A.A. Hodge called Dabney the greatest theologian in America during the 1800s, and many have noted his prophetic insight. His rejection of the modernist theory known as the Social Contract merits renewed study since Social Justice is, in fact, a rebirth of this still-born idea.
The Augustinian anthropology of sin contained an ethical implication. Members of the City of God have a duty to love God, for this alone restores peace and order to their beings.
Forsaking the supremacy of the divine, transcendent moral order as authoritative standard for societal and political arrangements in favor of the supremacy of man conflicts with divine ordinances and leads to anarchy from which government tyranny alone offers liberation.
Groen van Prinsterer’s conservative political message from the nineteenth century, and in particular his conviction that societal decline and state tyranny are fruits of apostasy, is surprisingly relevant for our current times.
Augustine held that God can command the rich to give to the poor. The poor can never demand from the rich; generosity is never owed.
When we say that morality does not exist between humans and animals, we mean that it does not intrinsically exist. A moral relationship always entails a second-person relationship of accountability.
The difference between liberty and license was prominent in Stahl's view of freedom. Building explicitly on an Augustinian conception of ethics and freedom, Stahl articulates a counterintuitive view of political freedom we need to hear today.
To Augustine, we have two ways of acquiring justice: transcendent and immanent. Some describe imminent justice as legal justice and transcendent justice as religious justice. However, the Social Justice movement conflates the two.
Rawls seems to have thought that one must choose between believing in an omnipotent and good God who cares for human beings or hoping for a more just world through human effort. Choosing the first meant resigning oneself to living in a world filled with egotism and evil.
In 1534 the Dutch radical reformer John of Leyden took control of the nearby German city of Münster. He sought to establish an eschatological utopia, outlawing private property.
