a 🧵 of my personal writings most relevant to the CN discourse:

1) my most basic defense very early on in the CN discourse of love for nation (opposed to popular denigration of it) and political commitment to it (as opposed to “nowhere” globalism): providencemag.com/2021/02/modest… some pieces opposing public neutrality and defending the promotion of true religion through public institutions/instruments:

2) providencemag.com/2021/03/underw…

3) mereorthodoxy.com/augustinian-ci…

4) aaronrenn.com/p/christendoms…

Going back over the material in Augustine on the ordo amoris, and there is some stuff in there that is often missed in the discourse. Some highlights: - we are not to love sinners *as sinners,* however, we are to love every human being because they are human

- God is to be loved more than any other human being, even ourselves; and Augustine thinks an implication of this is that "people are to be loved more than our own bodies"

Kuyper: "Terms such as 'a Christian nation,' 'a Christian country,' 'a Christian society,' ... and the like, do not mean that such a nation consists mainly of regenerate Christian persons or that such a society has already been transposed into the kingdom of heaven... "No, it means that in such a country special grace in the church and among believers exerted so strong a formative influence on common grace that common grace thereby attained its highest development. ...

Putting these here in one 🧵 for future reference. If anyone wants to know what *I* promote with "ecclesiocentrism postliberalism," start here:

1) My most recent and most basic: comment.org/can-the-church… 2) Here is an essay that situates these arguments in the traditional discussion of the "order of loves" (ordo amoris):

adfontesjournal.com/commonwealth/o…

Y'all aren't ready to hear this, but Augustine puts partial blame for the sack of Rome and the sufferings of Christians on Christians' failure to rebuke rampant vice and impiety in society.

1/6 "even though they themselves are far from being disgraceful and ungodly criminals, they still do not reckon themselves so entirely free from fault as to judge that they do not deserve to suffer even temporal evils for their failings. ...

2/6

"The Decalogue has been prescribed for all people to the extent that it agrees with and explains the common law of nature for all peoples. It has also been renewed and confirmed by Christ our King." Why proper law must be added to NL: 2 principal reasons. 1) Not all men have sufficient natural capacity that they are able to draw from these general principles of common law the particular conclusions & laws suitable to the nature & condition of an activity & its circumstances

Althusius on the Aristotelian causes of politics:

Efficient cause of political association: consent and agreement among communicating citizens Formal cause: association brought about by contributing and communicating one with the other, in which men institute, cultivate, maintain, and conserve the fellowship of human life through decisions about those things useful and necessary to this social life

George Gillespie on the differences between civil & ecclesiastical powers:

Efficient cause: King of nations instituted the cvil power; King of saints instituted the ecclesiastical power

Matter: civil power has the temporal sword; ecclesiastical power has keys of kingdom Forms: power of magistracy is in immediate subordination to God; ecclesiastical power is ministerial, exercised in immediate subordination to Jesus Christ as King of church, in his name and authority