Blooming Life from the Decay

As things end, new things begin. There is no true end, only a changing of forms. Even death is temporary, for we join God in the City of God for all of eternity. As the old die out, new blooms in. All around us, it seems that our society is dying, that our institutions are disappearing, and that we are all alone in a hollowed-out world. It appears that power, influence, and control-even of the things directly around us–are out of our control. In this worldview, it would seem that there is nothing else to do but close the curtains, lock the door, and hide under the bed. However, we can fix and restore society through hope, a reorientation of the soul, and direct involvement in our institutions.

Simply put, there are two perspectives on restoring society. First, is an external reaction of rejecting the status quo completely and destroying it through the annihilation of institutions and structures that currently exist. This attempts to destroy the odds and replace them with something completely new. Second, is an internal solution, of immersing ourselves within the current institutions and blooming something from the decay. By immersing ourselves in the current establishments, something new can be carefully bloomed out, aligned with higher ideals.

This is not a simple task; rather, it is one of the most difficult. In order to restore our society and bloom beauty out of the decay, we first need to re-orient ourselves to a higher good and form that can be shared with all those in our society, which then allows for pragmatic decisions to be made to make those ideals actualize.

To bloom out from the decay, we turn to Saint Augustine in the City of God, to help re-orient our understanding of society and politics to align the earthly city with a higher good. Then, turning to Alasdair MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals, to re-orient our understanding of ourselves to make it possible to achieve the City of God. Following, we turn to Yevin Levin, A Time to Build, to see the importance of restoring society’s institutions and how we can be a part of the restoration. Finally, Emmanuel Mounier’s Engagement, to see how we can align the aforementioned principles with pragmatism to make the necessary change, and restore our society.

Saint Augustine writes City of God as an explanation of how the Roman Empire came to fall, even after adopting Christianity as the empire’s religion. He posits that even with the adoption of Christianity, it failed to adopt the necessary principles to create a truly God-like empire that would withstand the test of time. Augustine suggests that self-love and pride perverted the goodness of the empire, leading to selfishness and the dissolution of society. The Roman,s motivated by glory, had a shift in the type of glory they sought after. Augustine identifies a shift from a form of old glory or true glory, which focused on a path of virtue to promote virtuous behavior and suppress vice (such as pride, greed, and wealth), to a new glory focused on greed and the advancement of the individual. It was no longer about virtue; it was about self-love. In turn, the Romans abandoned God through this new institutionalization of love of greed as the status quo. “But at least the greed of glory should be overcome by the love of justice; and so, if things which are themselves good and right ‘lose lustre’ because of general disfavour, then the love of human praise itself should be ashamed, and yield place to the love of truth “ (Bk V, Ch 14, p203). Augustine is identifying that putting greed before the love of justice and the love of truth, society erodes and falls apart. The bounds that originally brought us together are dissolved once we focus on the self. Greed and self-love are lower goods that are not shareable like the higher goods of virtue and communion. Whereas the City of God is complete and pure communion, focused on the love of God and His love through us. It is a true res publia or commonwealth where we all take part in all. The City of God is the highest good and therefore, the most shareable for everyone to participate in. The aim of the City of God is for the love of God to aid in the enjoyment of the world.

They suppose that with this gift God is being brought over to help them, not in curing their depraved desires, but in fulfilling them. And this is the characteristic of the earthly city – to worship a god or gods so that with their assistance it may reign in the enjoyment of victories and an earthly space, not with a loving concern for others, but with lust for domination over them. For the good make use of this world in order to enjoy God, whereas the evil want to make use of God in order to enjoy the world (Bk XV, Ch 7, p604).

God’s gift of the material world is not for us to use God to enjoy this world. God gave us the world so that we can enjoy Him through the world. This important distinction was not understood by the Romans, which led to their full participation in the earthly city and, therefore the erosion of their society.

Augustine calls for politics to work as the backbone of communities to make them more like the City of God, and less like the City of Man. Doing this might seem like a lessening of our role in the goodness, but Augustine posits the opposite. The more people participating in goodness, equates to more goodness. “A man’s possession of goodness is in no way diminished by the arrival, or the continuance, of a sharer in it; indeed, goodness is a possession enjoyed more widely by the united affection of partners in that possession in proportion to the harmony that exists among them” (Bk XV, Ch 6, p601). This requires an abandonment of the earthly city mentality that one should possess something entirely and not share. This is true for lower goods, but for goodness, justice, and God’s love, we can all share in it, without diminishing our share.

Augustine’s thesis, “the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self” (Bk XIV, Ch 28, p593). In this, we find ourselves somewhat at odds with our self-love and self-interest in order to love God fully. It calls for a sacrifice of earthly desires for something deeper and more fulfilling. Something that brings us all together for a higher good. Augustine calls sacrifice a ‘divine matter’ (Bk X, Ch 6, p379), just as Jesus Christ took up the cross and accepted crucifixion for all of humanity. We are called to do similar, to take up the cross, of restoring our society, aligning it to a higher good, which is the City of God, through the use of community, institutions, and politics to achieve it.

Augustine helps reorient our view on the commonwealth and society, but in order to achieve it there must be a reorientation of the individual. Alasdair MacIntyre provides that in Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues. As the title suggests, humans are three things: dependent, rational, and animals. In order to understand what it means to be human, all three aspects must be in harmony. First, humans are dependent on each other in a “giving and receiving relationship” with the community in order to survive and become persons. Second, humans are rational, using their ability to reason to deliberate and make decisions for the development and betterment of the community. Finally, humans are animals with desires, vulnerabilities, and disabilities that impact our lives and can orient ourselves in perverse ways.

If we are to develop from our initial animal condition into that of independent rational agents, and the virtues that we need, if we are to confront and respond to vulnerability and disability both in ourselves and in others, belong to one and the same set of virtues, the distinctive virtues of dependent rational animals, whose dependence, rationality, and animality have to be understood in relationship to each other” (Macintyre, 5)

MacIntyre is suggesting that in order to become flourishing human beings, virtue is the backbone that is achieved through reason and communion with others.

It is imperative to MacIntyre that there are communities or institutions to become practical reasoners. Restoration of society begins with the individual, but that can only occur through true networks of giving and receiving. “If one is to become a practical reasoner is the same learning is needed, if one is to find one’s place within a network of givers and receivers in which the achievement of one’s individual good is understood to be inseparable from the achievement of the common good” (MacIntyre, 113). When we are born into the world, we require many things to stay alive. “I did not choose to be born to these particular parents or to have these aunts or teachers. What they gave me was up to them. What I do about it, if anything, is up to me. The concept of a debt has no application to any relationship or transaction that was not voluntarily undertaken” (MacIntyre, 114). We need more than we can give, and as we grow up, we become not only receivers but givers. There is no benefit to the giver, but it is necessary for the flourishing of the receiver and the community, since they are deeply intertwined with each other. There is no concept of debt, no one owes more than they can give, and all they are called to do is to help you in your time of need. It is contrary to the earthly city to do this, but we are called to higher goods in the City of God, where we all have a duty to give to all.

When a network of such familial, neighborhood, and craft relationships is in a flourishing state, when, that is, there is a flourishing local community, it will always be because those activities of the members of that community that aim at their common good are informed by their practical rationality. [...] For it is insofar as it is need that provides reasons for action for the members of some particular community that that community flourishes (Macyintre, 108-109).

It is only once this is achieved that the community flourishes and transcends the City of Man to something greater. The whole fate of humanity and society rides on the flourishment of those left on the outskirts of it. It changes the view of everything and orients it to a higher good, which is not achieved through self-love and greed.

As this model is instilled in orders, it creates a new set of rules predicated on virtue to continue this giving and receiving culture, developing virtuous people (MacIntyre, 110). We become enjoined to do whatever it is that is courage or justice or temperance demands on this or that occasion and always, in so acting, to act prudently (MacIntyre, 111). There is no doubt to what is the right thing to do, and it becomes impossible to do otherwise. There becomes an abandonment of the self or a contempt of the self, as Augustine suggests. This change sees that cooperation is the root of our society, and that my individual good is more or less than that of the common good. “So I begin by identifying my individual good and enquiring what means I should adopt, if I am to achieve it. I then discover that, if I do not cooperate with others in a way that takes account of their attempts to achieve their individual goods, the resulting conflicts will be such as to make it impossible for me to achieve my own good in anything but the shortest run and often enough not even then” (MacIntyre, 113-114). This radical re-orientation of the soul and the outlook on what is the good of the individual, is such that it becomes possible to achieve the City of God in a way it was not possible before. This begins on the smallest scales of the family, and works its way into bigger institutions and communities, changing the whole of society.

Levin calls upon us to invest in our institutions of all types, from the corporate structures of companies, schools, and the government, and non-corporate forms such as families, spiritual communities, and friends. Institutions are the durable forms of association that last through change and tribulations. Similar to MacIntyre, institutions like communities give us roles and responsibilities that give us a place in a larger order. It teaches virtue and ideals that come into practice through the common good without needing to agree on everything.

Institutions seek to create big fish in a small pond, giving place, name, and recognition for strengths and weaknesses. “Most institutions–and not just at the familial, communal, or local level–are in effect small ponds in which individual members can be big fish” (Levin, 177). Every individual is seeking recognition and belonging within society, something that can only exist within institutional structures. This desire for recognition or celebrity, as Levin calls it, is channeled through the institutions, because there is no other convenient way to satisfy the desire (Levin, 177). Institutions like the union hall, civic associations, and political groups give a unique structure and platform for those in them to share their thoughts, opinions, and grow as individuals that they cannot do on their own. It gives a sense of place for thriving, where we can be members of a giving and receiving culture. It also radically changes our worldview to see our own success as that of the institutions.

Levin gives a call to action to be a part of these institutions and to have faith in ourselves to be critical members of the institutions and play pivotal roles within them. The fear that welack the skills, talents, and advantages compared to those in the institutions is merely an illusion and a fear. It is not truly tangible. We must come to believe that we possess the skills and knowledge to be not only members but leaders of these institutions, and accept the responsibilities that come with them. “Perhaps above all, we have to see ourselves as insiders, possessed of advantages that are ours to enjoy only if we are willing to be shaped by the responsibilities that come with them” (Levin, 163). Levin argues that through growing up with these institutions, it becomes easier to take on the roles and responsibilities that Levin and MacIntyre are calling us to do. People become embedded in the community, and the institutions that give them the commitment, obligation, and responsibility to grasp the privileges that the embeddedness provides (Levin, 159). Levin is arguing that the institutions allow us to learn roles within our society and develop ourselves in unique ways that bring us together. They give us recognition and give us responsibility to a larger whole.

Emmanuel Mounier in Engagement provides an outlook and working model of how to implement the ideals laid out by Augustine, MacIntyre, and Levin. He calls for what he identifies as Integral Action, combining the prophetic and political. To Mounier, the prophetic is that of the contemplative mind focusing on the ideals and the theoretical, which is often rejected or suppressed for its lack of immediate use. “We may even speak here of contemplative induction. These experiences should restrain us from condemning any activity, simply because it is of no immediately visible use, as useless a priori” (Mounier, 89). This is the defense of the City of God, in that just because it cannot happen immediately or might seem far off, it is impossible. Mounier is suggesting that precisely because it is far off, it is the very thing that should be created and strived for in the earthly city. The prophetic acts as a bridge between the contemplative and the practical, as political acitons bridges ethics and economics. To Mounier, the ethical is what is right and wrong to do by human standards, while economics is the making of things and success by mainstream metrics. Thus, Integral Action lies between the prophetic and political in balancing both the higher and lower goods, like Politics–the operative implementation–of bringing the City of Man to become the City of God in Augustine. This critical balance seeks to allow for man’s animal desires of the earthly city, while striving for something greater to regulate their power and orient them toward true communion. “The accomplished man of action has in himself this double polarity and is able to manoeuvre between the one and the other, striving by turns to ensure the autonomy and regulate the power of each, and to find ways to communicate between them” (Mounier, 91). The man of action are the ones making this change and balancing both the earthly and Godly cities. It seeks to prevent “intellectuals who set an example of blindess and men of conscience who inculcate cowardice” (Mounier, 94). It requires courage, principles, and prudence to achieve the society that Augustine, Levin, MacIntyre, and Mounier all envision.

Everything starts as a thought, a reflection, or more commonly, a dream. Dreaming is the root of all things good in this world. Every dream includes a critical ingredient that must be nurtured and cared for: hope. When we dream, nurture hope, and contemplate, it becomes clear that not only is Augustine right in his estimation of what the City of God is, and that the City of Man could be more like the City of God, but it also becomes clear that it is possible to bring it to actuality.

Through adopting Mounier’s Integral Action, we are able to be 100% idealistic and 100% pragmatic through life and decision-making, to yield the best, most true, and most virtuous results. The very nature of blooming anew from the decay becomes possible, bringing new life to the old. It becomes possible to pioneer a new model of the community through direct involvement and responsibility, and it is for us to make change, not for someone else to make the change for us. This work is tireless, never-ending, and thankless, unrecognized by most and even unrecognized by those within the institutions. However, it is the most fulfilling work, even when things fall apart or fail. For every failure gets us closer to the City of God, and to tangible change that has been neglected for many decades. One day, our society will look different, better, and more God-like, but until then, we must continue to work tirelessly to make change in the institutions that we immerse ourselves in.

-AS

Bibliography

MacIntyre, Alasdair C. Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues.

Open court, 1999. The Paul Carus Lectures 20. BnF ISBN.

Mounier, Emmanuel, Engagement, HUM: Society, Blackboard

Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Henry Bettenson. City of God. Penguin Books, 2004. Open

WorldCat.

Levin, Yuval. A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus: How

Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. Basic Books, 2020. K10plus ISBN.