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Entry: Is There Conservatism Beyond Christianity? (or how to book a mental vacation in Athens or Valhalla) Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/is_there_conservatism_beyond_christianity_or_how_to_book_a_mental_vacation#23329 Post contents: Sid, Fletcher, When it comes to differences between Christianity and Judaism, please look at the Sermon on the Mount. When giving the moral rules contained in that sermon, Christ repeatedly makes the point: " it has been said by those of the old . . . but I say unto you . . . " This strongly implies that Christ thought this teaching to be something not contained in the Jewish tradition. He appears have been right, since the values he taught, such as meekness, humility, not revenging wrongs, turning the other cheeck and loving your enemies, ideed do not seem to be part of the Jewish tradition. Instead of seeing them as opposed (or similar) to each other, the most accurate way to perceive the relationships between Judaism and Christianity is probably to see the latter as a development of the former. After all, in Judaism pride is the wors of sins, the sin of the devil. This logically makes humility, the virtue that Christ taught by his speeches and by the personal role-model he set, the highest virtue. Christ thus simply pushed Judaism furter than any other Jew of his time -- the Essenes apparently developed ideas very similar to those Christ taught. The above difference in religious morality is quite revelant to the connection between Christianity and conservatism: early modern English Protestantism subscribed to the view that pride/lust for power was the sin of the devil and humility one of Christ's most important teachings. 17th-century English preachers applied to politics and politicians the idea that a desire to dominate others is the worst of sins, and that people who manifest this desire -- which usually rationalizes itself as a selfless wish to help one's fellow humans -- are incarnate devils. This application creates a very strong link between some forms of Christianity and traditional small-government, strong-individual-rights conservatism. Unfortunately, just about all branches of modern Christianity have lost the ideas that pride is a sin and humility a virtue. This loss extends to Jews, who no longer take seriously the idea that pride is a sin. (A Jewish friend summed the situation nicely: "In modern Judaism pride is a sin with a very, very small s.") Sent at: 2008 10 13