POLITICS AND CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION:
MODERN POLITICAL THEORY

Thomas Jefferson --- The Rise of Industrialism --- The Bolshevik Revolution
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Greatest Books Curriculum

POL 2233 POLITICS AND CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION (3)
(Dialectics)

Politics and Christian Civilization III is a dialectics course that coincides with the dissolution of Christendom and the rise of a modern secular regime. It begins with a brief review of ancient and medieval political ideas and moves to a study of the Enlightenment with special emphasis on anti-Christian writings of Voltaire, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau culminating in the French Revolution followed by a study and critique of Absolutism and Divine Right Theory including a comparison and contrast of classical and liberal political and social theory.

We proceed to study the American Foundation with special emphasis given to 17th and 18th century political documents, such as colonial charters, the Declaration of Independence, and the United States Constitution.  A detailed study of classical liberalism vis a vis traditional conservatism is followed by a study of reform liberalism, socialism, nazism, communism, and Catholic social theory in the works of Leo XIII, (Rerum Novarum, Diuturnnum) vis a vis the rise of communism and the writings of Marx and Lenin.

The course ends with a look toward the future as students consider social and political writings of Pope John Paul II, Michael Gorbachev, and New Age writers in the areas of feminism, ecology, and world peace in the context of the Fatima Message and current global events related to the promised Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.  [Prerequisites: social science 1233 and 2133]

GREATEST and GREAT BOOKS INCLUDE:

Belloc: Europe and the Faith, Book Three
Belloc: The French Revolution
Christopher Dawson: English Catholicism and Victorian Liberalism
Machiavelli's: The Prince
Hobbes': Leviathan (excerpts)
Locke's': Treatise on Civil Government (excerpts)
Rousseau's': Social Contract (excerpts)
Voltaire's: Dictionary of Philosophy (excerpts) On Religion, On Toleration
Jonathan Swift's: The Abolition of Christianity (excerpts)
Various Documents of the Philosophes' and French National Assembly: (excerpts)
American Foundation Documents (Pilgrims, Declaration, Constitution)
Thomas Jefferson: The Jeffersonian Bible
Polish Constitution of 1791
Marx's: Communist Manifesto
Lenin and Stalin: State and Revolution; Testament; What is to be Done; Purges
Engel's: Industrial Manchester & Early Christianity
Letter from Cloth Merchants at Leeds
Adam Smith's: Wealth of Nations (excerpts)
Charles Dickens': Hard Times (excerpts)
Pope Leo XIII: Various documents
Papal Social Encylicals
G. K. Chesterton: Utopia of Usurers
Saint John Paul II: Various documents