The Maccabaean

The Maccabaean profession or of the carpenter’s union must live up to religious nationalism. This means that everybody instead certain standards, must obey certain laws of his proof thinking freely was to believe in the state religion; that fession, and these laws he knows as no other laws. the church and the state were identical. If, for example, But he may leave his professional association and you were not a member of the Church of England, you cease to be subject to its laws. So again with political were denied certain definite privileges. If you were not parties. You are not born a democrat, or a republican, a member of the established church of Germany— it is still or a socialist. You are born an Englishman, or a Scotch- a fact—you are denied certain political and social privileges man, or an Irishman, or a Jew, but you become a repub- which only the members of the church could get, and so lican or a democrat or a socialist, and you may move from members of the Jewish church—perhaps many of our an- one up to the other. Political parties are artificial associa- cestors—adopted membership in the state church in order tions. to get political and social privileges. The same thing was The same is true of States. Most of the inhabitants of true of France and of Russia. And even in England, the this country were once citizens of other states. They had country in which the stream of democracy runs most freely, to become citizens of the United States. Citizens are not the divorce between church and state came very late. It born either; citizens are made. Women, of course, in a did not come, in point of fact until the sixties. Now that man made world, are excluded from citizenship, but even divorce was accomplished by the great political pressure male children are excluded from citizenship until they have of democrcacy in Europe from the nineteenth century on, reached a certain age, supposed to be the age of maturity. and when it was accomplished religious nationalism gave You must be twenty-one years old before you can be ad- way to what we know technically as religious tolerance. mitted to the rights and privileges of citizenship. Then What do we mean by religious tolerance? We mean you may not like your country, and may leave it. The nothing more than the principle of democracy among state, the church, the vocations, all professions, these are churches. In states where religious tolerance prevails dif- artificial forms of association; you can destroy them with- ferent sects, different churches live side by side, co-operate out destroying the individuals that compose them. with each other when need is, develop according to their The recognition of the difference between the natural own laws and their own ways without let or hindrance. The form of association and the artificial form of association state guarantees that no one of these sects or churches, so is on the whole comparatively new in history. It is par- long as it is in harmony with the law of the land, shall ticularly notable of the history of western civilization. In be molested in its growth and in the exercise of its ritual or antiquity the differentiation was not realized and did not function. The state is to prevent religious persecution. exist. In antiquity, the state, the tribe, the church and to Religious tolerance is a very late event in the history of a large degree the vocation were identical. Consider any civilization. It makes church membership entirely inde- of the states of the ancient world; let us say, Athens. You pendent of all other connections. find, first of all, that the Athenians claimed a common an- Then while this divorce between church and state was cestor. They were people of one blood. You find, in taking place, a new tendency developed in Europe. Co-the second place, that they claimed a certain blood con- ordinate with the Catholic Church had been the Holy Roman nection, a certain tribal relationship with their special di- Empire. But with the Protestant Reformation there came vinity, with the patron goddess of Athens. You find, in a political reformation. The ideal of imperial Europe, inthe third place, that there was the state religion which herited from the Roman past, was dropped and the modern all Athenians practiced. In Athens the state, the govern- state system, the system of the national states emerged. ment, the vocation, the church were one. The same thing Now, there is a very sharp distinction which I would like was true in Judea. The Jews had a common definite religion you to bear in mind between nationality, state and nation. and political order associated with the God of Abraham A state exists where a geographical area is under the con- and Jacob and Isaac. Church and the state were identical trol of a political organization of some sort. For example, with the nationality, and so vocation was on the whole Austria Hungary is a state, but Austria Hungary is not a identical with the state. The same was true of Rome. Prog- nationality; it is a collection of nationalities. A nation ress in civilization, you will note, is a separation of these exists wherever there is harmony between the government functions, a separation of church, and state and vocation, and purposes of the governed. A nation is an artificial and a specialization of each form of association. form. It may be composed of many nationalities. The The old religious imperialism was the attempt to com- British nation is composed of the Scotch and the Welsh pel all people to conform to certain standards of belief and the Irish and the English nationalities. The Swiss which are characteristic only of a single creed, and so the nation is composed of the French and the German and the practice of religious imperialism was to stamp out all dif- Italian nationalities. The Austria Hungarian state is com- ferences in religion. If you were a Christian and you dif- posed of at least eight different nationalities. The over- fered from the standard religion, you were imprisoned and ruling ones are the Austria Germans and the Magyars. There burned as a heretic. If you were a Jew or a Mohammedan, are a great many other nationalities in Austria. Austria is you were cast out from the family of mankind; you had not a nation but a state, because the majority of the people no peace and you were at the mercy of any one. The his- of Austria are opposed to the government. The Russian tory of the Jews at that time is so familiar to you that I government never was a nation; it always was a state. The need not mention it to you. Finally came the Protestant Ref- United States of America always was a nation. Switzer- ormation which meant for religion the sort of thing which land always was a nation. Why? Because the different the eighteenth century political thinking means for poli- nationalities collectively and severally consent to the pur- tics. It meant the breaking up of the old form of associa- poses of the government. tions; it meant the rejection of religious imperialism. But The causes of the present war existed in concentration when the rejection of religious imperialism came, there came (Continued on page 187) One-seventy-six July, 1918