Power, Politics and Propaganda

         In Jesus day in the early part of the first century CE, the political power was in the hands of the Roman emperors Augustus & Tiburius Caersar. If you throw into the equation his modest lifestyle, affability  and approachability, his routine consultation of the senate, and genuinely impressive work ethic, and we have in Augustus one of the greatest and most skillfully manipulative politicians of any nation in any age.
 
In his later years, Augustus withdrew more and more from the public eye, although he continued to transact public business. He was getting older, and old age in ancient times must have been considerably more debilitating than it is today. In any case, Tiberius had been installed as his successor and, by AD 13, was virtually emperor already. In 4 AD.  He had received grants of both proconsular and tribunician power, which had been renewed as a matter of course whenever they needed to be. 

 In AD 13, Tiberius's imperium had beem made co-extensive with that of Augustus. While traveling in Campania, Augustus died peacefully at Nola on August 19 AD 14. Tiberius, who was en route to Illyricum, hurried to the scene and, depending on the source, arrived too late or spent a day in consultation with the dying princeps.. Whatever the case about these details, Imperator Caesar Augustus, Son of a God, Father of his Country, the man who had ruled the Roman world alone for almost 45 years, or over half a century, was dead. He was accorded a magnificent funeral, buried in the mausoleum he had built in Rome, and entered the Roman pantheon as Divus Augustus. In his will, he left 1,000 sesterces apiece to the men of the Praetorian guard, 500 to the urban cohorts, and 300 to each of the legionaries. In death, as in life, Augustus acknowledged the true source of his power.

An inscription entitled "The Achievements of the Divine Augustus"  remains a remarkable piece of evidence deriving from Augustus's reign. 

A Lenten Prayer

 

If I have wounded any soul today

If I have caused one foot to go astray

If I have walked in my own willful way

Dear Lord, forgive

 

If I have been perverse or hard or cold

If I have kept some lost one from the fold

When thou have given me some fort to hold

Dear Lord, forgive

 

Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee

Forgive the secret sins I do not see

Oh guide me, guard me, and my teacher be

Dear Lord, Amen

 

Author unknown

Biblical Socialism

         It may come as a bit of a surprise, even shock to see the two words “biblical” and “socialism” appear together in the title of this essay. The word “biblical” suggests a sacred source; the written ground of our religious faith, while the word ‘socialism’ evokes an economic philosophy that has been adopted by most European countries though rejected in the USA.         

    However, the educated Christian mind may reflect on biblical passages in both the Old Testament and the New that recommend, even command an ethic and community practice of sharing the wealth accumulated by some to all, especially to those in need.

         The Old Testament reports God’s call for a moral code of wealth sharing in a common community that stretches well beyond charity  to  a periodic dividing of wealth accumulated by some  to all members of the community. The “Year of Jubilee” was indeed a time of jubilation because the divine law commanded the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor
         Jesus , who was raised in this Hebrew tradition,  made it clear through many parables that those who merely allowed their wealth to accumulate for their own use were defying the will of God. Think of the parable of the rich man who build bigger barns to store his wealth with the aim to “eat drink and be merry;”         ( Luke  12:16-20   )

         In our modern American political-economic system called “capitalism,”people are encouraged to follow a contrary & self-serving  economic system of valuing the accumulation of wealth &  passing it on only to their heirs, or if generous, to a few chosen “charities.”

         However, imagine how different our society would look if Biblical-socialism were to become the standard  “law of the land.” The rich and super-rich would be required, through tax law, to have their excess wealth redistributed so that there might be: universal health care; free education to the level of one’s ability; the end of homelessness and hunger.

         Might the Christian Church, with its many millions of members, be a force for bringing the “ Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven,” by championing  some form of Biblical Socialism  in our time?