to love you unconditionally and be However, it can also be read on a higher level willing to provide for you, just as one’s human as something that is trying to explain a movable “father” is – however, He is understood to be not and overarching concept – a concept that cannot of this world. He is incomprehensible, only able be pinpointed by any one word, which is why it to be known through what He chooses to reveal. then relies on the capitalization function to draw You cannot touch Him; you cannot see Him. attention to its significance. Even my brief description of God bears the When Dickens uses the word “Dust,” he is mark of the capitalization function, through trying to refer to it as a multitude of concepts the usage of the pronoun “He.” “He” takes on outside of the literal meaning of tiny particles a completely different meaning when capital- and trash: a plot device and pollution (by way ized than it does when it is kept in its lowercase of, according to Amato on page 8, the dust and form, “he.” When one says “he,” one could be smoke created by industry that led to city-specif- referring to literally any male who has ever ex- ic “haze and smog”). Also, as evidenced by the isted in any form – human or animal, living or scenes in Our Mutual Friend regarding Harmon’s dead. However, when one capitalizes the “h,” will that was hidden in the dust-heaps, dust can suddenly “He” carries a whole new connota- act as a concealer due to its inherent smallness tion. “He” means God – or Jesus. “He” means, and supposed insignificance. However, these are in other words, the Creator of the universe, the by no means the only meanings that he is try- Son of God ... the list goes on and on, and in ing to assign to the word. Below the grounding each instance, the capitalization function is seen, paragraph for this essay, Mortimer explains to through words such as “Creator” and “Son.” Mrs. Veneering about Harmon’s daughter and Simple, everyday words suddenly take on new how Harmon tried to choose a husband for her. and radically different meanings when a single, In this explanation, he uses “Dust” as an ap- seemingly unimportant, letter is capitalized. parent synonym for money, when he says that

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Harmon “proceeded to settle upon her, as her use – whether that be in this particular case with marriage portion, I don’t know how much Dust, “Dust,” or with other subjects, such as “Nature” but something immense.”448 Directly after that, and religion. Ultimately, the capitalization of the he seems to use “Dust” to imply some form of noun is more telling than any number of descrip- destruction, when he says that the girl felt that tion words that I, or anybody, can attach to it. It “such a marriage would make Dust of her heart speaks to the fundamental difference between the and Dust of her life.”449 capitalized word and any other word in a sen- Therefore, even as I have attempted to explain tence, and it leaves the reader with a framework Dickens’s implied meanings vis-à-vis “Dust,” that is not only meaningful in and of itself but it is clearly evident that words alone are simply also capable of letting the reader supplement this not sufficient to describe such a broad sweeping meaning with personal interpretation. significance that can crop up in any number of places with any number of definitions. This is pre- Michelle K . Dailey is a sophomore in the Georgetown cisely why the capitalization function is put into College of Arts & Sciences studying English .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 87 Pages 88-91 have been removed from this issue at the authors request. the clock tower

Rhetoric and Reality at Georgetown A Conversation with Denis J. M. Bradley

David Schuler

enis J M Bradley has lived an intro- tion at the local restaurant where he is a regular spective life planted firmly in the and has been sitting in the same booth for more D present but spent sifting through the than 30 years. discourses of medieval philosophers. After being This change of course did not happen in awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Brad- isolation at Georgetown, but is a reflection of a ley left the University of Windsor one year early general trend across the post-Vatican II Church at the age of 20, entering the University of Chi- to reconcile modernity and Catholicism and to cago in 1963, where he studied under the likes of communicate that the two are not in diametric Leo Strauss and Richard McKeon—citing the lat- opposition but work together. As Bradley puts ter’s dialectical approach to the “philosophy of it, the current rhetoric posits that “Catholicism philosophy” as particularly influential. In 1970 helps modernity understand its deepest aspira- he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, but, tions” while “modernity can reveal to Catholi- in 1998, was received into canonical communion cism some of the aspects of its own internal with the Eastern Orthodox Church. After earn- history obscured by the counter-reformation.” ing his doctoral degree from the University of Bradley asserts that this has been the mindset Toronto in 1970 and spending two years as a of the Jesuits at Georgetown who have largely fellow at the American Academy in Rome, he sought to show that modernity and Catholicism came to Georgetown’s philosophy department are compatible. in 1972, and never seriously considered leav- Asked whether he thought this was a severe ing even though not a few opportunities arose compromise for the faith, he was less fire and over the years. Bradley is retiring at the end of brimstone and more realistic. “Certainly there this academic term, and after a career that spans are Catholic intellectuals of a certain bent who forty years, he has garnered a unique viewpoint think that’s a betrayal” but it is difficult to sell on the evolution of the role of Catholic ideology an education when “you’re telling people that at Georgetown and the results of the institution’s most of what you’re doing in your future pro- full-fledged embrace of modernity over the past fessions is counter to the basic metaphysical decades. truths of Catholicism.” “I would say that there’s been a change in This strikes at the heart of Georgetown’s Georgetown, probably before I came, in the 60s, most difficult circumstance over the past several where it was no longer Catholicism as the intel- decades: the gap between its rhetoric about care lectual standpoint and critique of modernity but of the soul and appreciative learning and the re- rather that modernity could be used to mediate ality of its faculty hiring practices and the active Catholicism,” Bradley noted in a long conversa- recruitment of a student body that largely views

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the university as its stepping stone and port sity in the immediate outer ring of the Ivy League of entry into an elite political and professional on a budget that has always been too small, le- realm. The university “rhetorically challenges veraging its core affiliation with the nation’s capi- this fact” but ultimately “bows to it in a thou- tal as intrinsic to its identity. The obsession with sand ways.” This pre-professional approach, de- specialization and research, driven by a myriad spite what some current critics given to nostalgia of factors, is not the type of environment in which might say, is consistent with a previous history Georgetown is naturally calibrated to excel. It’s of Georgetown being a vehicle for Catholic men a noble idea—one Bradley says is risky but he to gain access to the law firms and top-tier insti- would like to see attempted in some form—to tutions of an American society formerly domi- stop catering to and actively recruiting the high nated by a Protestant and insular group that of- achieving pre-professionally minded students ten explicitly excluded Roman Catholics. Georgetown is most well known for, but one that Bradley notes that this legacy of pre-profes- runs the risk of cutting the legs out from under sionalism is a double-edged sword for the univer- the whole institution. “You’d risk becoming a sity, serving as both its weakness and strength, Holy Cross in Washington,” he says. Bradley calls gathering a “very hard-working” group of stu- the current approach “a realistic assessment of dents but fostering a “deeply anti-intellectual atti- [Georgetown’s] position in the world.” tude,” in the sense of a lack of concern with ideas The reality gap between the rhetoric and the and different ways of thinking. actual functioning of the university is what ex- In perhaps his sharpest critique, Bradley plains Georgetown’s precarious position. Surely says this mentality and approach to education there is a “critical point” past which the rhetoric is in fact quite in line with a long history of not rings so false as to leave the university without just Georgetown traditions but the whole Je- a core—where one draws the line of this critical suit methodology of plotting inroads with the tipping point (and whether or not it has already powers that be and becoming “advisors to the been crossed) is a matter of perspective and opin- throne.” “I don’t see this [pre-professionalism] ion. Bradley describes the voice of Georgetown’s as a betrayal of Jesuit history—it’s just that the Jesuit values as “one of many in the choir” com- throne has changed,” he notes. peting to be heard as opposed to its previous Though Bradley criticizes Georgetown, its function as the prism through which most of the student body, and its approach to education, his decisions of the university were made. reflections are always characterized by gracious- The reality is that a series of changes and ness and filled with high praise and the personal decisions, made not in a vacuum but over a warmth and respect he feels for his colleagues, the period of time in a complex milieu of evolving way he was treated at the university over his forty educational landscapes and societal shifts in ap- year career, and the affability and overall intellec- proaches to faith, have diluted the thrust of a tual heft of his students. “I’m leaving Georgetown Catholic voice. Bradley offered up changes in the with very positive feelings about the experience philosophy department as an example, stating and the students and the institution.” “once you open the professorate to anyone with He is also no doom and gloom, everything’s excellent and usually secular academic training, going to hell in a handbasket sympathizer given you can’t expect them to take up the whole tra- to waxing nostalgic about better days. Bradley ditional Georgetown theme song.” When a ma- clearly sees Georgetown’s positioning within the jority of people in the philosophy department context of a wider American higher educational do not share the metaphysical views of ortho- landscape and an understandable response to dox Catholicism, one isn’t going to find a ready the academic situation. Georgetown is constantly group of standard bearers of Jesuit educational striving to maintain its position as an elite univer- ideology.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 93 Rhetoric and Reality at Georgetown |

Bradley says those battles were fought in a point of view on the moderns”—and their in- large part just before his time when the depart- trinsically non-egalitarian approach—has been ment was “predominantly manned by Catho- his modus operandi in the classroom. Bradley lics of a Thomist bent,” with some leaving with believes Georgetown has something to offer the bad feelings over claims that Georgetown had world at large in its Jesuit humanist philosophy bowed to secularism—sentiments one still hears of education. in discussions about the university. There is much agreement around this idea, Discussions about the gap in reality and but it is the theme of Georgetown sacrificing its rhetoric are even more apposite with the recent rhetorical and practical integrity in a feverish at- and very public announcement of the departure tempt to keep pace with the elite institutions it of Patrick J Deneen, the current Tsakopoulos- longs to be equal with which sets the tone for Kounalakis Professor in the department of Gov- fears of Georgetown sloughing off the last ves- ernment and the head of the Tocqueville Forum, tiges of its heritage and ideological traditions. for Notre Dame University in part because of Bradley’s stalwart character and imperturb- his concerns about the marginalized role Catho- ability have kept him grounded; he says that he lic thought and educational philosophy play in has felt personally at home in the ambiguous faculty hiring decisions, campus discourse, and matrix of a Catholic institution, even with the decision making. rhetoric and realities that come with it and the Deneen’s departure is relevant because it radical secularism of the base of a large portion of also sparked concern about the potential demise its faculty and students. He is leaving feeling that of pockets of Georgetown where intellectual Georgetown has changed and is changing, not debate and discussion are thriving on campus. that it is on a “slippery slope to oblivion,” calling Asked whether he thought these areas would that sentiment “untrained nostalgie” that fails to still be around in 10 or 15 years, Bradley was take a sophisticated look into what Georgetown pessimistic, saying he has no doubt the current is, why it is so, and where it might be. “Being administration wants these communities to sur- something of a Platonist, what do you expect in vive but the actual institutional commitment to the 'world of becoming' but change?” Bradley ensure that they do so is not very strong. asked at the end of the conversation. It will no This sobering image of Georgetown is a far doubt require a collective effort to ensure that the cry from the ideals of John Henry Cardinal New- flame of intellectual life continues to blaze in the man whose reflections on and prescriptions for pockets of Georgetown where it has been ignited. universities envisioned them as communities As the pool of resources continues to be spread striving to raise the intellectual tone of society. thin, the ideological landscapes continue to shift, Bradley was pessimistic here, as well, calling and peer institutions still hold their standards what I referred to as the pre-professional mind- high, it is only these discussions of ideas and the set on campus “pervasive” and “vulgar.” cultivation of the mind that will provide truth to Here, again, Bradley comes off sounding the worthy rhetoric of the educational philosophy harsher than he really is—more a reflection of that is the foundation of Georgetown. his philosophical approach than his personal sentiment on the matter. Over the course of his David Schuler is a junior in the Georgetown College professorial career, a use of “the ancients to gain of Arts & Sciences studying American Studies .

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The Philodemic Society in Recent Memory, 1989-2011

Emma Green

apturing recent memory is diffi- had a coach that helped us with weekly debates cult. All Philodemicians who have and intercollegiate competition. But in the fall of C joined our ranks in the last two de- 1983, Philodemic Coach James Unger was sus- cades have their favorite memories and their pended from the University under suspicion of own unique spin on the events and politics of misappropriating funds and made a quick exit, the Society. Much of our memory of these two leaving the Philodemic in its “survival years.”464 decades has been filtered through long years of During this time, a series of part-time coaches scattered records and fluctuating interest. We cycled through, but debate efforts were large- must capture our history now, while the Philo- ly sustained by dedicated students like Steve demic remains strong and our connections to Larson (a former United States District Court alumni remain active. In undertaking this his- judge), Mike Mazarr (a current adjunct profes- tory of the Philodemic Society from 1989-2011, sor at Georgetown University), Stuart Rabin, today’s Philodemicians hope to capture a bit of and Gary Thompson. Mr. Thompson describes what has made us into the Society we are today these years as “rag-tag” but “lots of fun,” full of – in all of our quirky, eloquent glory. Certainly, road trips in old BMWs, tie-dye T-shirts, and a this account will be incomplete, but hopefully surprisingly strong competitive showing.465 it will provide the University community with But in the wake of the graduation of some some good background on our recent history of these few remaining Philodemicians, the de- and the inspiration to undertake historical proj- bate program at Georgetown all but died. By ects of their own. 1988-1989, the program was almost non-existent. Although a small band of students continued The Years Before: The 1980s in to compete in national debate tournaments, the Philodemic had only a handful of regular par- the Philodemic Society ticipants and little institutional support during Our former Grand Librarian, Daniel Rendle- this era. The “reconstitution” of the Society that man (COL ’09), left the story of the Philodemic followed during the 1989-1990 academic year in the age of the 1980s. By his account, our So- rescued the Philodemic from near death and re- ciety had firmly shifted away from the tradition connected us to our roots. of literary debate and weekly meetings by this time – we had become a small team of competitive debaters who focused almost exclusively on Our Reconstitution: 1989-1990 For Georgetown’s Bicentennial celebration policy. While the face of the Philodemic had cer- in 1989, an excellent project was undertaken: the tainly changed, we still count among our ranks publication of Swift Potomac’s Lovely Daughter, a the small but mighty contingent of Philodemi- volume of student research papers on the history cians who persevered through these years. of the University. It is a testament to the Society’s As had been the tradition since the beginning historical significance to Georgetown that not of the Philodemic, until 1983, our organization

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 95 The Philodemic Society in Recent Memory |

one, but three chapters of this volume are dedi- past – our tenuous relationship with the George- cated to the history of the Philodemic Society.466 town administration. Throughout the early At a time when our organization was nearly non- 1990s, the Philodemic wandered in and out of existent, interest in reviving one of the Univer- the Philodemic Room on Thursday nights, and sity’s oldest traditions was clearly growing. One we were ultimately denied access to the room of the student authors, Eric George, came to- for Mr. Booth’s memorial service. During some gether with several other dedicated Georgetown weeks, our debates were held in the Philosophy alumni – including Richard Gordon, who was Department conference room. The small but the Assistant Dean of Georgetown Law School at resilient group of Philodemicians was given a the time – to reconstitute the Philodemic Society boost when the chair of the Philosophy Depart- as a literary debating group. ment wrote a “letter of recommendation” on our At this point, an aside about Dean Gordon is behalf to help us get back into the Philodemic in order. As a student of the Philodemic Society Room, although to little avail.469 Other debates the 1950s, he served as President and won the were held in off-campus locations, like the City Merrick Medal. Fortunately for the future of our Tavern Club.470 Society, during his undergraduate years, Dean Our struggle to regain our hallowed hall Gordon became friends with Leo O’Donovan, continued during the beginning of the 1990s. who later became a Jesuit and President of The alumna who had served as the first fe- Georgetown University.467 When Fr. O’Donovan male President of the Society, Rita Jankovich, began his term in 1989, he sat down with Dean led an alumni letter campaign on behalf of Gordon and asked him, “What’s the first thing I current Philodemicians to help them secure should do as President of Georgetown?” With- permanent access to the Philodemic Room on out hesitation, Dean Gordon replied, “Give the Thursday evenings. A letter drafted to Presi- Philodemic its room back.” Within two years, dent O’Donovan traced the past conversations the Philodemic had gone from being a fledging with the President’s Office, noting that the only idea discussed in Healy Pub to a small (but en- effective communication occurred when cur- thusiastic) group that met weekly to defend lib- rent Philodemicians were backed by an alumni erty with eloquence in the style of a traditional threat to cut off donations.471 While we have not literary debating society. regained full access to our room, this story took a happy turn in 2011 when President John De- The Early Years: Philodemic Gioia’s Chief of Staff, Joseph Ferrara, promised the Society priority over all other reservations in the 1990s for the Philodemic Room. In its early years, the Philodemic was small, In addition to our tumultuous relationship passionate, and conservative. But our loyalty with the President’s Office, the Philodemic also to one another was strong from the beginning. had an on-and-off relationship with George- When a Philodemician, Andrew Booth, died in town administration at large early on during May of 1993, Philodemicians went on a cam- our reconstitution, particularly with the Student paign to get a memorial service for him in the Activities Commission (SAC). Admittedly, all Philodemic Room. They passionately argued student organizations can empathize with the that the Philodemic Society had been one of the challenges of creating good programming, and most important things Mr. Booth did on campus, SAC has certainly shifted quite a bit over time and worked to bring the Philodemic together as for the better. But as we moved into the 1990s, a community to commemorate his death.468 the Philodemic faced several significant issues But, as it were, this sad part of our history of cooperation and reputation, dubbed by one marks a larger story in the Philodemic’s recent amanuensis as “The Persecution.”472 During the

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1995 academic year, the Philodemic was put on Another aspect of our culture during this era probation for its exclusionary induction policies, was the relationship between the Society and including accusations of discriminating against other organizations on campus. Oral tradition certain students and having a closed induction used to frame Philodemic as part of a “triumvi- ceremony. This was based on the accusations of rate” of sorts on campus: the International Re- several prospective members of the Society, who lations Club, the Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Ser- felt as though the group was unfairly biased in vice Fraternity, and the Philodemic Society had its selection of members. The fall-out from this many overlapping members. Indeed, one of the was divisive, and ultimately resulted in the res- strongest points of political controversy in the ignation of the standing president and vice pres- Society was whether or not these alliances were ident.473 Our Constitution and By-Laws were ed- becoming too strong.476 ited to accommodate a more “open” induction The size of the Philodemic Society also fluctu- policy while still adhering to our long-standing ated quite a bit throughout the early years of our traditions, and many of these changes dictate history. During the early parts of the 1990s, we our induction policies today. No interested stu- were a small (but dedicated) band of debaters. dent who consistently attends debates will ever Starting around 1993, the Philodemic had about be denied induction into the Society, and more- 20 members, only 10 of whom were active.477 To- over, we are thrilled to welcome anyone who ward the end of the decade, by 1997, the Philo- values eloquence in the defense of liberty into demic had about 65 inducted members, about 40 our community. of whom were active. This surge in membership Some stories also claim that during this time and attendance marked a new era of success in period, Associate Dean of Students Penny Rue the Philodemic, one which was marked with in- accused the Philodemic of being “racist because novation and the beginning of many traditions of its dress code.”474 This sort of accusation has which we cherish today. followed us – at times, we have struggled with the reputation of being an “old boys’ club,” Party Like It’s 1999: which probably harkens back to the days when Philodemic was an all-male organization. This New Philodemic traditions at incident marks a height in tension between the the turn of the Millennium Society and the University; according to alumni By the turn of the millennium, attendance at sources, however, Dean Rue’s departure signifi- weekly debates had stabilized to an average of cantly helped strengthen the Philodemic’s posi- 40 or 50, but attendance at larger debates – like tion within the Georgetown community. the Hamilton or Merrick debates – came to about 100. The community was growing stronger and Culture more active, and this growth was marked by Many of the alumni who contributed to this several important changes. project commented on the culture of the Society First, the Philodemic became more diverse. throughout the early years following our recon- The earlier “core constituency [of the Philodem- stitution, and the results were not quite what one ic] was white, male, Catholic, and intellectual in would think. Although many early Philodemi- an old-fashioned way, enamored of Chesterton, cians recalled the Society as overwhelmingly Neuhaus, Lewis, Newman, Descartes, Aquinas, white and conservative-leaning, women played St. Paul, and Plato.”478 Some of the “Diaspora” a surprisingly strong leadership role. Certainly, included “socialists; the committed (but non-so- men substantially outnumbered women, but at cialist) left; partisan politicos; parliamentary and least three of the Philodemic presidents of the policy debaters; a strong contingent of geeks; 1990s were women.475 and a few people who came by simply for the

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 97 The Philodemic Society in Recent Memory |

show.” 479 As membership grew, however, many geous comments on the floor of the Philodemic. new voices were heard. Significantly, much new The story behind this award has been warped input came from other parts of the campus com- slightly by the waters of history, but seems to munity, including members from the College have been named for an inexplicable comment Democrats, the College Republicans, and the In- by a member named Amar Weisman about an ternational Relations Club. These students gravi- orange cactus and a convenience store.483 Alleg- tated strongly toward policy, and “Plato became edly, a physical orange cactus actually existed a dirty word.” for a time, but the award was given for the last But our older traditions were not forgotten, time in 2005 or 2006.484 and in the spirit of the past, several new tradi- President Jonathan Deutsch (2005) and fu- tions were established. One of the Philodemic’s ture President Patrick Connolly (2006) helped fondest traditions, the Dean Gordon Debate, was create two new traditions that still exist today: established in 1995 to commemorate Dean Gor- the Father Ryder Award, given to the best floor don’s contributions to the reconstitution of the speaker during the Merrick Debate; and a more Philodemic Society.480 Until his death in 2003, unstated tradition, that of no politicking before Dean Gordon personally attended these debates, the election of our officers at the Grand Semi- which award the wittiest speaker of the night in Annual meeting. While both of these traditions honor of Gordon’s own reputed wit. One alum- seem well-established in our Society today, their nus recounted a particularly delightful exchange birth was relatively recent, showing just how with Dean Gordon who, when asked what he powerfully culture can sway perceptions of his- thought of that year’s debate, replied, “It was tory in our Society. terrible,’” in his “unforgettable baritone.”481 Lat- er, a donation in his honor was given to the Soci- Recent Memory: A healthy, ety, and this helped us create the pins that read “Dean Gordon” on the back. happy Society Another cherished tradition of the Philodem- In recent years, the Philodemic has become ic Society was created around 1997 or 1998: the stronger than ever. Within the past few years, legendary “Senior Debate,” our yearly send-off membership began to take a “40-60” shape, with to the senior class. Anyone who has attended this the goal of beginning the year at 40 inducted event will know that the “roasts” of members of members and ending with around 60.485 But the senior class are particularly fierce and the in- more than that, the regularly-attending non- sults go flying, but a good time is had by all. And member community exploded – by the fall of if the reader will indulge a brief moment of this 2008, the Philodemic Society routinely saw more author’s self-regard, the Librarianship was also than 100 members at its first few debates of the re-established in 1998. Jordon Nardino, serving year. By the 2011-2012 academic year, the Society as the first of the new group of Librarians of the consistently sustained 80-100 members at most Society, undertook several historical projects; of its weekly Thursday night debates. notably, he compiled some key facts about the Excitingly, new generations of Philodemi- Society’s history and lobbied the University to cians have continued to bring innovation to our restore some of the original artwork to the Philo- Society. Off and on, the Philodemic has competed demic Room.482 with literary debate societies at other Universi- Looking a bit forward into the history of the ties, such as the Winchester Cup debate with the Society, three other, newer Philodemic tradi- Jeffersonians at the University of Virginia and tions are worth noting. One, the Orange Cactus the Columbia Cup with the Enosinian Society at Award, was awarded beginning in 2003 to the the George Washington University.486 During the speaker who most consistently offered outra- spring of 2009, the Philodemic Society hosted Qa-

98 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | Emma Green

tari delegates from the Doha Debates, engaging in athleticism, the Philodemic even fielded a flag a smaller, more intimate debate in Riggs Library football team during the fall of 2008, resulting in about the role of women before the nationally- only a few minor injuries. televised debate was hosted at Georgetown the Of course, a Society’s history stretches far next day. In the spring of 2011, the Society hosted beyond these few pages, and much has been a debate against Bruce Friedrich, Vice President missed. Hopefully, this account will cast some of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals light on our reconstitution, the origins of some (PETA) setting record attendance and drawing of our newer traditions, and our shifting set of several members of the faculty. interests and backgrounds over time. Whatever Along with this impressive growth in mem- conclusions you may draw, fair reader, take bership, the Society has striven to coalesce as a heart that the Philodemic is on its way up, de- community. Andrew Rugg (President in 2007) veloping more and more into a forum for debate began our tradition of hosting regular “Presi- on campus. dent’s Dinners” as a way for members and non- members to get to know one another outside of Emma Green is a senior in the Georgetown College of the debate setting. Every week after debates, we Arts & Sciences studying Government . walk as a group to Martin’s Tavern on Wisconsin Avenue for food and conversation. And during This article was written with thanks to Josh Donovan a short-lived and perhaps ill-advised bout of (Librarian, Spring 2012) for his editing contributions .

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 99 Endnotes

The Forum 1 Cicero, “On Old Age”, Selected Works, Trans. Michael Grant (London: Penguin Classics, 1971), 240. 2 G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, [1908] 2009), 102. 3 Plato, Republic, Trans. John M. Cooper, Plato: Complete Works, Ed. John M. Cooper (India- napolis: Hackett, 1997), 1109. 4 St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (Mineola, N. Y.: Dover, 2009), 126. 5 New American Bible, and throughout. 6 (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, October 2002). 7 Josef Pieper, Tradition: Concept and Claim (South Bend, In.: St. Augustine’s Press, 2008), 14. 8 Charles M. Schulz, Being a Dog Is a Full-Time Job (Kansas City: Andrews & McMeel, 1994), 47. 9 Herbert A. Deane, The Political and Social Ideas of St . Augustine (New York: Columbia Univer- sity, 1963), 38. 10 Samuel Johnson, Selected Essays (London: Penguin, 2003), 187. 11 Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Trans. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (New York: Orbis Books, 2009), 103. 12 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man . 2 Vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1964), 2. Because this work consists of two volumes with discontinuous pagination, in the following footnotes I cite only Nature or Destiny, referring to volume one and two respectively, following by the relevant pagination within those volumes. 13 Niebuhr, Destiny, 16. 14 “But in the liberation approach sin is not considered as an individual, private, or merely interior reality” (Gutiérrez, 102). 15 Gutiérrez, Theology, 81. Emphasis original. 16 Ibid, 103. Italics mine. 17 Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001), 95. This ought not be construed to make Gutiérrez a representative of Catholic orthodoxy, as John Paul II’s opposition to his project demonstrated. Nevertheless, it is on this point about the remediability of sin that Gutiérrez’ brand of Catholicism most clashes with Niebuhr’s Protestantism. Niebuhr regarded the post-Incarnational continuance of evil in the world to be a tenant of Protestantism the denial of which entails a radical departure from the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith. See also Langdon Gilkey, “Reinhold Niebuhr’s Theology of History,” The Journal of Religion 54, no. 4 (Oct. 1974), pp. 370-372. 18 For Niebuhr’s most succinct definition of the Modern View of Man, see Niebuhr, Nature and Destiny, 18. 19 How literal Niebuhr is in using this term is matter of contention. For a fuller treatment of this question, see Geoffrey Rees, “The Anxiety of Inheritance: Reinhold Niebuhr and the

100 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 Literal Truth of Original Sin.” The Journal of Religious Ethics 31, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 75-99, http://jstor.org/stable/40018203. (Accessed October 21, 2011). 20 Rees 2003, 79. 21 Gutiérrez, Theology, 100. 22 Gilkey, Theology of History, 368. 23 Niebuhr, Nature, 23. 24 Niebuhr, Destiny, 49. 25 Gutiérrez’ primary focus on economics is an application of Marx’ understanding of the epiphenomenalism of culture to economics, and Niebuhr’s more comprehensive focus can be understood as an implicit rejection of that approach. 26 Niebuhr, Destiny, 49. 27 Gutiérrez, Theology, 95. 28 Ibid, 97. 29 Ibid, Theology, 86. 30 Gutiérrez, Theology, 93. 31 A promising topic of inquiry that lies beyond the scope of this present paper is whether Niebuhr’s category of worldviews “where a Christ is not expected” can be expanded to modern, possibly post-Christian philosophies, even though Niebuhr himself only applies the category to pre-Christian philosophies. See Niebuhr, Destiny, 16-34. 32 Gilkey, Theology of History, 364. 33 Niebuhr, Destiny, 26. See also David Wesley Scoper, Major Voices in American Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953), 56-61. 34 Though this section focuses on Niebuhr’s skepticism that history is redemptive, that is only half of his theology of history. Although it falls beyond the scope of this paper, it is necessary to note that Niebuhr was equally concerned with those whose overemphasis on the eschaton evacuated history of all meaning. His primary criticism of Karl Barth was exactly that his identification of the sinfulness of all human institutions vis a vis the Kingdom of God devolved into an escapism that eviscerated the strength of Christians to make any meaningful objections to the violent injustice of Soviet Communism (Niebuhr, How My Mind has Changed, 128). In fact, some of his comments made in private correspondence suggest that he felt a greater antipathy toward escapism than toward utopianism. See Roger L. Shinn, “Realism, Radicalism, and Eschatology in Reinhold Niebuhr: A Reassessment,” The Journal of Religion 54, no. 4 (Oct. 1974), pp. 419. http://jstor.org/stable/1201831 (Accessed October 21, 2011). 35 Niebuhr, Destiny, 11. 36 Rees 2003, 90. 37 Niebuhr, Nature, 24. 38 Gutiérrez, Theology, 91. 39 Niebuhr, Children, 164. 40 Niebuhr, Destiny, 49. 41 Ibid, 291.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 101 42 Ibid, 48. 43 Ibid, 51. 44 Ibid, 4. 45 Gutiérrez, Theology, 97. 46 Niebuhr, Destiny, 4. 47 Niebuhr, Nature, 186. 48 Niebuhr, Destiny, 54. 49 Gutiérrez, Theology, 124. 50 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960), 189. 51 Niebuhr, Children, 189. 52 Ibid, 187. 53 Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, ed. Issac Kram- nick (New York: Penguin Group, 1987), 61. 54 R. F. Stalley, Plato’s Doctrine of Freedom, vol. 98, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, (London: Blackwell Publishing, 1998), 145. 55 Ibid, 151. 56 Ibid, 157. 57 Plato, Republic, trans. Paul Shorey, in Plato; The Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 594. 58 James V. Schall, S.J., “A Reflection on the Classical Tractate of Tyranny: The Problem of Democratic Tyranny,” American Journal of Jurisprudence 41, (1996): 6. 59 Ibid. 60 Stalley, Plato’s Doctrine of Freedom, 146. 61 Schall, “Democratic Tyranny,” 6. 62 Plato, Symposium, trans. Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989), 66. 63 Simone Weil, The Need For Roots, trans. Arthur Wills (New York: Routledge, 2002), 3. 64 Ibid., 7-39. 65 Stalley, Plato’s Doctrine of Freedom, 148. 66 Weil, Need For Roots, 7. 67 Ibid. 68 Plato, Republic, 684. 69 Plato, Symposium, 67. 70 Alexander Nehamas, The Art of Living, vol. 61, Sather Classical Lectures (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998), 43. 71 Ibid. 72 Andreas Esheté, “Character, Virtue and Freedom,” Philosophy 57, no. 222 (1982): 496. 73 Plato, Republic, 684.

102 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 74 Esheté, “Character, Virtue and Freedom,” 497. 75 Stalley, Plato’s Doctrine of Freedom, 157. 76 Plato, Socrates’ Defense (Apology), trans. Hugh Tredennick, in Plato; The Collected Dia- logues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 23. 77 Ibid, 7. 78 Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet and The Possibility of Being, trans. Joan M. Burn- ham (New York: MJF Books, 2000), 35. 79 Plato, Apology, 23. 80 Plato, Protagoras, trans. W. K. C. Guthrie, in Plato; The Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Ham- ilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 312. 81 Nehamas, Art of Living, 45. 82 Ibid, 43. 83 Ibid, 44. 84 Ibid, 42. 85 Ibid, 147. 86 Edmund Burke, On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies, ed. Thomas Arkle Clark (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), 23. 87 Schall, “Democratic Tyranny,” 6. 88 Thomas Jefferson,Notes on the State of Virginia, annotated ed. (New York: Penguin Group, 1999), 155. 89 Thomas Jefferson, “Equality,” The Founder’s Constitution, University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund, http://presspubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s61.html. 90 John Adams, “Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law,” Adams Family Papers, Mas- sachusetts Historical Society, 11, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc. cfm?id=D10. 91 Ibid. 92 Plato, Republic, 816-817. 93 Leon R. Kass, “Introduction: The Problem of Technology,” in Technology in the Western Po- litical Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 2. 94 Ibid, 4-5. 95 Ibid, 6-8. 96 Ibid, 12. 97 Ibid, 17. 98 Ibid, 18-9. 99 Ibid, 22. 100 Ibid, 22-3. 101 William A. Galston, “Liberal Democracy and the Problem of Technology,” in Technology in the Western Political Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 235. 102 I shall largely treat ‘liberalism’ and ‘liberal democracy’ as interchangeable terms, as liberal

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 103 democracy is the institutional fruition of liberalism. Likewise, I shall refer to ‘liberal’ or ‘liberals’ as the citizens of liberal democracies, not necessarily as those that adhere to liberalism as a political philosophy. 103 This is not surprising. Even though it has always been committed to a market economy (of various extents), liberalism focuses more on its ultimate commitments - the furtherance of progress, the expansion of free choice, and the protection and enhancement of human dignity - than on the means it employs to realize those commitments. So, liberalism has displayed an inherent bias towards pragmatism and, with that, a largely centrist attitude towards mechanisms like the market, the state, and technology. It has largely refrained from glorifying or demonizing these mechanisms and has defended them from attempts to completely discredit their usefulness and/or moral worth. For example, despite starting off as an extremely individualist philosophy that did not favor much government intervention in the economy, liberalism (granted, partially out of political necessity) willingly accepted a more robust role for the state to ensure economic stability and material decency during and after the Great Depression. 104 Ibid, 242-3. 105 Ibid, 243. 106 Ibid, 244-3. 107 Ibid, 247. 108 Even though I shall focus on technology as a means to manipulate nature, it is important to stipulate that technology can also be understood as the infrastructure of human society (i.e., government, corporations, bureaucracy, institutions, regulation) which inevitably control human life, and that the analysis provided in ‘Technology as an Amoral Means’ also applies to this conception of technology. For example, certain regulations can help protect people from, say, poisoned food and unsafe machinery. Yet, other regulations can be used to censor free speech and to maintain monopolies in industries and influence - in other words, to hamper the individual’s ability to determine how to live his/her own life. 109 This is not the proper forum to fully inquire what dignity means in the liberal sense. However, to state my conception briefly, dignity is the individual’s right to be respected by others, to be treated as someone of equal moral worth, and to self-legislate his/her personal conception of the good. 110 Arthur M. Melzer, “The Problem with the ‘Problem of Technology,’” in Technology in the Western Political Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press),298-9. 111 Ibid, 301-2. 112 Ibid, 302-3. 113 Ibid, 303. 114 Ibid, 290. 115 Ibid, 295. 116 Yes, liberal communities as envisioned by these theorists arise out of human nature and its subsequent consequences, such as the perceived needs to restrain humanity’s natural predisposition towards selfishness or to secure humanity’s natural rights. Regardless, the liberal tradition has never accepted the viability of societies regulated simply by human nature, nor has it viewed community as the result of some teleology or of a natural chain of

104 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 dialectics. For liberalism, humanity secures the viability of its existence and of just principles through the explicit creation of unnatural, governing institutions. 117 Ibid, 306-7. 118 Ibid, 307. 119 Ibid, 310-1. 120 William A. Galston, “Liberal Democracy and the Problem of Technology,” in Technology in the Western Political Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 241. 121 Ibid, 241. 122 Melzer, 296. 123 Ibid, 296-7.

The Chamber 124 Commonwealth of Virginia, Ex Rel . Kenneth T . Cuccinelli, II v . Sebelius . Virginia Eastern District Court. Civil Action No. 3:10CV188-HEH (Memorandum Opinion). 125 Ibid . 126 Perez v . United States, 402 U.S. 146 (1971) (Douglas, holding). 127 United States v . Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000) (Rehnquist, holding). 128 United States v . Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995) (Rehnquist, holding). 129 Gonzalez v . Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Stevens, holding). 130 Gonzalez v . Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Scalia, concurring). 131 Gonzalez v . Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Stevens, holding). 132 United States v . Darby Lumber Co . 312 U.S. 100 (1941) (Stone, holding). 133 Brief for the National Federation of Independent Business as Amicus Curiae, p. 30, Depart- ment of Health and Human Services v. State of Florida, No. 11-398 (2012). 134 Wickard v . Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942) (Jackson, holding). 135 Gonzalez v . Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Stevens, holding). 136 United States v . Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995) (Rehnquist, holding). 137 United States v . Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000) (Rehnquist, holding). 138 United States v . Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995) (Rehnquist, holding). 139 Robert D. Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democ- racy 6:1 (January 1995), 67. 140 Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn, “Civic Engagement and Community Heterogeneity:An Economist’s Perspective,” Perspective on Politics, 1 (2003), 2. 141 The World Bank (1999) as quoted in M. K. Smith, “Social Capital,” The Encyclopedia of For- mal Education, (www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm). 142 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Win- throp (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 489-90. 143 Tocqueville, 491. 144 Putnam, 66.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 105 145 Putnam, 66. 146 Costa and Kahn, 4. 147 Ibid, 4-5. 148 Ibid, 7-8. 149 Ibid, 7. 150 Bill Bishop, The Big Sort, (New York: Mariner Books, 2008), 135. 151 Ibid, 135. 152 Ibid, 133. 153 Ibid, 142. 154 Ibid, 142-3. 155 Ibid, 153. 156 David Campbell, “Community Heterogeneity and Participation,” In The Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association, September 2-5, 2004, 3. 157 Ibid, 4. 158 Ibid. 159 Ibid, 9. 160 Ibid, 7. 161 Ibid, 10. 162 Tocqueville, 496. 163 Robert Putnam, “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century,” Scandinavian Political Studies 30 (November 2007): 138. 164 Ibid,138-140. 165 Ibid, 151. 166 Ibid, 158-9. 167 Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 77. 168 Ibid, 79. 169 Ibid. 170 Ibid. 171 Richard Florida, “Cities and the Creative Class,” American Sociological Association (March 2003), 5. 172 Ibid, 5-6. 173 Ibid, 6. 174 Ibid, 16. 175 Stephen Marglin, The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Commu- nity, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), 35. 176 Ibid, 21. 177 Ibid, 24. 178 Ibid, 27.

106 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 179 Ibid. 180 Ibid, 32. 181 Herbert J. Storing. What the Anti-Federalists Were For?, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), 53. 182 Michael J. Rosano, “John Winthrop, John Cotton, and Nathaniel Niles: The Basic Principles of Puritan Political Thought,” in Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffery Sikkenga, eds., The History of American Political Thought, (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003), 29-30. 183 James Madison, “Federalist 51,” in George W. Carey and James McClellan, eds., The Federal- ist, (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001), 268. 184 Rosano, 26. 185 Aristotle I. 1253a2. 186 Rosano, 27. 187 Ibid. 188 Storing, 19-21. 189 Publius, as quoted in Herbert J. Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For?, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), 74. 190 Melancton Smith, as quoted in Herbert J. Storing. What the Anti-Federalists Were For?, (Chi- cago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), 18. 191 Tocqueville, 183. 192 Ibid, 483. 193 Ibid, 484. 194 Ibid, 368. 195 Dankwart A. Rustow, “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model,” in Contend- ing Perspectives in Comparative Politics, ed. Lawrence Mayer, Dennis Patterson and Frank Thames (Washington: CQ Press, 2009), 439. 196 Ibid, 440. 197 Juan J. Linz and Alfred C. Stepan, “Toward Consolidated Democracies,” in Contending Per- spectives in Comparative Politics, ed. Lawrence Mayer, Dennis Patterson and Frank Thames (Washington: CQ Press, 2009), 463. 198 Unknown, “Pyongyang Elite Key to Regime’s Survival,” The Choson Ilbo, Janu- ary 04, 2012, accessed April 02, 2012, http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_ dir/2012/01/04/2012010400633.html 199 William Horsley, “Romania’s Bloody Revolution,” BBC News, December 22, 1999, accessed February 19, 2012, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/574200.stm 200 Lisa Anderson, “Demystifying the Arab Spring,” Foreign Affairs 90:3 (2011):2-7. 201 Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” in Essential Readings in Comparative Politics, ed. Patrick H. O’Neil and Ronald Rogowski (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006), 24. 202 Thomas Carothers, “The End of the Transition Paradigm,” Journal of Democracy 13:1 (2002): 11. 203 Ibid, 12.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 107 204 Juan J. Linz and Alfred C. Stepan, “Toward Consolidated Democracies,” in Contending Per- spectives in Comparative Politics, ed. Lawrence Mayer, Dennis Patterson and Frank Thames (Washington: CQ Press, 2009), 465. 205 Ibid, 466-467. 206 Carothers, 19. 207 Linz and Stepan, 208-209. 208 Ibid, 464.

The Sanctuary 209 Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy (Colorado: Roman Catholic Books, 1993), 80. 210 Joseph Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, trans. Alexander Dru (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1999), xix. 211 Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Dedication of a Church and an Altar, 1977, Ch. 4, No. 4. www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Rites/RDCA.pdf 212 Steven Schloeder, Architecture in Communion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998), 63. 213 A note on terminology: In the present paper, worship in which priest and people face a common direction, regardless of cardinal direction, will be referred to as ad orientem. While this can be a bit of a misnomer when an apse is constructed to the North or West, it is a misnomer that is commonly used. Worship in which the priest faces the people will be referred to as versus populum. This use of terminology is consistent with that of many liturgists etc. 214 A note on scope: The present paper is limited to considering churches constructed before the Council then reordered in some way thereafter because they far outnumber churches constructed after the Council. While some conclusions may be applicable to modern churches, a thorough consideration of modern churches would require its own systematic study. 215 Gamber, Reform, 139-141. 216 Louis Bouyer, Liturgy and Architecture (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967), 53- 54. 217 Schloeder, Architecture, 70. 218 M.J. Moreton, “Orientation as a Liturgical Principle,” Studia Patristica, Vol. XVII, Ed. Eliza- beth A. Livingstone (Leuven: Peeters, 1993), 575-590. 219 Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1988), 7. 220 Ratzinger, Eschatology, 6. 221 Bouyer, Liurgy, 29. 222 Ratzinger, Spirit, 69. 223 Ibid, 69-70.

108 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 224 Gamber, Reform, 142. 225 Ibid ., 151, 157. 226 Bouyer, Liturgy, 55-56. 227 Aiden Nichols, Looking at the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996), 96. 228 Gamber, Reform, 143. 229 Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 2003, 74. http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/GIRM.pdf 230 Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy,Environment and Art in Catholic Worship (Washington: United States Catholic Conference, 1978), 37. 231 C.f. Duncan Stroik, “Environment and Art in Catholic Worship- A Critique,” Sacred Archi- tecture 2 (1999). http://www.sacredarchitecture.org/articles/environment_and_art_in_catho- lic_worship_a_critique/ 232 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “What is the Authority of the Document Environment and Art in Catholic Worship?”. http://usccb.org/liturgy/q&a/environment/ environment.shtml 233 Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, “Letter on the Posi- tion of the Priest During the Eucharistic Liturgy,” Adoremus Vol. VI, No. 9 (Dec 2000-Jan 2001). http://www.adoremus.org/12-0101cdw-adorient.html 234 Moyra Doorly, No Place For God (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007), 50. 235 Richard Kieckhefer, Theology in Stone (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 22. 236 Kieckhefer, Theology, 25. 237 Schloeder, Architecture, 54-56. 238 Kieckhefer, Theology, 25. 239 Ibid ., 25. 240 Ratzinger, Spirit, 70. 241 Kieckhefer, Theology, 27. 242 Congregation for the Clergy, Opera Artis, 1971. http://www.adoremus.org/Opera_Artis. html 243 “Praying Ad Orientem Versus,” trans. John Zuhlsdorf, Sacred Music vol. 120, no. 4 (1993). http://musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/sm120-4.pdf 244 Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum concilium, 1963, § 10. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concili- um_en.html 245 Ibid., § 23. 246 See the work of Franck & Lohsen, Gardiner Hall, Duncan Stroik, and MatthewAlderman, among others. 247 Ratzinger, Eschatology, 7.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 109 Figure 1 [right].Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Georgetown University, Wash- 1 ington DC, before and after reordering: complete removal of high altar and insertion of new freestanding altar roughly at the transept. Figure 2 [right]. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washing- ton DC. Insertion of a new free standing altar in the midst of the sanctuary, with the high altar left intact behind it. 248 Plato, Republic, tr. G.M.A Grube, Plato: Complete Works, eds. John M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997), 366a. 249 Rom. 4:28 (NIV) 250 In this paper, the term “the city” refers to any society and/or polity. At Apology 18a, Socrates states that the philosopher does not know his way around the city or the law court, revealing that while the philosopher physically lives in the city, his mind does not exist and align in concordance with it. 251 Plato, Law, tr. Trevor Saunders, Plato: Complete Works, eds. John M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997), 887b. 252 Plato, Republic, 359d-360d. 253 Absolute justice is the idea that all transgressions matter and are wrong and ought to be redressed in some manner. No state or society can achieve 2 absolute justice (not even a totalitarian society that attempts to) for it would require the impossible task of ensuring every sin committed by one of its members be acknowledged and atoned for. A discussion of absolute justice will be included later in this paper. 254 Plato, Gorgias, tr. Donald J. Zeyl, Plato: Complete Works, eds. John M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997), 469b. N.b. In the Crito (50a), Socrates refuses to take advantage of his opportunity to escape Athens after he is unjustly sentenced to death. He states that the government has been given authority to rule and create order (c.f. the Christian concept of government’s right to create order in Rom. 13:4) and it would be wrong to evade his punishment, whether it was decided justly or unjustly.

110 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 255 Seth Benardete, The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 36 . N.b. that the Greek word for justice, δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosune), is the same word used for punishment in the Gorgias and much of the Platonic corpus, thus indicating that Plato believed punishment and justice were inextricably linked. 256 Plato, Gorgias, 473a-474d. N.b. In Plato’s concept of justice, all of society suffers disorder and injustice as a result of the wrongdoing of one of its members. Thus, it is the duty of all members of a given to society to expose each other’s crimes and to convince that person to accept a punishment in order to redress his own crime and restore the orderliness of his soul. 257 As defined by Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals. 258 Lev. 5:35. 259 To Christians, that is to say, the Old Testament. 260 Sin is defined as man’s choice to separate himself from God by acting in a ayw that defies God’s Laws. 261 1 Jn. 2:2. Jesus could have evaded his captors and even accepted Pontius Pilate’s offer to release him, but he willing accepted God’s will that he die by crucifixion so he could sacrifice his life for the sins of the world (Lk. 22:42). I use the term “credited,” because Christ’s sacrifice does not justify man in the sense that it converts him to being intrinsically right, but pardons his sins so that he can be “deemed” right and thus worthy of eternal salvation.

The Archive 262 Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 2009), 1. 263 Ibid, 354. 264 Henry Adams, Democracy: An American Novel (New York: Penguin Group, 2008), 75. 265 qtd. in Wood, 207. 266 Adams, 47. 267 Ibid, 79. 268 Wood, 74. 269 Adams, 61. 270 Ibid, 46, 97. 271 Ibid, 14. 272 Ibid, 7. 273 William L. Riordon, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, ed. Terrence J. McDonald (New York: Bed- ford, 1994), 36. 274 Ibid, 73. 275 Leo Strauss, “Niccolo Machiavelli,” in History of Political Philosophy, ed. Strauss and Cropsey, 296-317. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 297. 276 Riordan, 62. 277 Ibid, 64.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 111 278 Ibid, 18. 279 Ibid, 1. 280 Ibid, 64-65. 281 Ibid, 102. 282 Ibid, 23 283 Niccolo Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings, ed. David Wootton (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994), 56. 284 Adams, 18. 285 Ibid, 42 286 Mark Twain, Tom Quirk, ed The Portable Mark Twain (New York: Penguin Classics, 2004), 573 287 Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age, (New York: Hill & Wang, 2007), 102. 288 University of Virginia Library, Albert & Shirley Small Special Collections Library, Digital Resources & Texts, Mark Twain in His Times, Mark Twain on Stage, MT Live – After Din- ner Speeches, Whittier Dinner Speech. “sassing such famous littery people.” 289 Ibid. 290 Ronald Johnson, “Memory and Desire in Mark Twain’s America,” Mark Twain’s America Blog, December 6, 2011. < https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/hist-384- fall2011/2011/12/06/memory-and-desire-the-passing-of-mark-twains-america-5/> 291 Notebook #20, reprinted in Anderson, Frederick, Lin Salamo, and Bernard L. Stein, eds. Mark Twain’s Notebooks & Journals, Vol . II 1877-1883, 1st, (Berkeley, CA: University of Califor- nia Press, Jan. 14, 1976). 292 Clare Southern, “The Closing of the American Frontier,” Mark Twain’s America Blog, November 16, 2011. < https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/hist-384-fall2011/2011/11/16/ the-closing-of-the-american-frontier/> 293 Marley Brown, “Twain’s The Innocents Abroad, The Common Man, and Anti-Imperial- ism,” Mark Twain’s America Blog, November 28, 2011. 294 Gilman, quoted in Tom Albert, “Review of Susan Gillman’s Dark Twins: Imposture and Iden- tity in Mark Twain’s America,” University of Virginia. 295 Ronald Johnson, “Twain and God: Dream Writings,” Mark Twain’s America Blog, Novem- ber 28, 2011. < https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/hist-384-fall2011/2011/11/28/pilot-of- the-unconscious/> 296 Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 9. 297 Brown. 298 Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999; University of Michigan, Scholarly Publishing Office), 25.

112 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb00050.0001.001> (accessed December 11, 2011). 299 James Oakes, The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998), 134. 300 Oakes, 41. 301 Johnson, 111. 302 Oakes, 196. 303 Ibid. 304 Ibid. 305 Johnson ,111. 306 Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the Old South (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977), 97. 307 Mathews, 124. 308 Adam Rothman, Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South (Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 64. 309 Rothman, 65. 310 Mathews, 47. 311 Ibid, 95. 312 Oakes, 39. 313 William J. Cooper, Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), 249. 314 Ibid. 315 Oakes, 50. 316 Jonathan Daniel Wells, The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 190. 317 Ibid, 182. 318 Thomas Murphy, S.J., Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1717-1838 (New York: Routledge, 2001), 130. 319 Ibid. 320 Brother Joseph S.J. Mobberly, “Diary,” Jesuit Plantation Project Online. Maryland Province of Jesuit Papers, Georgetown University Special Collections, Volume 1, 11. (accessed December 12, 2011). 321 R. Emmett Curran, “‘Splendid Poverty’: Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1805-1838,” in Catholics in the Old South: Essays on Church and Culture, ed. by Randall M. Miller and Jon L. Wakelyn (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1983), 133. 322 Randall M. Miller, “A Church in Cultural Captivity: Some Speculations on Catholic Identity in the Old South,” in Catholics in the Old South: Essays on Church and Culture, ed. by Randall M. Miller and Jon L. Wakelyn (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1983), 14. 323 Curran, 127, 133. 324 Ibid, 129-130.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 113 325 Ibid, 131. 326 Ibid, 133. 327 It is important to point out that black southerners, the majority of whom were slaves, are largely missing from this paper. The author does not want to minimize the agency of slaves, who asserted themselves and rebelled in response to the actions of their masters in many ways, but this paper is primarily interested in the views of white slaveholders. It is necessary to point out however, that black slaveholders are found also in the demographic margins of the South, many of whom worked to claim their family members or friends from the ownership of white slave owners. 328 Murphy, 130. 329 Georgetown University, American Studies Department, Jesuit Plantation Project: Maryland’s Jesuit Plantations, 1650-1838. (accessed December 12, 2011). 330 Murphy, XXI. 331 Mobberly Diary, vol. 1, 141. 332 Ibid, 67. 333 Curran, 133. 334 Ibid, 133. 335 Mobberly Diary, vol. 1, 139. 336 Ibid. 337 Curran, 138. 338 Ibid, 142. 339 Mobberly Diary, “Letter” from December 7, 1824. vol. 4, 28. 340 Curran, 140. 341 Ibid, 146. 342 Murphy, 129. 343 Brother Joseph Mobberly, S.J., “Slavery, or Cham,” Jesuit Plantation Project Online, Maryland Province of Jesuit Papers, Georgetown University Special Collections. (accessed December 12, 2011). 344 Mobberly, “Slavery, or Cham.” 345 Ibid. 346 Murphy, 137. 347 Mobberly Diary, vol.1, 142. 348 Mobberly, “Slavery, or Cham.” 349 Ibid. 350 Ibid. 351 Mathews, 90-96. 352 Thomas, S.J. Murphy, Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1717-1838 (New York: Routledge, 2001), 145.

114 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 353 Jesuits of the Missouri Province, “Jesuit Brothers,” (accessed December 12, 2011). 354 Mobberly, “Slavery, or Cham.” 355 Mobberly Diary, “Letter” from December 7, 1824. vol. 4, 27.

The Parlor 356 Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. Stephen H.A. Shepherd, (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), 131. Direct quotes from Malory are adapted from the original Middle English. 357 Ibid, 467. 358 Ibid, 469. 359 Ibid, 544. 360 Victoria L. Weis, “Grail Knight or Boon Companion? The Inconsistent Sir Bors of Malory’s ‘Morte Darthur,’” Studies in Philology 94.4 (1997), 420-421. 361 Malory, 539-540. 362 Ibid, 550. 363 Ibid, 548. 364 Ibid, 587. 365 Ibid, 469. 366 Weis, 426. 367 Felicia Nimue Ackerman, “’I may do no penaunce’: Spiritual Sloth in Malory’s Morte,” Arthuriana 16.1 (2006), 48-49. 368 Malory, 652. 369 Ibid, 695. 370 Ibid, 697. 371 James V. Schall, S.J., At the Limits of Political Philosophy: From “Brilliant Errors” to Things of Uncommon Importance (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press of America, 1996), 41. 372 Richard Pevear, Introduction to Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (New York: Knopf, 1994), xii. 373 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.), 45. 374 Pevear, Demons, xv-xvi. 375 Dostoevsky, Demons, 619. 376 Saint Augustine, City of God, trans. Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin Classics, 1984), 440. 377 Dostoevsky, Demons, 558. 378 Ibid, 419. 379 Amos Elon, Introduction Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, by Hannah Arendt (New York: Penguin Books, 2006).

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 115 380 Dostoevsky, Demons, 585. 381 Eclogues, 583-584. 382 Ibid, 629. 383 Ibid, 2.1-2. 384 Ibid, 2.4-5. 385 Ibid, 2.4. 386 Ibid, 2.68. 387 Ibid, 2.63-5. 388 Ibid, 2.70-2. 389 Ibid, 2.59. 390 Clausen, Wendell, Introduction and Commentary to Virgil’s Eclogues, (Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 2004), 63. 391 Eclogues, 2.25-7. 392 Ibid, 2.56. 393 Ibid, 2.14. 394 Ibid, 2.73. 395 NB: Corydon’s name seen also in Theocr. 4 and Ecl. 7. 396 Haight, E.H, Romance in the Latin Elegiac Poets (New York: Longmans, 1932), 26. 397 Eclogues, 10.6. 398 Ibid, 10.10. 399 Ibid, 10.28-30. 400 Ibid, 10.29. 401 Ibid, 10.44-5. 402 Ibid, 10.22. 403 Ibid, 10.44. 404 Ibid, 10.41-2. 405 Ibid, 10.47. 406 Ibid, 10.69. 407 Ibid, 10.28. 408 Ibid, 10.64. 409 Ibid, 10.28-30. 410 Georgics, 3.244; Ibid, 3.272. 411 Ibid, 3.258-9. 412 Ibid, 3.209-10. 413 Ibid, 3.242-4. 414 Ibid, 3.225. 415 Ibid, 3.228.

116 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 416 See exsul, Ecl . 1.61; regna, Ecl. 1.69. In addition to relating the human and animal worlds with this common experience, this direct connection to Eclogue I strengthens the link between his two works further. 417 Georgics, 3.265. 418 Ibid, 3.259-63. 419 Ibid, 2.263 cf. Aen. 4.308. 420 Ibid, 3.284-5. 421 Eclogues, 6.10. 422 Georgics, 4.197-200. 423 Mynors, R.A.B., Introduction and Commentary to Virgil’s Georgics (Oxford: Oxford Unviver- sity Press, 1990), 283. 424 Georgics, 4.1. 425 Ibid, 4.219-21. 426 Ibid, 4.251. 427 Ibid, 4.255-6. 428 Ibid, 4.466. 429 Ibid, 4.495. 430 Ibid, 4.520-2. 431 Ibid, 4.510. 432 Joseph Anthony Amato, Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 1. 433 Ibid, 5. 434 Ibid, 4. 435 Ibid, 3. 436 Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (London: Penguin Books, 1997), 24. 437 Ibid. 438 Amato, Dust, 14. 439 Ibid, 4. 440 Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 24. 441 Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed., s.v. “Dust,” accessed November 28, 2011, OED Online. 442 Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 805. 443 Ibid. 444 Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature,” Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: Verso, 1980), 67. 445 Ibid, 69. 446 Ibid. 447 Amato, Dust, 1. 448 Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 24. 449 Ibid.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 117 The Clock Tower 450 Joseph T. Durkin, S.J., Georgetown: First in the Nation’s Capital (Garden City, NY: Double Day & Company, Inc. 1964), 16. 451 Rev. William DuBourg, S.S., 1798 Prospectus, retrieved from “The American Mission: American Jesuits from Andrew White to John Carroll” (1976), Georgetown University Library: Special Collections: Previous . 452 The Jesuit “Ratio Studiorum” of 1599, trans. Allan P. Farrell, S.J. (Washington: Conference of Major Superiors of Jesuits, 1970), 66. 453 Catalogue of the College of Arts & Sciences, 1941-1942, 20-22, as quoted in Brown, 113. 454 The original 1798 curriculum was fairly unchanged at this point. 455 William G. McEvitt, M.D.,The Hilltop Remembered (Washington, D.C.: The Georgetown University Library, 1982), 2. 456 Georgetown University Library: Special Collections Archive, source unknown. 457 Edwin W. Passarelli, “Memorare,” in Georgetown University, ed., On the Hilltop: Remi- niscences and Reflections on Their Campus Years by Georgetown Alumni (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University, 1966),124-128. 458 Louis Mendez Jr., “The Quintessence of Georgetown,” in Ibid, 121-123. 459 Andrew M. Greeley, From Backwater to Mainstream: A Profile of Catholic Higher Education (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), 11. 460 Dorothy M. Brown, “Learning, Faith, Freedom, and Building a Curriculum: Two Hundred Years and Counting”, in William C. McFadden, ed., Georgetown at Two Hundred: Faculty Reflec- tions on the University’s Future (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1989), 83. 461 Georgetown University Report to the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, February 1, 1951 as quoted in Brown, 84. 462 Brown, 85. 463 Durkin, 1. 464 The Georgetown Voice, “Debate Coach Under Investigation,” 18 October 1983, 4. 465 Gary Thompson, personal email correspondence with Emma Green, May 2011. 466 Joseph T. Durkin, ed., Swift Potomac’s Lovely Daughter: Two Centuries at Georgetown through Students’ Eyes (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1990). 467 Jordon Nardino, personal email exchange with Emma Green, June 2011. 468 Letter to the University from Rita Jankovich, Georgetown University Archives (GUA), Philodemic Collection, Box 010202. 469 Letter from Philosophy Department, GUA, Philodemic Collection, Box 010202. 470 Russell Smith, personal email exchange with Emma Green, June 2011. 471 Memo to alumni, GUA, Philodemic Collection, Box 010202. 472 Amanuensis Book from spring 1994 and fall 1995, entry by Russell Smith, GUA, Box 960515 473 Smith. 474 Nardino.

118 | Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | Author

475 Rita Jankovich, the first female President, Kathy Homoki (now Trimble), and eraT Brown. Apologies to any others whose names may not have been included. 476 Nardino 477 Smith. 478 Jack Massey, email exchange with Emma Green, June 2011. 479 Ibid . 480 Smith. 481 Nardino. 482 Ibid. 483 Martin Skold, email exchange with Emma Green, June 2011. 484 Jonathan Deutsch, phone conversation with Emma Green, June 2011. In this Librarianess’s humble opinion, the end of this award was perhaps for the best. 485 Randy Drew, Membership Report 2008, GUA. 486 NB: The Enosinian Society was revived ca. 2007 by a young woman who was later inducted as an honorary member of the Philodemic Society, Ms. Jacqueline Posada. To our knowledge, however, their Society no longer exists. The Jeffersonians, on the other hand, just happen to be quite difficult to contact. We did, however, visit them in the springs of 2008, 2010, and 2012, and a very good time was had by all.

Utraque Unum — Summer 2012 | 119

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