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The Political Order
319
political democracy. Indeed, Professor Nichols goes so far as to say
that only those forms of Christianity which have been associated with
what he calls “Puritan Protestantism”—i.e., the Calvinistic and “Free
Church” or sectarian forms of Protestantism—have made any real
contribution to the development of democracy and have consistently
sought to realize it through the political institutions which they have
adopted.
In the second place, there is an even more common tendency to
suppose that democracy is independent of any religious foundation. A
great many people believe that such a conclusion is implied by the
doctrine of the “separation of church and state.” The fallacy of this
view was brought home to many Americans, however, following World
War II, when an effort was made to transplant democracy to Japan,
Germany, and Italy as well as to other countries in Asia. It soon
became evident that the religious and moral roots which are needed
to provide vitality to democratic institutions were lacking, and without
such rootage the constitutions and parliamentary processes which
were introduced failed to show the vigor which they had exhibited
in the older democracies of Western Europe and America.
But if we must reject both the tendency to identify Christianity
in general with democracy and the tendency to view the latter as
independent of the former, we must inquire more carefully into the
relationship which exists between the two. According to Professor
Nichols, Anglo-American democracy was the creation of Puritanism
in England in the 1640’s and 1650’s.7 Nichols does not deny that
other groups and forces contributed to the growth of democratic
ideas—e.g., Greek and Roman political thinkers, Roman Catholic
ideas of natural law, and certain secular thinkers of the enlighten
ment; but he does contend that the spiritual roots of Anglo-American
democracy are to be found in Puritanism rather than in Lutheranism
or Anglicanism or Roman Catholicism.8 Moreover, the way had been
prepared for the birth of democracy in England by the constitutional
reforms and writings of the earlier Calvinists on the Continent and in
Scotland. In all of their efforts to limit the power of the rulers
through the institution of constitutional government, Nichols de
clares, the religious motive was primary, viz., the duty to resist the
state’s encroachments in areas of religious belief and practice. But
7
Ibid.,
p. 29.
8 For a brief evaluation of Nichols’ thesis see John C. Bennett,
Christians
and the State,
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958, p. 147.