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August 15, 1990
Dear Michael:
Per your invitation, here is a rough sketch of what I think the “Summer Service Project” should be changed into - a seminary for citizenship. The word "seminary" suggests that the activity would have a religious nature. The fundamental mission of the seminary would be to convert students to the American civil religion of self-government, to teach them how to be responsible citizens in accord with the noblest aspirations of their forefathers.
Being a citizen in a modern state is a fact of life, a legal status which does not require any special intellectual exertion. Perhaps because we tent to take our citizenship for granted, many people would not understand the usefulness of a school for citizenship. Yet when we contemplate the parlous condition of American society, one cannot escape the self-evident truth that we are experiencing a profound crisis of citizenship. The time may have arrived when merely being a citizen is no longer sufficient to preserve ant protect civil society. The citizen for the next millennium will surely need to have a deeper understanding of his citizenship if civilization is to endure. How can our grand experiment in self-government continue in a society which places so little value on
self-control?
The first object of the students attending the seminary would be to determine as best they can the origins and development of the American civil religion. For example, they might ask themselves, "What is America?" "Where is America?" "Is there such a set of beliefs which can be called the American civil religion?" "Are the American ideals universal in scope?" "What have been the major threats to the American civil religion in the past?" "What are the major threats to it today?"
As you know, there is a vast amount of literature on this subject. Out of all the many aspects in this field, I would like to draw attention to one aspect which has a special relevance to tie proposed seminary for citizenship. Many scholars would agree with the assertion that the United States of America (one of several political expressions of “America”) is unique among the family of nations because of its deep ideological foundation.
For most of its history, the American project has been the project of a New Rome with a Protestant character. There are those today who propose to have the New Rome with a post-Christian or even anti-Christian character. My question is why we don’t hear much about the idea of a New Rome with a Catholic character.
Some thinkers have argued that such a venture is by definition impossible. It certainly is unthinkable if one is weighted down by the historical baggage of sixteen hundred years of churchmen in politics.
Another way to phrase this issue would be to ask whether a practicing Catholic can in good conscience be a practicing American. We hear of many cases of baptized Catholics in American public life who complain that their religious beliefs or their religious authorities are a threat to the common good. Does one's practice of the American civil religion, therefore, necessitate the betrayal of Catholic belief? According to the lords of the media, the Catholic religion and American politics don't mix. At least they don't mix when they don't agree.
The student in the seminary for citizenship would seek to develop a firm grasp of the authentic meaning of both his political religion and his supernatural religion. As you are well aware, there has already been a great deal of study about this issue by important thinkers such as Brownson, Dawson, Maritain, Murray, Tocqueville and others. It would be a big help if these contributions could be brought together and analyzed according to the circumstances of today's world.
With the help of these thinkers we might glance back over history to contemplate America as an offspring of the Reformation. To a certain extent, America and the Reformation both came about as reactions to the sorry mix of religious leaders and power politics. A good number of scholars have maintained that America and the Reformation are inherently incomplete phenomenon insofar as they remain alienated from their cultural and religious origins. Like Aristotle, the Founders need to be converted.
If the American civil religion were to be understood and enhanced according to this kind of revisionism, then I believe we would find that the supposedly intractable contradiction between our political creed and our theological creed would simply evaporate. As a matter of fact, our theological creed would turn out to be a very strong support for our political system.
The students at the seminary would have their hands full with the study of philosophy, political science and religion. They would definitely need to have a good familiarity with classical philosophy and the King James Bible. The important thing would be to get the students strengthening their philosophical understanding, reading original sources, analyzing past interpretations, questioning and rethinking popular political dogmas.
Where could this take place? Of course, it could take place anywhere. I would argue for having it located in Mexico for the following reasons:
- it is essential to the success of the project that we emphasize that “America" means more than the United States of America,
- it is useful for students to "retreat" from familiar settings to see life from a different perspective,
- in Mexico the student has an excellent opportunity to assess the universality of American ideals,
- in Mexico the student can compare and contrast the meaning of citizenship in a political environment without popular consent,
- the inexpensive cost of living in Mexico would help keep the seminary affordable for American students,
- there is a prestigious university in Mexico, the Universidad Panamericana, which might be willing to be affiliated with the seminary in some manner,
- in Mexico one can study the ongoing social phenomenon of the grafting on of Protestant-born American ideals onto a Catholic consciousness through the agency of the arts, the media and advertising.
If it were to be mounted, the seminary for citizenship would have to be fleshed out in regard to promotion, personnel, fund-raising, curriculum, etc. I have here chosen to focus on the big ideas which would be the rationale for the resources and human energy which the endeavor would require.
You will be pleased to know that there is a wonderful historical precedent to this endeavor which fits right in with the upcoming quincentennial of the European discovery of America. It so happens that Columbus and all the other explorers would not have left the sight of land had it not been for the indispensable research and development done at Prince Henry the Navigator’s “think-tank” for navigation and naval architecture at Sagres on Cape St. Vincent. In sum, the discovery of the New World was based, above all, on the discovery of new ideas.
I think that this format is less confessional than the present stress on papal teachings. I think that this format could reach more people while in the process introducing them to papal teachings when appropriate, thereby sowing the seeds of a much needed renewal in political theory. I have my doubts, however, as to whether this kind of activity would be in the proper scope of a university center.
Looking forward to your thoughts on the matter.
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