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A Democratic Soul: The Need for Religion in American Political Life

John Christian Evans

Berry College

Senior Thesis

Government 406

Dr. Peter Lawler

December 01, 2015

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A Democratic Soul: The Need for Religion in American Political LifeThroughout its near 2,000 years of existence, the religion of Christianity has been linked

to the realm of politics in ways that to some seem unlikely, to some unnecessary and to others,

destructive. A religion with a Trinitarian God, who appeared to humanity in the form of a

humble Jewish carpenter named Jesus who taught his followers to “love their enemies,” “give to

Caesar what is Caesar’s,” that the poor and the meek were blessed, that material wealth and

prestige did not really show a person’s worth and demonstrated the ultimate power of love

through his crucifixion and his resurrection, therefore guaranteeing salvation for all who profess

belief in Him, has since become a central milestone in the story of humanity. Christianity, in its

true form, has become the most widely practiced religion in the history of world, and the most

practiced religion in the Western world and one of the fastest growing religions in the continents

of Africa and Asia. Some of its core values, such as compassion, tolerance, mercy, justice, and

liberty have become inexorably bound to the very fabric of societies found throughout the world,

including the Democratic government found in the United States of America.

As is to be expected, however, the place of Christianity in society and the world has not

been without its challengers and critics. Given the history attached to it, it is perhaps no wonder

this is so. It became the state religion of a powerful Roman Empire that had built itself upon

conquest and material wealth, the religion which the royalty and nobility of Europe would use to

justify a medieval caste system, and even in our modern times, the religion which is bastardized

in its use by some in the United States to attempt to justify acts of racism, xenophobia and

homophobia. In other words, it has been twisted by the power hungry and the desperate. As the

dawn of enlightenment and the age of modernity came to be in the 1600s and 1700s with its

ideals of liberty, equality, and scientific reasoning, so did the misdeeds of those who used

Christianity as a means to maintain and keep their power and to deny basic and civil rights to

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ordinary people come to be called attention to. And while the age of modernity called attention

to the false use and misinterpretation of Christianity, it also attempted to wipe away the values

that the true Christian faith brought to society as well as those who faithfully practiced its

tenants, replacing God with a deification of humanity, the worship of science and technology, a

materialism that degrades the dignity of humanity, and the usage of science and technology to

carry out some of the worst deeds and forms of government in human history. In her essay “The

Traces of a Wounded Animal”, Chantal Delsol aptly describes this removal of religion from

society, stating “[it is an establishment] of a separation between the world before and the world

after… to better society is increasingly to extract man from his habitat, to disentangle him from

all the networks of meaning that…shape him.”1

In essence, elements of humanity bounded from one negative extremity to another with

no middle ground for those caught in the wake. Can there in fact be a middle ground? Can

democracy and religion co-exist without violating the rights of individuals? Can there be a way

for Christianity to have a positive effect on a democratic society today, in a world in which the

modernist worship of science and technology and the postmodern relativism collides into a

meltdown? The answer posited here, is an unequivocal “Yes!” In order for this answer of

affirmation to be made clear however, a closer look must be taken at how religion fits into the

framework of democratic societies such as the United States. Perhaps there is no better

understanding of culture and society in the United States that the one written by the French

aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville during the five year span of 1835 to 1840.

Although it was written and published nearly 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville’s

work Democracy in America remains as potent and relevant as it was when it was first written.

1 Delsol, Chantal. ""The Traces of a Wounded Animal"" The Great Lie. Ed. F. Flagg Taylor IV. Wilmington: ISI, 2011. 594, 597. Print.

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There is arguably no other work before or since that captures and documents the essence of life,

culture, politics and religion in the United States with the same depth of thought provoking

observation and powerful philosophic application. Much has already been said in scholarly

works and analysis regarding the history behind the author of the work Alexis de Tocqueville;

the French aristocrat who was originally sent by the government of France to study American

prison systems, but prolonged his stay because of his immense and impeccable fascination with

the democratic society that he found in the United States. The true relevance of Democracy in

America comes not from the story of its writing, but from the sheer power of the work itself in

terms of its acute observations with regards to the ever continuing formation of a democratic

society. As Horst Mewes notes on this phenomenon, “Tocqueville’s study of emergent

democracy in America is futurology of the highest order. The credibility of such futurology rests

entirely upon an observer’s ability to discern the ‘shape of democracy’ in the early

manifestations of its ‘inclinations, character, prejudices and passions’…Thus, Tocqueville’s

contemporaneity, not only with the present, but most likely the entirety of the temporal

enactment of democracy’s story”2.

Mewes’ description of Tocqueville’s work and philosophy as a futurology is relevant,

because of the reality of the ever changing world humanity exists in. In the centuries since the

formation of the government of the United States under the laws of the Constitution, our society

has grown to encompass a broad spectrum of humanity. The nation that was once primarily

Anglo-British in its origin is now a nation of many different races, cultures, and ethnicities,

which are all in turn a part of a larger collective of American society. By the time of

Tocqueville’s arrival to the United States, American culture with all of its traits had begun to

2 Mewes, Horst. "The Function of Religion in Tocqueville's Theory of Democracy." The Function of Religion in Tocqueville's Theory of Democracy. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1 Mar. 2005. Web. 24 Sept. 2015

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cement amidst a rapid influx of newcomers to the nation, who in turn would add their own to the

greater collective of American culture over time. Tocqueville’s observations reflect this reality,

in that they are not just of American government, but indeed of society as a whole, right down to

individual encounters with citizens he experienced during his tenure in the United States. He was

arguably as much a sociologist and a psychologist, as he was a philosopher or a political

scientist. His observations were not just of what he saw in his day, but what he saw was to come

in the future based upon the societal and cultural foundations being set in stone, which exist to

this day in the United States. Such a futurology, with its ramifications still widely discussed

today in various fields of academia, clearly demonstrates merit in its authority and place within

the echelons of American political thought. As it has been established that Tocqueville’s theories

of democracy maintain relevance to this day, it is prudent, therefore, to establish how his

democratic theories concerning religion in society provide a template and justification for the

benefits of religion in American political life.

What cannot be ignored regarding religion in America is from the very early beginnings

of the United States, religion was a key factor in why many people first sailed across the Atlantic

to settle on a continent 2,000 miles away from the then borders of Western society. Tocqueville

notes of this fact in regards to the earliest settlers of New England, the Puritans who came to

America to escape religious persecution, and to establish a society of a “city on a hill,” where

freedom under the laws of God were to be established and practiced. The Puritans’ arrival, for

Tocqueville, was the crucial moment in the formation of modern American democracy. “…I see

the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on its shores, like the

whole human race in the first man”3. Unlike their merchant and planter cousins who would come

3 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Causes Tending to Maintain a Democratic Republic." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. I. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 267. Print.

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to Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions for profit, the Puritans came solely for the purpose of

freedom, to live as they so wished according to their beliefs. Tocqueville’s keen observations of

the Puritans makes this apparent when he stated “…they tore themselves from the sweetness of

their native country to obey a purely intellectual need; in exposing themselves to the inevitable

miseries of exile, they wanted to make an idea triumph”4. By idea, Tocqueville is referring to the

Puritans’ attempt to bring the God’s kingdom on Earth into manifestation, through law and

society.

What Tocqueville saw in the Puritans was a kind of community and fraternal bond that he

had never witnessed in his homeland. These were people who simultaneously wanted to live

properly under the law of their homeland, yet also believed that their reason for existence, and

their reason for coming to the new world, was their belief in something higher than themselves.

God, for the Puritans, desired all people to live in a society based upon the laws he gave to his

chosen people, the Jews, thousands of years before the Puritans arrived on New England’s shore.

Therefore, they set out to create and mold a society under God’s law; a society in which citizens,

all made in the image and likeness of God, would be treated equally under the law for that very

reason. As Sanford Kessler notes concerning Tocqueville’s reasoning, “God's foremost concern

in the Christian era, as [Tocqueville] interprets it, was to make all members of the human race

understand that they were naturally similar and equal rather than to promote the fortunes of a

chosen few.”5

This new kind of civilization, according to Tocqueville, began a successful merge of

what had previously in western society been incompatible and at war with each other: a “spirit of

4De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 32. Print. 5 Kessler, Sanford. "Tocqueville's Puritans: Christianity and the American Founding." Journal of Politics 54.3 (1992): 782. Print.

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religion and [a] spirit of freedom.”6 What separates these two spirits, or institutions, in terms of

what they bring to society and to the individual, is what makes them all the more malleable.

Tocqueville notes of the different realms which these institutions represent, the realms being the

moral world and the political world. In the moral world there was certainty and truth, while the

political world contained that which is uncertain and different kinds of political possibilities

which clash with each other. In many ways, this is in fact representative of the inner mechanisms

of an individual’s mind and soul; the elements of logic versus the elements of passion. Such

differences, however, do not make these institutions incompatible according to Tocqueville; they

in fact benefit and advance each other in a beautiful combination. He posits this notion stating

“Religion sees in civil freedom a noble exercise of the faculties of man; in the political world, a

field left by the Creator to the efforts of intelligence… Freedom sees in religion the companion

of its struggles and triumphs… the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the

safeguard of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its own duration.”7

In essence, freedom and religion in their truest states of being cannot exist without the

other in a democratic society. Religion requires freedom in order to be practiced in society, and

without religion’s emphasis on morality and a higher calling for humanity’s existence, freedom

becomes chaos, with an individual becoming able to do as he or she pleases without

consideration of the dignity of another individual. Aaron L. Herald elaborates further on this

symbiotic relationship which Tocqueville describes: “For its long-term survival… democratic

freedom requires religion to provide moral restraints, and in America a robust and even orthodox

Christian piety does this”8.

6 De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 43. Print.7 De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 43-44. Print.8 Harold, Aaron L. "Tocqueville on Religion, the Enlightenment, and the Democratic Soul." American Political Science Review 109.3 (2015): 524.

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This phenomenon is arguably taken for granted in our day and age because in the United

States, we experience it every day. Up until the formation of our nation, and even further back in

history during the colonial era, religion and freedom arguably had not existed together in the

symbiotic relationship found in America. Christianity, despite its message of equality under

God’s law, and of the thousands of exemplary faithful people that truly lived out its tenets and

creeds, became an institution that served as a means of control in Europe. It was an institution

that served to maintain the power of the nobility and the Roman Catholic Church. Violations of

individual freedoms were committed in the name of Christianity, such as the Crusades, the

Inquisitions, and the condemnation of scientific, philosophical, or any other thought that was

contrary to the status quo. It is worth mentioning that even in the early days of Colonial America

where the Puritans in New England were concerned, that this religious tyranny was present, but

in the kind of society the Puritans were attempting to create. Instead of molding a society in

which religion could provide a positive influence or undertone, religion simply was society for

the Puritans, in that their laws were drawn straight from the three books of Exodus, Leviticus,

and Deuteronomy, found in the Torah of the Old Testament. These were laws which, if

interpreted literally, provided extreme punishment for every sin, every mistake and error. They

were also laws that were quick to provide condemnation for citizens who were not religious, who

questioned the status quo, or who lived lives contrary to the ideal Puritan way of existence. To

put it bluntly, this society was a theocracy, not a democracy.

Tocqueville was no fool in regards to this. As much as he praised the Puritans in regards

to what they gave to American government and its democratic republic identity, he was quick to

realize that the old Judaic laws in the Old Testament on which the Puritans built their society was

not exactly compatible for the whole of society, especially those who stood outside Puritan

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belief. Of this he wrote, “A people among whom particular persons lost the power of doing great

things in isolation, without acquiring the ability to produce them in common, would soon return

to barbarism.”9 Peter Augustine Lawler also notes of the need of greater inclusiveness which

Tocqueville saw, stating “Jesus, in Tocqueville’s view, showed little interest in enforcing

religious morality through political legislation, and that’s why Christianity, in fact, has been

compatible with a variety of political arrangements”10.

Similarly, by the time the United States was solidifying as a unified institution, the

Founding Fathers were also inclined towards greater inclusivism and universality; envisioning a

democratic republic in which various sects within society could coexist under the law of the

Constitution. In many ways, the Founders improved upon the system the Puritans envisioned,

tapping the notion of equality under and before the law for all citizens, but without a tyrannically

theocratic government. In the Founder’s ideal society, the freedom of conscience would be

promoted, through which various religions could be practiced freely and their values could yield

positive benefits, especially values shared by a religion and democracy. This vision serves great

merit, as Wilson Carey McWilliams notes “[This] plurality allows for the uniting of

government’s goal, liberty, with the just basis of its power, majority rule; making rule by any one

faction or community difficult or impossible, it also weakens the hold of such groups on the

allegiances and affections of individuals”11 Under the Constitution of the United States, there is

no religion of the nation, nor is there any religion that, under the law, receives special preference

or treatment. This is clearly stated in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which expresses

9 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Use That the Americans Make of Association in Civil Life." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. II. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 490. Print.10 Lawler, Peter Augustine. "Locke, the Puritans, and America: Reflections on the Christian Dimension of Our Personal Identities." Natural Right and Political Philosophy. Ed. Ann Ward and Lee Ward. 1st ed. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame, 2013. 224. Print.11. McWilliams, Wilson C. "Community and Its Discontents." The Democratic Soul: A Wilson Carey McWilliams Reader. Ed. Patrick J. Deneen and Susan J. McWilliams. 1st ed. Lexington: U of Kentucky, 2011. 165. Print.

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that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free

exercise thereof…”12

While the First Amendment aptly guarantees the freedom of religion, it also guarantees

the freedom from religion for citizens. Citizens are free to participate and believe in a religion

that is not commonly practiced, or to not to practice or profess any religion at all. No laws can be

made to force the practice of any religion onto any citizen. This is a protection greatly needed in

a society which today, although becoming more secular, is still overwhelmingly religious in its

orientation and in the numbers of people who believe in the tenants of a certain faith. This is

demonstrated again by Peter Augustine Lawler, who wrote of the need for such a balance:

“America works best… when [the] religious and secular… work ‘tensionlessly’—or don’t

compromise our basically secular devotion.”13 This melding of the spirit of religion with the

spirit of freedom not only provides a foundation for the freedom of religion in the United States,

but also a basis of the morality which religion enhances in a democratic society, such as values

of tolerance, compassion and understanding. In effect, such values provide a premise for the civil

liberties of all citizens within the United States of America to live out their beliefs freely as

individuals within a multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious democratic society. Supreme

Court Justice Anthony Kennedy describes this relationship as such: “The Constitution promises

liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons,

within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity”14.

12 "The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.13Lawler, Peter Augustine. "Locke, the Puritans, and America: Reflections on the Christian Dimension of Our Personal Identities." Natural Right and Political Philosophy. Ed. Ann Ward and Lee Ward. 1st ed. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame, 2013. 212-213. Print. 14 Kennedy, Anthony. "Obergefell v. Hodges." Obergefel v. Hodges. United States Supreme Court, 1 June 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015

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In contrast to the relationship between religion and the government of the United States,

the nature of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and government in Europe,

prior to the dawn of the enlightenment and the promotion of democratic ideals, was a

relationship in which religion was part of the state and mandated through both the law and

prescribed cultural norms. This is not to single out the Catholic Church as an aggressor against

liberty and the free practice of religion. Indeed, various sects throughout Europe after the

Protestant Reformation became bound to the state as the official religion; be it the Lutheran

churches throughout the German states and the official state Lutheran Churches of Norway and

Dennmark, or the Anglican Church in England being the official church of the government.

Rather, such emphasis on the Roman Catholic Church is to demonstrate the remarkable reality of

how Catholicism in particular yields positive benefits to democratic societies such as the United

States.

It is worth mentioning that although there have always been a greater number of

Protestants than Catholics in the United States, there are multiple sects of Protestantism, as

opposed to the overall united amount of Catholics. Yet throughout its formative years, the

majority of the United States was very much Protestant. Entire new sects and thoughts of

Protestantism emerged on American shores, including Methodism/Wesleyan thought, which

emerged from the Church of England (represented in the world wide Anglican Communion by

the Episcopal Church in the United States), and Pentecostalism, which emerged from

Methodism. This diversification and the emergence of numerous sects of Protestant Christianity

both represent an intense emphasis in American society placed upon the sovereignty of rugged

individualism and independence in thought, action, and belief, something which extends beyond

the spirit of religion and into the political realm of the United States, which began with the

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Puritans’ arrival in North America and the society they wished to form. This relationship

between individualism and religion in the United States is further elaborated upon by Ning Kang:

“Puritanism is not only a religious belief, but a philosophy; a combination of life styles with

living values… individualism is the core of American values. It is rooted deeply in early

American Puritanism… It places great value on self-reliance, on privacy, and on mutual respect.

Puritanism, being a product of the religious reform, keeps the anti-authority tradition and

develops a strong self-awareness”15.

Tocqueville was no stranger to this phenomenon. He in fact acknowledged it both in

regards to the historical context of the Puritans as mentioned earlier, as well as the numerous

amounts of Protestant sects within the United States. While he did not, however, disapprove of

the Protestants and their sense of individualism (he was in fact intrigued by it); he was

nonetheless concerned by unchecked individualism within a democratic society such as the one

found in the United States. Tocqueville, a practicing Catholic, was aware of the combination of

Protestant and Anglo hostilities towards Catholics in America. For him, there was a great need to

show and emphasize that Catholicism was not dangerous whatsoever to the institution of

democracy. In fact, his argument was that while the more Puritanical and Calvinistic sects of

Protestantism in America emphasized individualism in belief, practice, and society; the more

Catholic oriented sects emphasized a democratic and universal approach to belief, practice and

society. In his writings, he stated “Among the different Christian doctrines, Catholicism appears

to me, on the contrary, one of the most favorable to equality of conditions.”16

When Tocqueville wrote of the equality of conditions, he was not referring to equality of

people in terms of the physical and material standards humanity has. He was referring to the 15 Kang, Ning. "Puritanism and Its Impact upon American Values." Review of European Studies 1.2 (2009): 149. Web. 29 Sept. 201516 De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 276. Print.

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equality of people in terms of law and of a higher power. Human beings as individuals are not all

equal in terms of material standards, be them ability, talent, intelligence, or socio-economics.

Each human being is unique in its faculties and abilities. But where true equality lies is before

and under the law of a democratic republic such as the United States. For example, one

American citizen may be poor in terms of finances while another American may be well off

financially. What they share in common, however, is equality under the law, something that is

greater than both of them and applies to them both. They are both bound to abide by the laws of

the Constitution of the United States and all other subsequent laws of the land. No law applies

more so or less so to any citizen of the United States. Equality before something higher is one of

the key values that both the spirit of religion in the form of Christianity, as well as the spirit of

freedom in the form of a democratic institution, shares in full. Perhaps no other statement in

American political rhetoric emphasizes this more clearly that the most well-known portion of the

Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these

are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”17.

If a democracy, such as the one in the United States, affirms equality as a cornerstone of

its society, then the tenants of Catholicism in fact yield positive benefits of thought and

philosophy to that society. Tocqueville is both keen and quick to notice this remarkable

occurrence in his observation of American life and culture, because it intrinsically benefits

American democracy without the intertwining relationship of Church and State found in Europe

at the time of his writings, but rather instead on a cultural and psychological level. He notes of

the latter, “Catholicism places the same standard on all… it imposes the same practices on the

17 Jefferson, Thomas. "The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 2 July 1776. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

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rich as on the poor, inflicts the same austerities on the powerful as the weak; it compromises with

no mortal, and applying the same measure to each human, it likes to intermingle all classes of

society at the foot of the same altar, as they are intermingled in the eyes of God.”18 Of the

former, he emphasizes, “once the priests…turn themselves away from government as they do in

the United States, there are no men more disposed by their beliefs than Catholics to carry the

idea of equality of conditions into the political world.”19 Just as all citizens of the United States

are equal under the law of the land, so too are all people under God. God does not view the

material things of this world as being the measure of a human being. This is echoed quite clearly

in the Old Testament book of First Samuel 16:7, which states “for the Lord sees not as man sees;

man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”20 God loves all of

creation, and the full measure of this love was demonstrated in the incarnation of God in His son

Jesus Christ, through whom all may attain salvation with faith in Him.

What makes this connection so powerful is that it is a manifestation of the very essence

of a democratic society. People all over the world have fought and died to create or maintain

democracy, because they believed in and saw the greatest tenet that democracy brings about; a

society in which all men and women are treated equally under the law regardless of their socio-

economic standing, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Here, one of the greatest tenants

and values of the Christian faith provide arguably one of the most positive influences on

democracy in the United States and throughout the world, without it ever extending its influence

beyond the legal parameters of the First Amendment. Just as Christians believe and practice in

interaction with others that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and are

18 De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 276. Print19 De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 276. Print20"1 Samuel 16:7." The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition. National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, 1966. Print.

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therefore equal, so too in democracy are all citizens equal in worth under the law of the land. As

Wilson Carey McWilliams posits “Christian teaching…[is] an indispensable means to what is

best in individuals and in polities…our natural rights are subordinate to what is naturally right,

and the end is dutiful civility in a good regime.”21 This manifestation of truth provided by

Tocqueville’s unique insight is evident within the lives of American citizens today, who are

committed to the causes of liberty and human dignity in a free society in which democracy is

constantly evolving and growing in its proportions and its heart.

It must be emphasized that Tocqueville did not have a dislike for the individualism he

found in American culture and in particular Protestant Christianity, but rather, he maintained and

encouraged the readers of his work a strong sense of caution and wariness of what it could

become. Arguably in fact, his greatest concern for the future of democracy in America centered

on unchecked individualism brought about by the unyielding and encapsulating phenomenon of

materialism. Tocqueville wrote forebodingly concerning materialism, stating “…it is to be feared

that [man] will finally lose the use of his most sublime faculties, and that by wishing to improve

everything around him, he will finally degrade himself. The peril is there, not elsewhere.”22 In

using the term sublime faculties, Tocqueville was referring to humanity’s capability for acts and

traits of kindness, compassion, mercy, and tolerance. As much as Tocqueville believed that

humanity was capable of evil and selfishness, he also believed that humanity was capable of

good and selflessness, especially within a democratic society. The chance for the loss of an

individual’s sublime faculties is therefore as great as the chance for the maintenance and

development of the same faculties. Given that the United States was built upon and still is today

21 McWilliams, Wilson C. "Religion and the American Founding." The Democratic Soul: A Wilson Carey McWilliams Reader. Ed. Patrick J. Deneen and Susan J. McWilliams. Lexington: U of Kentucky, 2011. 47. Print.22 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Religious Beliefs Turn Americans to Immaterial Enjoyments." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 519. Print.

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(for the most part) a capitalist society and economy; this fear and reality described by

Tocqueville should come as no surprise.

The people of 21st Century America see and hear stories of individual entrepreneurial

moguls in our nation in an unbelievable amount of consistence. These individuals are claimed to

have “beaten the odds” stacked against them in their quest to revolutionize or fundamentally

change an aspect of everyday life by providing a commodity which in theory, improves or

enhances American lives. They achieved such goals through fierce determination, creativity, and

assuredness in themselves and their singular vision of what they want to achieve. Names such as

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch Brothers, Donald Trump and of course Steve Jobs

come to mind when trying to picture the people who fit this profile of the determined American

entrepreneur. In the increasingly technocratic and fiscal oriented society that is the United States,

these are the people whom the average American citizen is told more or less to be inspired by

and marvel at (ergo the endless supply of movies about Steve Jobs). Yet, at what cost to others

around them did they achieve these goals? Most of these people’s lives and careers did not

exactly paint ideal pictures of a virtuous and democratic citizen. Their aggressive (perhaps even

egotistical) nature arguably benefitted themselves and only themselves in terms of achieving a

goal. Others around them were merely means to an end in achieving the goal. They are oriented

around the materialistic and simultaneously created and filled a vacuum in which profit and

prestige are achieved. Perhaps no statement from any part of Tocqueville’s writings within

Democracy in America so aptly describe such individuals as the statement “Most of these rich

have been poor; they have felt the sting of need; they have long combated adverse fortune, and,

now that victory is gained, the passions that accompanied the struggle survive it; they stand as if

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intoxicated in the midst of…enjoyments they have pursued for…years”23. What Tocqueville

described so aptly is that of American culture’s emphasis on hard work just to gain a life of

financial security and providence. Tocqueville saw nothing wrong with this ethic of hard work.

What he saw as dangerous though, was the drive behind the reason for hard work, an obsession

with material success.

For Tocqueville, all this is nothing to be celebrated, but rather, something to be looked

upon with deep concern for the sake of a democratic society as a whole. He bluntly describes his

disgust with the aforementioned mode of living, arguing that “[The materialists’] doctrines

appear to me pernicious and their haughtiness revolts me. If their system could be of some utility

to man, it seems that it would be in giving him a modest idea of himself. But they do not make

anyone see that this should be so; and when…they have sufficiently established that they are

only brutes, they show themselves as proud as if they had demonstrated they were gods.”24 Such

a statement begs the question of how such materialists can emerge amidst a democracy,

especially one in which “the equality of conditions” can be emphasized for the betterment of a

democratic society such as the one found in the United States through the positive influence of

religion, as previously mentioned.25

Tocqueville’s answer is that the people of a democratic society are far more prone to

materialism than any other society; which manifests itself in the enjoyment of the things of the

flesh and of the world. He argues that “This taste, if it becomes excessive, soon disposes men to

believe that all is nothing but matter; and materialism in its turn serves to carry them toward

23 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "On the Taste for Material Well-Being in America." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 507. Print.24 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Religious Beliefs Turn Americans to Immaterial Enjoyments." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 519. Print.25De Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey Claflin Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. "On the Point of Departure." Democracy in America. Vol. 1. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 276. Print.

Evans 18

these enjoyments with an insane ardor.”26 This “insane ardor” is the unchecked individualism

gone mad through the sole purpose of seeking material enjoyment. What Tocqueville described

so aptly is that of American culture’s emphasis on hard work just to gain a life of financial

security and providence. Tocqueville saw nothing wrong with this ethic of hard work. What he

saw as dangerous though, was the drive behind the reason for hard work. An American citizen

might become so dogged in his or her determination to become successful, that all they can think

about eventually is the maintenance and reveling in and of whatever they have gained. Material

success, in essence, becomes their only reason for existence.

This is beyond destructive to the souls and lives of democratic citizens, but indeed far

more so to those of lower socio-economic standing, as well as to the rights and liberties of the

people under the law, and to the cornerstone of a democratic society itself; that of a government

of, by, and for the people. Tocqueville notes of this domino effect of materialism, stating

“Preoccupied with the sole care of making a fortune, they [the materialists], no longer perceive

the tight bond that unites the particular fortune of each of them to the prosperity of all…The

exercise of political duties appears to them a distressing contretemps that distracts them from

their industry…since the citizens who work do not wish to think of the public…the place of

government is almost empty.”27 In essence, what Tocqueville describes is a society in which

individualism becomes raw egoism, in which selfishness is spun from a vice into something that

is preferred and almost worshiped. Where there could be a democratic society which has order

and fair government in which representatives work for and by the people, there could just as

easily be a society in which the powerful become decadent in their lust for profit, ignoring the

needs of those less fortunate than them. 26 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Religious Beliefs Turn Americans to Immaterial Enjoyments." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 519. Print.27 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Taste for Material Enjoymenrs United With Love of Freedom." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 515-516. Print.

Evans 19

The greatest check upon this trait in American society, as Tocqueville argues, is that of

the religious influences upon society through morality. In his writing, one can see a continuous

theme of his belief that democracy was the best and brightest path towards freedom and justice

for all the people of the Earth. That is why he warns of the dangers that surround the path that a

democratic society treads, instead of just being naively optimistic about what he found in the

United States. As a Christian, his belief that humanity is made up of imperfect beings translated

into his views concerning democracy and culture. He knew that because government, in its

various manifestations (including democracy), is an institution created by humanity, that it is

undoubtedly an imperfect institution. Religion, in this case Christianity, serves not just to remind

democratic citizens of their equality to each other under a loving, omniscient and omnipotent

God. Rather, it creates a more universal nature of the values key to Christian thought and belief.

Regardless of another citizen’s beliefs; the Christian, and his or her values of compassion,

mercy, justice, and liberty are needed in great emphasis in the secular world in order to protect

and ensure a just and free society.

In Tocqueville’s view, they serve to enhance a citizen’s view of purpose and meaning in

their lives and existence; to help a citizen to realize that there is a higher reason for the

maintenance and continual improving upon of a democratic society for the betterment of all who

live within its laws, regardless of their class, race, profession and even religious belief or lack

thereof. More directly, the democratic citizen is capable of thinking and working for so much

more than just their own well-being, but for the benefit of all peoples. This sentiment is

described by Tocqueville as “the passion for material enjoyment and the opinions attached to it

Evans 20

[cannot] be enough for a whole people. The human heart is vaster than one supposes; it can at

once contain a taste for the goods of the earth and a love of Heaven.”28

This “love of heaven” described by Tocqueville is, perhaps, best seen in application as an

inclination of looking to and working towards a better and brighter future. It is the democratic

citizen’s realization that while the here and now is important, it is not what is worth living for.

Unlike the materialists, who Tocqueville already identified as individuals who seek to extend

their physical and material enjoyments no matter what the cost, he argues that that the true and

virtuous democratic citizen looks beyond the fleeting things. Their eyes look towards heaven

(metaphorically or in actuality), and while doing so realize that the few things hardest achieved

throughout a lifetime of work are in fact the things worth striving for in life. Of this habit,

Tocqueville notes “they learn by insensible progressions to repress a thousand little passing

desires the better to succeed in satisfying the great and permanent desire…They willingly settle

on a general and certain goal for their actions here below, toward which all their efforts are

directed. One does not see them engage in new attempts every day; but they have fixed designs

that they do not grow weary of pursuing.”29 In essence, what Tocqueville describes here is the

American ethic of hard work, but directed beyond sheer material enjoyments. It is a cultivation

of the soul of an individual, who realizes that their pursuit of a goal will not be without peril or

trials, and who also realizes that there is a bigger picture of which they are play a small but

crucial role.

What Tocqueville also notes here is the reality that a democratic society, because of its

human creation and imperfection, cannot ever truly achieve a state where all elements within its

boundaries will be fulfilled and satisfied. There will inevitably be moments of injustice in a 28 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "Religious Beliefs Turn Americans to Immaterial Enjoyments." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 519. Print.29 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "The Object of Human Actions in Times of Equality and Doubt." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 522. Print.

Evans 21

society that seeks to maintain justice. Therefore, a democracy like the one found in America

requires citizens who will continually and longingly strive to work for the maintenance of a just

and fair society in which freedom under the law for all citizens is promoted.

Walker Percy notes of this striving, arguing that it is an integral element to what a

Christian is in our post-modern democratic society: “The peculiar notion of humanity as

wayfarer, as pilgrim, in search, in quest, is of course [essential]…”30. Percy wrote of a

Christian’s journey in today’s complex world what Tocqueville wrote of concerning an

American citizen’s need to see beyond his or her own self, as part of something greater.

Tocqueville posits “by raising his eyes above his country, [he will begin] to perceive humanity

itself, God manifests himself more and more to the human spirit in His full and entire majesty.”31

From this description, it is the religious democratic citizen, specifically in this case the Christian,

who constantly strives to practice the values of compassion, mercy, tolerance and love in the

various elements of their life, following the difficult straight and narrow path that Jesus Christ set

in his time on Earth. Just as there will be moments of injustice in a society that seeks to maintain

justice, so too will the Christian at times fail. Tocqueville notes that “this explains why religious

peoples have often accomplished such lasting things. In occupying themselves with the other

world they encountered the great secret of succeeding in this one…Religions supply the general

habit of behaving with a view to the future… It is one of their greatest political aspects.”32 All the

more reason then that Tocqueville suggests that such a spirit is needed in the leadership of a

democracy. This is different from actual theology entering in to the laws and leadership of

democracy; it is instead the mores and values which religion provides society at a cultural and

30Percy, Walker. "Walker Percy Talks About Science, Faith, and Fiction." More Conversations with Walker Percy. Ed. Lewis A. Lawson and Victor A. Kramer. 1st ed. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 1993. 240-241. Print. 31 Tocqueville, Alexis De. ""On Some Sources of Poetry in Democratic Nations"" Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 461. Print.32 Tocqueville, Alexis De. "The Object of Human Actions in Times of Equality and Doubt." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 522. Print.

Evans 22

psychological level. For when at times democracy’s weaknesses show, just as a human’s

weaknesses show, the same spirit will keep the direction of democracy sure and steady.

Tocqueville summarizes concerning this need, stating “It is necessary for all those who are

interested in the future of democratic societies to unite, and for all… to make continuous efforts

to spread within these societies a taste for the infinite, a sentiment of greatness, and a love of

immaterial pleasures.”33

Concerning what religion provides for a democratic society’s well-being, there are the

following common themes: an emphasis on the importance of human dignity and equality under

the law, a sense of universal meaning and a higher calling supported by the values of

compassion, liberty, freedom, and justice, the support of individual goals and achievement whilst

simultaneously providing a check against radical individualism and materialism and the desire to

maintain a society which although is not perfect, strives towards being a great and ideal society.

Democracy is government of, by and for the people. A spirit of freedom and religion, as

Tocqueville aptly points out, is needed to help maintain said government. Government in and of

itself cannot and should not regulate morality and spiritual mores; for if it does, a democracy will

either become a theocracy in which religious fundamentalism trumps the secular nature of a

nation’s laws or an oppressive regime in which the few rule the many, and in which the positive

benefits that religion will be stripped and replaced with a worship of mankind, science, and

technology. If this occurs, the rights of both individuals and groups who exist outside of the

majority in a multi-cultural society will be denied and ignored as they have in ages past.

As Peter Augustine Lawler aptly notes concerning this danger “Our political uniformity

used to be understood to protect moral diversity… Our public institutions become intrusive and

33Tocqueville, Alexis De. "The Object of Human Actions in Times of Equality and Doubt." Democracy in America. Ed. Harvey Claflin Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Vol. 2. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2000. 519. Print

Evans 23

even threatening—genuine threats to our freedom—when they attempt to assume the task of

character formation.”34 No society is perfect, and there will never be one founded in the years to

come which will solve all of the ills and vices of humanity. Yet, this does not mean that

democracies, such as the one found in the United States of America, should ever cease to strive

towards the goal of maintaining a society in which all people can be protected under laws and

traditions from persecution and being bound to a life in which the things of this world are all that

matter. This conclusion is best echoed in the words of the man who saw such great potential in

the United States for being such a society, Alexis de Tocqueville. In his own words, he wrote,

“Therefore when any religion whatsoever has cast deep roots within a democracy, guard against

shaking it; but rather preserve it carefully as the most precious inheritance… do not seek to tear

men from their old religious opinions to substitute new ones, for fear that, in the passage from

one faith to another, the soul finding itself for a moment empty of belief.”35

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Evans 24

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