The Infection of the Family
on the Consequences of Rebellion from Adam to David & Beyond
When I addressed the Touchstone Conference six years ago, I advanced the theory that the goals of our journal obliged its editors to be the
political descendants of Edmund Burke—at least in this sense: We agree with Burke that the foundation of the political order is the unalterable biological condition of human existence, particularly the mutual relationship of the two sexes and the proper, coherent structure of the family as the source of order and the living channel of tradition.
The human biological structure and especially the proper ordering of the two sexes to one another, I went on to contend, form “the source, not only of fundamental moral responsibilities, but also of those profound emotional sentiments without which it is impossible to call a society ‘human.’”
At that time I argued that [n]o political entity can long survive . . . that ignores, scoffs at, or attempts to alter the human sentiments that bind husband and wife to one another, and parents and children together. The very idea of patriotism, to say nothing of the [other] myriad political responsibilities of human beings in society, begins with the natural affections that bind a family together.
Every other concern of this conference—history, law, technology, philosophy, literature, politics, ethics, culture—presupposes the priority of the family as its most foundational concern.
Mutual Dependence
All of us are agreed, I believe, that the family has been under great stress in recent years. And most of us are aware, at least implicitly, that the family unit, by itself, is especially vulnerable. Its health depends, in very large measure, on the larger institutions of society. That is to say, the family unit does not have, nor can it supply, all that it needs.
St. Thomas Aquinas made this point in his recognition that the home is not a “perfect community,” communitas perfecta. He wrote, “Sicut homo est pars domus, ita domus est pars civitatis; civitas autem est communitas perfecta”—“As one man is a part of the household, so a household is a part of the polis: and the polis is the perfect community.”
St. Thomas went on, however, to insist that the well-being of the polis depends on the health of each home: “Bonum unius domus ordinatur ad bonum unius civitatis”—“The well-being of one household is ordered to the well-being of one polis” (Summa Theologica I-II, Q. 90, Art. 3, ad tertium).
While we’re on the subject of Thomas Aquinas, let me cite another essential passage I hold dear:
Inter virum . . . et uxorem maxima amicitia esse videtur . . . etiam ad totius domesticae conversationis consortium. Ideo in signum huius homo propter uxorem etiam patrem et patrem dimittit, ut dicitur. (Summa Contra Gentiles 3.123)
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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more on Family from the online archives
33.2—March/April 2020
Christian Pro-Family Governments?
Old & New Lessons from Europe by Allan C. Carlson
32.4—July/August 2019
Today's Culture Wars Are Both Ancient & Modern by Allan C. Carlson
31.5—September/October 2018
Errands into the Moral Wilderness
Forms of Christian Family Witness & Renewal by Allan C. Carlson
more from the online archives
31.4—July/August 2018
Labels & the Ecumenism of Discipleship by James M. Kushiner
27.3—May/June 2014
Facts versus Stereotypes About Love & Marriage in the Land of the Free by Allan C. Carlson
32.5—September/October 2019
on the Inhuman Transformation of Transgenderism by Anthony Esolen
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