Political Philosophy

After defending the English Revolution of 1688 as a thing of a different and more respectable sort than the French Revolution of 1789, Burke goes on to argue against universal rights in favor of the particular rights of particular people. He believes that people receive their rights through inheritance from past practice, and that the French made a huge mistake to throw away that inheritance and try to invent a universalistic and rational constitution with no precedent. Reading Burke carefully, we begin to see that Burke supports a certain type of hypocrisy as essential for political stability, a noble lie of sorts. In the case of England, the Noble Lie perpetuated by the English parliament was that the Glorious Revolution did not establish parliamentary supremacy and change forever the role of the monarchy, even though it did. The Noble Lie respects the sensibilities of people and does not push people’s imaginations beyond what they can bear, and in doing so, it prevents the snowball effect (if we can do this radical thing, we can do whatever we want) which results in social chaos. For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars. Summer 2022 will be on Christian Anarchism. https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

The first part of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution of France takes on England’s Revolution Society and Rev. Richard Price, whom Burke considered a dangerous and radical agitator. We begin to see that Burke does not like mixing religion and politics, and he dislikes politics practiced with religious zeal. He argues that there is a big difference between the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 and the French Revolution of 1789. Is he right? For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

Why read Edmund Burke? In this introduction I explain that his classical conservatism is more of a way of thinking than it is an ideology, and as such it is flexible. It is also practical, and we need more of that in a time in which too many waste their efforts in theorizing for its own sake (or worse) just attacking the “other side.” For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

This podcast doesn’t give all 12 steps, but it does give us at least two steps, and a “serenity prayer” for our particular addiction. In this penultimate episode dealing with Walter Brueggemann’s Out of Babylon I discuss the themes that emerge in the last chapter dealing with accommodation and resistance to empire. Brueggemann is unflinching in his warning to US Christians that they have verged from accommodation, which is sometimes necessary, to capitulation, which is inexcusable and amounts to idolatry and rejection of “local identity” or strong community values. Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

Reflections on Walter Brueggemann’s Out of Babylon, chapters 6 and 7, leads to a discussion of Christian nationalism–the reasons it is wrong but also the possible reasons why it exists. Looking at the Old Testament as a source of iconic, archetypal and enduring truths is discussed as an alternative to the narrative of the US as the new Israel. If people remain captive to Empire, why? Is it partly because they truly have been displaced and are tempted by cooptation? Is it due to their fear of the wilderness and the freedom it represents? Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

Chapter 4 of Walter Brueggemann’s Out of Babylon discusses the power of poetic imagination to create the conditions for change. Multiple views of God’s position relative to humans, and the human response to God are entertained in poetic language. Brueggemann emphasizes the latter as a strength that shows a way beyond the sectarian infighting that characterizes most religious sects and keeps those within them from being able to act positively to create a better future. The idea of a mutable God is discussed–a God who is able to change his mood and mind in response to changes in relationship to his human fold. In dealing with this kind of God, having a fertile imagination about the future is particularly important, as it fosters hope and cancels despair that tends to occur as people bow down to imperial economics and politics. Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

We journey with Walter Brueggemann into the territory of Christian choice–whether to equate God’s will with the will of the nation and resolve morality into the aims of national power, or to choose the “local tradition” of adherence to God’s priorities even when they clash with the priorities and values of empire. The latter involves first recognizing that there is a necessary and unresolvable conflict between any national will and Judeo-Christian morality. Brueggemann asks, will the Christian church be a national church or will it be governed only by God? Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

In the second chapter of Walter Brueggemann’s book Out of Babylon, the “local tradition” of the United States, as the “shining city on a hill,” is explored in the context of prophetic calls for examination and repentance both in the Old Testament and in Walter Brueggemann’s theology. People always design narratives to explain their situation and role in the world, and Brueggemann teaches that this is not only inevitable but good–or it can be, if the story we tell is not simply delusion but pushes us to act in according to the values we say we embrace. In this case, he’s talking about Biblical Christian values and he is asking American Christians what (or who) they really stand for. I think this is a very worthy question, so this session is devoted to it. Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

In this first in a series on Walter Brueggemann’s Out of Babylon, I discuss the role of Babylon and how Brueggemann sees the United States as a Babylon analog. I hopefully set the stage for discussing Brueggemann’s view that US Christians who hew to the “City on the Hill” ideology are committing idolatry and are aligning with Empire and not with God, the two being ultimately opposed. This is not to establish a mere negative argument (as in, this is what a Christian is not), but rather to begin to point to a positive pronouncement (this is what a Christian or other person faithful to God is) . Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA

I know that LIam Neeson is not a US citizen, but in his movies he mostly acts a though he is. In this final video on the series examining the lessons of the Versailles Treaty I venture back into US politics and ask the question of personal responsibility. Should people respond in vengeance against actual wrongs? If they don’t want to, how do they resist this very (immediately) rational and biological urge? There is no doubt in my mind that we would all be better off if we did not act on the temptation for retribution, but easier said than done. The responsibility of Christians is particularly acute since their religion dictates no revenge. I challenge Christians to take their religion seriously and to imagine the strength it would take to walk away from disputes domestic and foreign. Out of Babylon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Babylon-Walter-Brueggemann/dp/1426710054 For more from me: https://lauriemjohnson.com/ https://politicalphilosophy.video.blog/ iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-philosophy-dr-laurie-m-johnson/id1473457784 Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future summer seminars:: https://forms.gle/WxikMpNx1M64GeTEA