God, the emperor, the pope, and democracy – offering a counter-narrative to sovereign power
Rudolf von Sinner, Professor in Theology and in Human Rights and Public Policies at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil, a Lutheran pastor, and a member of the Globethics Board of Foundation.
In 325, the first ecumenical council was assembled in Nicaea by a sovereign emperor, Constantine “the Great”. It was the time when the church was transitioning from a persecuted minority to a dominant majority, becoming a crucial element and instrument for the unity of the Empire. Yet the council was also about a greater loyalty: to God who had truly become human in Jesus Christ. The Nicene Creed affirmed that “for us humans and for our salvation he came down from heaven”. In Jesus, God experienced human life until death on the cross, suffering what so many others were suffering, sharing bread, healing and company with those society had marginalized. Jesus was condemned and crucified as a contester to the installed power. With risk-assuming courage, he spoke the truth in public. In view of a more traditional view of God the all-powerful, this offers a changed narrative: God in Christ is a solidary God. God’s sovereignty is self-limited sovereignty based on love for humanity. It stands as a critical horizon to any exacerbation of human power.
In light of recent events, we can identify two human models of sovereignty and its exercise that could not be more different: the one lived and practiced by US President Donald Trump and the one lived andpracticed by the recently deceased Pope Francis, each in their own way. One towards autocracy, destabilization, self-interest, and war. The other towards sharing of power, trustworthiness, justice, and peace. One as a non-sovereign sovereign, the other as a sovereign non-sovereign.
Trump often says ‘I’ or ‘me’ unabashedly, and thus presents himself as a personified power rather than a representative of a constitutional democracy. It is true, the presidential ritual in the USA has always had traits reminiscent of an imperial ritual. He embodies not only the abundance of power, but also the missionary qualities and values that America wants to convey to the world and, if necessary, enforce with power. The Constitution build in a fine system of checks and balances, meant to temper the president’s power and will.
However, consistent with his hunger for power rather than with democracy and ethics, Donald Trump threatensto incorporate Canada, invade Greenland or “take back” the Panama Canal. He voiced the idea of creating a resort in Gaza, abducted the president of Venezuela, bombed Iran and threatened to wipe out a whole civilization. Trump is not legally a sovereign, but he acts like one, supposedly in line with God’s sovereignty as he and namely his Christian nationalist followers understand it. The late Pope Francis presents a very different picture. Formally, the Pope is indeed an absolute monarch, the last in Europe, sovereign of the Holy See and head of the Vatican state. It is a clerical state, where there is no separation of powers, no freedom of the press, no democracy. Today, the Holy See has no firepower. The sovereign Pope need not be concerned about re-election, but he is bound by the Gospel and its decurrent ethics. With a well-informed and globally present diplomatic apparatus, the Holy See has great weight in international politics, which it can use to mediate. Pope Francis decentralized and shared power. Heappointed women to leadership positions like no one before him. He washed the feet of prisoners and stood up for refugees.
The Gospel, as Francis understood it, represents a power that does not seek to dominate, but to be shared in order to build peace, just peace. This is, indeed, a different narrative, proclaimed and lived by a sovereign non-sovereign. We desperately need it.
For publications see https://pucar.academia.edu/RudolfvonSinner. E-mail: [email protected]