Robert Kaplan’s 2002 book Warrior Politics made a provocative pitch for American statesmanship in the 21st century, arguing that: “.. leadership demands a pagan ethos.” In that work, Kaplan drew a distinction between pagan public virtue versus private Christian faith and moral sentiment in Machiavelli:
Machiavelli believed that because Christianity glorified the meek, it allowed the world to be dominated by the wicked: he preferred a pagan ethic that elevated self-preservation over the Christian ethic of sacrifice, which he considered hypocritical.
Kaplan goes on to develop his, and allegedly Machiavelli’s, disjunction between pagan and Christian virtue, but the quote encapsulates a basic dichotomy those of us seeking to practice our faith in the public square regularly encounter. Moreover, Kaplan highlights a key insight that more pedestrian comparisons of sacred and secular values miss – the attraction of pagan thought and its influence on American leaders.
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