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4 - State Time/Secular Time

The US Constitution as a Christian Just War Document

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

Mark Douglas
Affiliation:
Columbia Theological Seminary
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Summary

That the Constitution of the United States of America might be thought of as a Christian document is even stranger than thinking of it as a just war document. Using – if also criticizing – the work of German political theorist Carl Schmitt, this chapter argues for a distinct kind of political theology understood in terms of time and that, in this regard, the Constitution reveals a kind of temporal posture that might best be understood, at least broadly, as “Christian.” The distinct way that the Constitution imagines time and how to stand in it (a posture in time) aligns best with the vision of time offered by Protestants – and particularly those in the Reformed tradition – at the time of the document’s writing. The way the United States and other constitutions imagine time continues to shape jurisprudence and societies. Troublingly, this temporal posture manifests in three problems that make the likelihood and shape of climate-shaped violence especially acute: using temporal deferral as a delaying maneuver, confusing optimism with hope, and fetishizing a particular modern expression of freedom.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • State Time/Secular Time
  • Mark Douglas
  • Book: Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106610.005
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  • State Time/Secular Time
  • Mark Douglas
  • Book: Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106610.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • State Time/Secular Time
  • Mark Douglas
  • Book: Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106610.005
Available formats
×