Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2163

Five typed sheets pasted together end-to-end to form a continuous roll. Appears to be an outline for a book or lengthy essay on Christianity. Clearly related to Item 2044, which may have been a first effort following this outline, and to Item 2251, which appears to be Heath’s most complete draft.

Thought to be early 1950s.

 

 

Christ into center of United Nations under tyranny of

Rome

A new Light. New Dispensation of divine grace.

A new kind of Kingdom in the world.

His appeal only to the simple.  Jealousy of the

orthodox.

Early Christians:

Christian ethics among themselves the Kingdom in this world.

His Second Coming soon. No temporal power for over 300 Yrs.

Fourth Century:  Rome, Byzantium, Alexandria

Constantine head of Church. Imperial power

Obedience to Church for salvation — here and hereafter.

Social reform only as ordered and enforced by Government

or later by the Pope.

As the empire declined, temporal power mostly in the Church

Christian Ethics of the Kingdom not for this world. Only valid for the life to come   Lawrence Brown

     1000 years

Fourteenth Century:

Church had taught right of all men to own themselves.

Thereby the right of property and contract. For the generality of men.

No very great kingdoms, especially early in this period

Robbers and pirates became merchants for greater gain. The unconscious coming of the Kingdom.

Widely generalized Proprium

Age of violence and insecurity

Small holders granted lands to lords for sake of

protection.

This territorial jurisdiction of land lords rebirth of local sovereignty — beginning.

Coastal cities and town grew up in territory of land

holders. These granted “privileges in return for

gifts and finally blackmail and the modern system

of taxation. Like Rome.

 Cities and towns highly productive on trade drew population from the land. Weakened power of land sovereignty. Gained some sovereignty of their own. Some grew powerful on trade. But the larger lords on land absorbed the smaller. Thus kingdoms grew. The Church crowned them and thus claimed authority over them. Thus sanctioned Imperium in these and by necessity in those who crowned themselves.

Kingdoms grew powerful on taxation and tribute on trade of cities that they controlled

Traders created their own common law of merchants

Came a renaissance on the basis of the trading that had been rich enough to build the proprium, freedom, and also support the growing strength of kings — sovereignties. Revival of learning, new ideas, expansion, discoveries

Seventeenth century:

 

New worlds in the West. Great increase in freedom and

trading

 

Settlements. Proprietary beginnings. Sound in principle

but abortive

Western World

Political government instead of proprietary

Anglo-Saxon traditions completely lost

Ideal of least government. Constitutional limitations.

Acquired territory never in the proprium. From governments that took it by conquest

Nineteenth Century:

Century of Creating.  World-wide trade

European powers, principally Spain, plundered the West

Others by colonialism and trade discrimination against

colonies

 

United States without colonies practices less

expropriation abroad and at home. Low cost of government, slowly rising.

Second half of century:  Expropriations rising at

increasing rate. Production of wealth still rising, but at diminish­ing rate.

Twentieth Century:

Rival Imperialisms

 

European wars for world supremacy  Germany lacking colonies

to exploit

   America drawn in. Kaiser’s attempt at colonialism aborted

Expansion of governmental powers end costs

Second German attempt to get dependencies — colonialism –

lebensraum

New absolutism in Russia. Communism — Stalinism.              

Russia wins dependencies — satellites — colonialism — by

American aid.

 

World conflict for domination. East and West

Russia and Satellites.  United States and Allies

     Control of United Nations as means to world imperialism

Final world war around the Pacific

Domination of the world through domination of United

Nations

All wars contest for world dominion. No technology

but aggression and resistance, attack and defense.

Society — proprium — dominated by imperium compelled

to supply all instruments of war and of its

own subordination

Can be saved only evolving to take over public

functions as public services — performing them creatively for a profit.

The Old Dispensation — that of the animal man,

parasitical, destructive, even on his fellow man.

The coercive relationship — Government

The New Dispensation — the Spiritual man, creative, contractual, co-operative practicing generalized exchange, reciprocal services — love objectified

 

Under the first men make their world less habitable, their lives less secure

Under the second they make a better world, hence live

better and thereby longer lives

The first is political and destructive; the second, social, creative, spiritual.

 

 

 

The Imperium changed from local, over land and serfs to sovereign, — over trade. Not seizures of products (goods) and labor but of the value-tokens of trade, and local sovereignty changed from Imperium to Proprium — dominium to ownership.

 

See H. Butterfield, Professor of History, Cambridge University, Origins of Modern Science. Macmillan 1951. Introduction, and especially Chapter 10, “Place of the Scientific Revolution in the History of Western Civilization.” Shows how the contractual relationship was transforming the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RELIGIOUS ALIGNMENTS

The Christian Right:

The Catholic Right:

 

Holds that social reform shall be only as directed by the Church

 

Opposed to all other absolutism. Militant, aggressive

 

Denies that there is any Christian Ethic meant for life in this world.

   

    Kingdom of Heaven of the gospels for the next world

only

 

The Christian life for this world consists in acceptance and profession of authorized doctrines and obedience to authoritative morality.

   

    Right policy is to combat evil by means appropriate to

    this world, diplomacy and (ultimately) war, against

    rivals or opposition

 

The Protestant Right:

 

Similar to the Catholic but less authoritative

 

Grants to majorities some share of divine right to rule

(coercion)

 

Favors only conservative legislation and government by

slow change.

 

No method but the legislative; amelioratory, resisting

sudden or rad­ical change.

 

Opposes radical increase of government scope and

powers.

 

Urges legislation to undo legislation. Economic

education

 

Depends on constitutionalism, paper restraints on

government

 

No definition of the proper extent of government power

 

No theory or program for extension of social

(contractual) process into the field of public services.

   

    Loyal to government as it exists. Opposed to any other

form

 

    Seeks less interference by government in business or

private affairs.

 

    Only mildly anti-Catholic, or neutral.

 

 

The Catholic Left:

 

Either non-existent or ineffectual.

 

Catholics do not oppose their authoritative interpretation of the gospel — the Kingdom of Heaven only for the future world. And seldom in other respects.

The Protestant Left:

 

Less affluent than the Right, hence more Radical

 

Inclined to belief that the contractual (Golden Rule)

system of society is somehow sinister and should be destroyed or profoundly modified. The gospel Kingdom is taken to mean equalitarianism. They feel dependent on the State to enforce equality, as they conceive it — mainly in a physical sense, so,

   

    They depend on Radicalism, Legislation, Statism.

 

 No conception of Society distinct from the State —

evolving out of it.

  

    Play into the hands of Socialists, Communism,

    Collectivists in general

 

Given to a militant policy towards Catholicism.

 

Uncertain in its loyalty to the governments it seeks

to employ

 

Little if any loyalty to the system of free contractual

enterprise on which governments exist.

   

    Inclined to be subversive of both Government and

Society

 

    There is also a small Protestant left that professes

Non-Resistance. This also aids Communism, passively if they do not resist and actively,

if they take any action.

 

 

 

 

WORLD PROSPECT

 

 

Society — the Proprium cannot be completely destroyed, but,

To survive it must outgrow its blind empiricism and recognize itself as the Kingdom of Heaven becoming established in this world.

As it comes into understanding it will cease to depend on blind empir­icism and develop rational procedures, just as the natural sci­ences learned to understand physical events and thereby to pass from the old empirical crafts to the rational technologies of today.

When Society becomes less dependent on empiricism and develops its inher­ently rational technology, it will more and more outbid government as the servant of mankind.

Unless or until Society does discover and put to practice its rational technology, Mankind must repeat its slavery, world dominion and world decline into darkness as under Imperial Rome.

 

The salvation of mankind in Society depends on the evolution of freedom — of the Proprium — and thereby extinction of the Imperium and a real- /realization?/ of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in a spiritual body of mankind as symbolized in the body of the Risen Christ.

< < O > >