John Rawls, Lapsed Episcopalian

An article in the Times of London Literary Supplement discusses the progressive Christian ideals that served as the foundation for John Rawls’ influential political philosophy.

The writer of A Theory of Justice, and the father of modern American political liberalism, Rawls (who died in 2002) apparently considered entering seminary as a young man and pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Church, but ultimately walked away from the church, earned a Ph.D in philosophy and became one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.

Recently, his senior philosophy thesis from his time as a Princeton undergrad, written in 1942, and entitled “A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: An interpretation based on the concept of community,” has been found.

From the Times article:

The moral importance of the separateness of persons, a fundamental theme of Rawls’s work, is strikingly anticipated in the moral and religious conception of community that lies at the heart of the thesis. Rawls proposes that the essential feature of human beings is our capacity for community, that sin deforms our essential nature and destroys community, and that faith is the realization of our nature through integration into community: our “openness” to God and other persons overcomes the terrible aloneness that issues from sin. Although the term “community” may suggest otherwise, the human fellowship in which we realize our nature does not destroy the separateness of individual persons, but is founded on an affirmation of their distinctness. Here is a revealing passage:

“We reject mysticism because it seeks a union which excludes all particularity, and wants to overcome all distinctions. Since the universe is in its essence communal and personal, mysticism cannot be accepted…

Kids Lead Sermon: No Longer Teach

“Teaching” Sunday School has been supremely humbling, in part because the experience has led me to doubt whether we adults believe this Jesus stuff as much as the kids do.

Sure, Jesus’ teachings might sound nice to us, but as adults, they can also sound fairly unbelievable. Even though God’s law may be written on our hearts, typically that law has gotten covered over and obscured by the many callouses that have accumulated over the course of our rough and tumble adult lives.

Love your enemies? Yeah, right—I’d like to see where that gets you. Blessed are the peacemakers? In what world is that true?

Healing can come simply by laying hands on someone? Then why does medical school require four years of school followed by many more of residency training? And why is our country in the throes of a hugely complicated debate about how to provide affordable healthcare to all our fellow citizens? Laying on of hands? Get real.

And the personal fulfillment that comes from sacrifice? Really? Isn’t that just another way of serving as a door-mat to the world? You have to stand up for yourself if you want to get ahead. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you!

But for the sake of the children, we adults try to shelve those feelings–that deep-rooted cynicism–when we enter into Sunday School. And then we start asking the kids about loving enemies and being peacemakers and healing hands and sacrifice, and miraculously, they need no convincing.

[Click below to read the entire sermon.]