eChurch Christian Blog

Guest post by Richard Symonds:-

England, my England, is a multi-cultural Christian nation – and I am proud to be part of it.

I am not racist, xenophobic or a religious nut, but I am a patriot. I’m sure many Scots, Welsh & Irish feel the same way about their country – as do many of those from India, Pakistan, France. Germany, United States, and so on.

We are a Christian country.

That does not mean everyone subscribes, or should subscribe, to a certain kind of Christian dogma – most people in this country do not. But I do believe most would instinctively accept we live in a Christian country – as opposed, say, to a Muslim one.

What I mean here is that there are certain moral values which shape our culture and heritage; derived partly from ancient Greece and Rome, partly from the French & American Revolutions; partly from Judaism & other ancient religions – but principally from Christianity.

Christmas (Christ’s Birth) and Easter (Christ’s Death & Resurrection) mark the two most foundational Christian events on our calendar.

Moral Philosopher, CEM Joad (1891-1953), expresses this idea with far more clarity & precision than I can ever muster (“Recovery of Belief – A Restatement of Christian Philosophy” – Faber&Faber 1952) :

“These values are so deeply inter-woven into our nature…that we have grown up as unconscious of their existence as we are unconscious of the air we breathe…

“A nation, most people would say, especially if it has a long tradition behind it, is more than the sum total of the individuals who at any given moment may happen to be living and constituting the nation.

“The conception of the nation includes such subsidiary ideas as a continuing tradition, a way of life and belief, a scale of values, all of which, when taken together, constitute a mould or formula within which each successive generation of individuals grows and develops.

“The members of a nation have become what they are because of the influence of the mould upon; it stamps them with its impress.

“The national ethos and culture, as we say, make them what they are. In this sense, the ethos and culture of the nation are IMMANENT in the citizens. Because of this immanence, the members of a national community constitute a whole , and because of their relation to the whole – and to one another – they are different from what they would have been as isolated individuals.

“Nevertheless, the tradition, the way of life, the scale of values, are not exhausted by any particular generation that happens to exemplify and live in acordance with them.

They persist, most people would say, from generation to generation.

“The nation, then, in this sense, TRANSCENDS its members.

“Whether…it would exist apart from the particular individuals who happen to embody it, is a controversial question. I should say that it would not”.

What are these “moral values which shape our culture and heritage” – the values which shape who we are and what we become ?

That question can be tackled after Christmas – may I wish you all a very happy one.

Richard W. Symonds is a member of the International Society For Philosophers ( www.isfp.co.uk) and author of “Mega Theory & The Moral Instinct”. He can be contacted by email : richardsy5@aol.com or at his website: Gatwick City of Ideas

Tags: Christianity

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