Western civilization has been
described as the synthesis of Jerusalem and Athens. Athens represents
the classical influences of the Greek and Roman civilizations. Jerusalem
represents the Jewish and Christian influences. Western political
thought consequently draws from each of these ancient sources.
Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle provided the vocabulary for talking about different kinds
of government. They offered ideas of what justice, virtue, and "the
good life" mean, creating criteria by which to judge governments.
Perhaps most importantly, they provided an ideal of critical thought,
reflection, and self-examination that allowed people to question the
institutions around them. Greek leaders were thus able to attempt
experiments in government, such as the Athenian democracy or the Spartan
military state. The Greek states eventually fell under the control of
Rome, which at that time had an innovative form of government itself:
the Roman Republic. Even when the Republic became the empire, an idea of
the rights and duties of citizenship continued to provide order and
stability.
The idea of "covenant" from Jewish
thought, transmitted by Jewish thinkers or indirectly through Christian
writers, provides another strain of thought which helped develop later
ideals of constitutional government. The arrangements of the ancient
covenants provided for the supremacy of the Law over the rulers, and
consequent limitations on the powers of kings and judges.
The two currents, Athens and Jerusalem,
met in Rome. The Roman Empire brought both under one government and
provided a common language. But the exact mix of ideas that forged
Western civilization was created by Christianity. The Jewish origins of
Christianity met the classical world in numerous authors, who either
attempted to refute one or the other, or to form some type of synthesis.
In political thought, writers such as St. Augustine and St. Gelasius I
proposed ideas that became foundational to Western civilization.
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