I’ve been reading Tom Holland’s weighty tome “Dominion: the Making of the Western Mind” (2019). Tom is an English historian, well known for the “Rest is History” podcast. In Dominion he argues that Christianity, for all its crimes and cruelties, has shaped core Western values we associate with the common good. Whether one ascribes to Christianity or not, he says our thinking in the West is significantly conditioned by it.

Tom argues for example that, particularly through the figure of a crucified Jesus, there was a radical challenge to the cultures and philosophies of the time that elevated and celebrated the values of strength and power. Christian teaching and morality, regardless of how badly it has been adhered to by Christians, prioritised the weak, vulnerable, and marginalised.

Further he argues that the concept of human rights and equality, which are foundational to Western thought, ultimately derive from the Christian belief in humans being created in God's image (not just humans of a particular class, race, or gender) and the idea that Jesus died for all (not just the powerful and privileged). 

Like with any good book that makes you think, I’ve felt these thoughts bubbling in the back of my head this week.

The daily news is full of politicians using their positions to feather their own nests. Or satiate their egos. Or look powerful by picking on the powerless. Or wage war. Names like Netanyahu, Putin, or Trump come to mind. It is not hard to expand this paragraph in listing the offences or the names of the offenders.

And part of the reason why we find these leaders statements and actions so offensive is they are contrary to our Western understandings of the common good. We have this ideal, regardless of how often individuals fall short of it, that the likes of politicians, police, teachers, doctors and health workers, military personnel, and numerous others, either in public office or funded by the public purse, are fundamentally not in those positions for the good of their own prestige and pocket, but for the good of all in society, for the betterment of society, and especially those who are being left out or behind.

The phrase ‘common good’ has a history, especially in Catholic social teaching. It’s about working for the good of all in society. Not just those who have the strength and power. It’s about equality and equity, and all that goes into trying to make those ‘e’ words a reality. It’s about our putting our own self-interest in the backseat, and putting the best interests of the whole community in the front.

Of course those who think they are all self-made, that the poor deserve only a pittance, or that the mighty inherit the earth, will find the egalitarianism and idealism of Christian origins ludicrous, if not dangerous. Like a right-wing media host they will praise only what profits them and their sponsors, and damn those who dissent with trite slogans and personal criticisms.

It seems right now, if the daily news is the judge, that these self-interested profiteers and their ilk, rule the earth.

And yet… and yet… they are swimming against this, at times barely visible, ideal of public service, the virtue of working to make a difference in the lives of others, the virtue of goodness for goodness’s sake. These leaders who think nothing of blatantly and unapologetically using their office to line their pockets, inflate their ego, or stick it to their enemies, are swimming against the expectation, long-ingrained in Western civilisation, that their position is at heart to make a difference for the good of all.

Many a king and wannabes have tripped, tumbled, and fallen over this cornerstone.

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(Photo: Molly Adams / Lawrence Times)

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