The Modern Secular Body Politic
Plato, Luther and Hobbes
Final Essay
Morgan Slaughter
Govt 490
May 5, 2020
Introduction:
Politics in all things, is and has been the root to all evil. Political parties have been at each
other’s throats for centuries. Each having their own idea of how the country should be governed
and each thinking their idea is the correct way. Politics are a way of life. It shows up in our
communities, our daily discussions, our cities, states and country. Politics today are extremely
divided, angry and even cutthroat at times. There is so much division between the two parties
that people are afraid for our future.
This paper will give us a perspective of politics, from three of our greatest Philosophers,
Plato, Luther, and Hobbes. Both different in their own ways, with their unique ideas of how life
should be lived and how it should be governed. Coming from different eras and different
backgrounds, each has his own contribution to the world of politics, but each can teach us their
thoughts and ideas. We can learn their different perspectives on governing a nation.
Plato:
Plato was a philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He was the founder
of the Platonist School of Thought. He also founded the Academy, which was the first
institution of higher learning. Plato was a student of Socrates and he himself, taught Aristotle.
Plato was born in 428-7 B.C.E. His date of birth was not exactly certain.
Plato’s family was well known in Athens as very political and most wealthy. Even though
political, their politics were not well established in their town. Plato was widely influenced by
Socrates. Plato left Athens after Socrates died and went to many places. After living in many
places, he finally returned to Athens and opened the Academy.
“Something of Plato’s remarkable insight into the realities of political life, must, no doubt, be
set down to early upbringing in a household of “public men”. Plato has often been accused of a
bias against “democracy”. If he had such a bias, it is not to be accounted for by the influence of
early surroundings.” 1 Plato always put justice and health in the same category even if he never
used the actual term “body politic”.
Plato is known as one of the most influential philosophers, contributing in the fields of ethics,
metaphysics and cosmology along with other philosophical fields. His most famous work was
his book, The Republic, which talked about a philosopher running a well-maintained society. “In
the Republic’s ten books, Socrates and others create an imaginary just city where virtues like,
moderation, courage, and wisdom and justice are supreme and held by a philosopher King who is
also just. Unfortunately, unjust qualities like tyranny will always be present because they are
always present in mankind.”2 His book believed in Aristocracy as the best form of government.
He believed that it was more important to be just than to be powerful.
Plato’s critical thinking was for all man to always question everything. He wanted them to
have doubt and to always test what they questioned. His idea of always having doubt is a good
thing even today. There are so many different political theories and questions about who is right
and who is wrong, so having doubt is good. Research both until you can believe in what you
think to be the correct theory. Plato doubted everything because he did not want to leave
everything he thought on assumptions. Plato believed in God and believed in eternal life,
which led him to believe in the idea of an afterlife. To him, God was the highest, most perfect
being. His ideas gave rise to the body politic, being that where you have a healthy body, you
have healthy functioning parts.
Plato believed that all philosophers should be the rulers of each state and that they should
have complete authority. He believed this because he thought they were the best teachers seeing
they were the most knowledgeable in the field of politics and the wisest of all men.
“Earlier, in the fourth book of the Republic, Plato has Socrates provide the basis for the body
politic analogy by suggesting that there is a further link between justice and health. Socrates
asks, how do we know what justice is? Presuming the polis somehow follows from the
individual, Socrates suggests beginning with an analysis of justice in the individual, and then
taking the polis as an individual ‘writ large’ to consider justice in the polis itself. If the polis can
be viewed in terms of the human body, then those things which threaten the unity of the polis
can be viewed as sickness in the polis, as diseases in the body politic.”3
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except
from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1)
Martin Luther:
Born on November 10, 1483 in Germany, Martin Luther became one of the most influential
figures in the Protestant Reformation. Luther believed that faith in God almighty was the only
way to salvation. Luther wrote his 95 Theses and nailed it to the door of the Catholic Church,
beginning the Reformation in 1517. He felt that the Catholic Church was being abusive to its
followers and he was hoping to change this by reforming the church. He wanted the Bible to be
the sole authority and not that of the Pope or any hierarchy. His 95 Theses condemned the sins
of the Catholic Church and their corruption. He believed the church was selling indulgences in
order to raise money to build another church. He wanted to put a stop to this. Luther received
both Law and Theology degrees from the University of Oxford. He was highly educated.
“First, Luther knew that to understand the state or temporal authority one must recognize the
reality of power and one must see that power’s chief justification is found in securing order and
peace. This concern for understanding power and its justification places Luther in the remarkable
group of political thinkers are the precursors of modern political thought.”4
Luther made the argument that the Pope could not absolve you from your sins. It was told in
the Bible that only God could do that. He wanted it known that the Bible was the only authority
and not the Catholic church. Luther distanced himself from the church. Politics was a major
cause of the Protestant Reformation. He did not see the Catholic Church as an authority.
“Luther’s Reformation sundered the unity of the Catholic Church forever, and can be credited
with starting the process of secularization in the West, as Catholicism lost its monopoly in large
parts of Europe.”5 Lutheranism was created from Luther’s teachings. It came from the rejection
of the Catholic teachings. The Bible is their ultimate authority and all that they live by. Until
Luther created the Reformation; the Catholic Church held an enormous amount of power. The
church, before, had a lot of influence over politics. “One product of the remarkable renascence in
Lutheran studies over the past half-century has been a wide disagreement over the political
tendencies of Luther’s ideas. One group has intended to identify Luther with the stirrings of
democracy and individualism associated with the Reformation, while another has taken the
opposite position that his ideas directly fostered state absolutism in politics and state control of
churches”.6 People realized just how sick the body politic was.
Martin Luther’s, Lutheran era, began the building of the modern state, but not totally. It
helped in the building of the modern state through its work against the Catholic Church. The
church’s exploitation of their resources along with their authority on taxing. Henry VIII, in
trying to achieve a divorce, saw England pull away from the church. He had no interest in
Martin Luther or his politics but was happy to finally be able to reign over the church.
“The Reformation deemphasized the power of institutions and strengthened the bonds
between the individual and sacred scripture”, according to Carole Cusack. As religion became a
private phenomenon, the bonds between church and state deteriorated, making way for
secularism”. 7
Thomas Hobbes:
Born April 15, 1588, Hobbes was an English philosopher. He was not born to wealth, but to a
simple family that worked hard. His father was a Vicar, but at one point, left the church
disgraced. His education was provided to him by his Uncle, who was a wealthy man. He is best
known for his political thinking and world vision. He was most concerned about the social and
political order of the country. He wanted citizens to be able to live together without fear and
danger. He is known as the founding father of modern political philosophy. He is most known
for his social contract theory. Social contract theory is people coming together in a society, that
has a set of rules for morals and principles that they must abide by.
“Throughout his life, Hobbes believed that the only true and correct form of government was
the absolute monarchy. He argued this most forcefully in his landmark work, Leviathan. This
belief stemmed from the central tenet of Hobbes’ natural philosophy that human beings are, at
the core, selfish creatures.”8 His book states that he believes we should be ruled by absolute
sovereign. Seeing that in his mind, man is selfish and willing to cause harm to each other. He
believed that people should give up their rights totally and let the monarchy have total control.
He wrote this book partly because of the English Civil War. He had lived in such fear because of
the politics at that time.
“Like Luther, Hobbes thought governments wasted their time trying to see within the hearts
of their subjects, but he also thought that for the sake of peace, governments must regulate what
people publicly confirmed on contentious issues and dictate the forms of public worship. For
Hobbes’ purposes, outward conformity sufficed, because the object was to stop dissension that
would inevitably lead to violence, not to hinder thought.” (Ryan 2012), Even though Hobbes
thinks that all governments should have absolute authority, he thinks that each subject has the
right of defending themselves against such sovereign powers.
“According to Hobbes, secularization in politics is the normal outcome of the action of
Christianity in history.”9 Hobbes set out to avoid any trouble from the church in political affairs.
He believed that religion and politics needed to be separated and in excluding religion, left him
to help create politics as a part of theology. “Through scriptural exegesis and based on a specific
doctrine of salvation, Hobbes privatized religion, temporalized salvation, and transferred the halo
of sanctity of the Church to secular sovereigns. This resulted in the legitimization of secular
states as saviors from the violence and intolerance of religion”.10
Hobbes argued that people did not trust one another and that we see this more today than
ever. People always must keep their doors locked, they arm themselves with guns and
ammunition. There is a fear today like we never had before. We are no longer a civilized
society. Hobbes believed that the state should do away with any kind of independence for it
may
lead at some point to civil war. He had no trust in humankind. Hobbes had the right idea
because today, people are very hesitant to trust one another, and they have become so divided on
political ideas that you do not know who to believe anymore. Politicians have become
disrespectful to one another and they undermine each other in their work. They no longer work
together, but separately. There is quite a bit of uncertainty in our world today. As in the body
politic, our head, or President, is under scrutiny constantly for how he does he job, or as some
say, does not do his job. We still have our laborers working for minimal wages, but the heart
will always stand out in people. The heart is the epicenter of the body and it still beats strongly.
“Hobbes claimed Christianity does not have a special right to government; nor does a
government need to be Christian to be Christian to be justified, but rather the material purpose of
government, to prevent in-fighting and disorder, is the only purpose and justification for it.”11
Secular Technocracy is the new bureaucracy basically run by technologists. “The modern
prospects for systematic Christian influence, under the current institutional structure of the
Secular Technocratic Body Politic, are bleak. The state is simply not interested in politics that
explicitly seek to promote the Gospel and its consequences for human social and political
institutions. Christians can and do become involved in the political culture, movements, and
leaderships of these societies and institutions, but the design of these institutions make the spread
of the Gospel by public means an impossibility.”12 With the Trump Administration heading the
government today, some may seem to think that allowing experts run things, may be a good idea.
Conclusion:
These three major philosophers, even though all different, each had a vision for how they
thought their country should be run. There was much to be learned from each of them and we
can take the best from each to form a good way of life for everyone. Where one philosopher
started, the next in line picked up the torch and ran with it. They respected one another’s work
and added to it or changed it a bit. All in all, they were working collectively to change things for
the good. As society grows more modern, religious power starts to decline. In a technocratic
society, the decision-makers are picked according to who is the expert in each field. To me, this
does not mean they are qualified for a political position, but they have an expertise in the specific
field. As we have learned, from putting nonpoliticians in positions of power, they are not well
informed or well educated on rules of law and the Constitution of our country. Men of expertise
are highly knowledgeable, but they need to have experience in the political field to know exactly
what is right and what is just.
The fundamental laws of our world have changed dramatically over time, but I still feel that
we stand by the Body Politic in our philosophy. We still have the head, heart, arms and feet and
they will always have to be a full functioning unit working together to make government work.
We must come together as a whole, or the body will not function. All parts must work together
to stay alive.
Bibliography:
1. Plato, A Man and His Work, by A.E. Taylor, The Routledge, New York, 1926.
2. The Republic by Plato: Summary and Explanation, study.com
3. Nomos, Nosos, and Bios, by Eugene Thacker, culturemachine.net/biopolitics
4. Luther: Selected Political Writings, by J. M. Porter, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1974
5. Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, by Lyndal Roper, Random House
Publishing, 2016.
6. Politics and Religion: Luther’s Simplistic Imperative, by Sheldon S. Wolin,
The American Political Science Review, Vol. 50, No. 1, (March 1956) PP 24-
42.
7. Seven Reasons Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation still matter today,
by Siobhan Hegarty, abc.net.au, Oct. 30, 2017.
8. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, Political Theories, study.com
9. Hobbes & Secularization: Christianity and The Problem of Religion, by Paul
Dumouchel, Universite’ du Quebec a Montreal.
10. Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and the Theological Origins of Secular International
Politics, by Ludwig Gelot, Published online, 21 Apr 2015, Journal Political
Theology, Volume 12, 2011-Issue 4.
11. Hobbes’ Folly: The Creation of Secularism and A New Intolerance, by Abdullah
Al Andalusi, Article published on MDI, January 6. 2014.
12. Module, Week 7, Lecture Notes
