Thank you! That motif of being fellow-subjects under God is vital, in my view. The trouble with atheistic humanism is that it leaves humans at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, and the most powerful humans at the peak. Hence the natural environment, including other humans, are reduced to the raw material on which the most powerful can impose their desires, to monstrous effect. To acknowledge that even our human monarchs are themselves fellow-subjects of a monarch whose powers they can never usurp is a valuable corrective, and the institution of monarchy at its best is a political reflection of this celestial reality. When that monarchy is, further, a Christian monarchy, it is additionally held up to the standard of loving servanthood that Christ as King manifests. Whether it actually lives up to that standard is another matter entirely, but it seems to me a far preferable standard than that of "might makes right," whether that is the might of a democratic majority or of an armed dictator. While I have several reservations about Kant, the "Kingdom of ends" certainly seems preferable to some sort of factory of means.
Wonderful post! Especially like the way you moved from our own subjection to the necessity of seeing one another as fellow subjects, as brothers and sisters, and to act accordingly.
Thank you! That motif of being fellow-subjects under God is vital, in my view. The trouble with atheistic humanism is that it leaves humans at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, and the most powerful humans at the peak. Hence the natural environment, including other humans, are reduced to the raw material on which the most powerful can impose their desires, to monstrous effect. To acknowledge that even our human monarchs are themselves fellow-subjects of a monarch whose powers they can never usurp is a valuable corrective, and the institution of monarchy at its best is a political reflection of this celestial reality. When that monarchy is, further, a Christian monarchy, it is additionally held up to the standard of loving servanthood that Christ as King manifests. Whether it actually lives up to that standard is another matter entirely, but it seems to me a far preferable standard than that of "might makes right," whether that is the might of a democratic majority or of an armed dictator. While I have several reservations about Kant, the "Kingdom of ends" certainly seems preferable to some sort of factory of means.
Wonderful post! Especially like the way you moved from our own subjection to the necessity of seeing one another as fellow subjects, as brothers and sisters, and to act accordingly.