Mental preparation for political participation

It’s an election year in America. Did you know that already? You can’t forget. It’s everywhere. As November approaches, things are obviously heating up: with the candidates and their surrogates on your screen, with your friends and family, perhaps with your church members, in your group chats, and of course in the wasteland of social media. So how should Christians think and act about our vital civic responsibility and the passions it inspires?

This column is not about political calculations, policy prescriptions, or commentary on the latest headlines. As a theologian and pastor, my primary concern is my own soul and the souls of those over whom I have spiritual influence. So this column is about the kind of spiritual formation that is a prerequisite for virtuous political activity. How do we become the kind of people who can participate in political activity without losing our souls and without losing connection to ourselves?

First, we affirm the goodness and necessity of an active life. Christians must pray, but prayer is not an excuse for inaction. The personal life of the soul is never for oneself alone; it is always for others. The contemplative life must be born out of an active life. This is true in politics as well as in every other sphere of human existence. The fulfillment of civic responsibilities is one of the essential aims of moral formation. Quietism is a failure of Christian faith; it is fundamentally a lack of love, a failure to affirm the goodness and dignity of our fellow man.

But the contemplative life and the active life are mutually reinforcing. A mystic who is not active becomes self-centered and ultimately narcissistic. A politician who does not pray becomes self-indulgent and ultimately self-aggrandizing. Meditation and action must therefore go together. Someone once asked the biblical theologian Brevard Childs how we could better interpret the Bible. Childs’ answer could easily be applied to the question of how we can be a better citizen. Becoming a deeper personThe key to engaging with the political order in a godly way is to pay close attention to our interior lives.

The connection between meditation and action is what the Christian spiritual tradition calls “contemplation.” Contemplation has to do with self-examination. Contemplation invites Christians to a life purposefully situated under God’s merciful rule, where the demands of virtue are held in creative tension. According to Bernard of Clairvaux, the contemplative life involves a diligent examination of one’s own soul, one’s relationships with others, and above all, one’s relationship with God. If contemplation involves rest and action involves work, contemplation involves learning. This kind of self-study is essential to right action in the world. As Bernard says, “If a man is bad to himself, to whom can he be good?”

The thoughtful soul chooses the narrow path of fortitude, governed by prudence, oriented towards justice, and restrained by temperance.

In short, how we value our souls before God will determine how faithfully we will fulfill our political and civic responsibilities. A thoughtless soul will be cowardly or reckless. A thoughtful soul will walk the narrow path of fortitude, governed by prudence, tending toward justice, and restrained by temperance. So before you engage in a political debate or send out a text or social media post, let me invite you to some time-honored spiritual exercises that will light the path of virtue.