I’ve been enjoying Larry Siedentop’s book, Inventing the Individual. One thing he covers is social order.
PICTURE: John Simitopoulos/Unsplash
Once social order – peace – was kept through brute force and submission. Those in power used brute force to keep the peace, and everyone had their place in society, submitting to someone. It works, if you like living in a police state.
With the influence of Christianity, there was a gradual tipping point. Pope Gregory VII came to power in the 11th century and worked on a vision of social order based on individual morality and self-discipline. That was, every individual was a moral being, who employed self-discipline to do what was right!
These fragile ideas represented a radical change in thinking about social order at the highest level; because of the words Jesus had uttered 1,000 years earlier.
Police state to democracy because of Jesus.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.