The Influence Of Christianity On The Western Constitutionalism

Constitutional government is an indispensable feature of modern country ruled by law. However, China, as a socialist country which just set off building the rule of law, determines that creating the constitutional government with Chinese characteristics is a great undertaking. And, this grant undertaking asks us to deeply research the forming and development of constitutionalism’s inner mechanism, scientifically presenting the historical and cultural origin as well as the social and cultural basics of one nation’s constitutionalism.The past teaches us how to build the feature. Modern constitutionalism comes from the Christian society and greatly affects the development of western constitutionalism. As the saying goes by the American scholar Friederich, the western constitution rooted in Christian belief system and political thoughts expressing its secular order. From my perspective, the impacts of Christianity on the western constitutionalism mainly represent as follows:First up, the doctrines of Christianity contained a good deal of simple constitutionalism ideas. Christianity believed that there is a contract covenanted between the god and human beings, which ruled the bilateral rights and obligations. Based on this concept, social contract theory was formed in the political field and developed into the principle of contractual freedom in laws. Christianity thought that humans have own sins and the human nature is evil and greedy. Affected by this, the western politics always labeled with the feature of defense, which means that the purpose of politics is to avoid the biggest evil rather than chasing the biggest good. Also, Christianity summoned that everyone is equal and the weak group’s rights should be protected for it grew out of the underclass. The transcendent justice featured in constitution and laws supremacy results from the cohesion of Christianity fideism and natural law.Moreover, we can found the evident ancient Greece and Rome color from Christianity, which kept the tradition of western constitutionalism, made the continuation of advanced culture in the Middle Ages and provided the foundations for the modern constitutional government via inheriting and transforming the old ideasand system of constitutionalism. Plato’s mysticism which be carried forward by Augustine became the theory foundation for the religion revolution led by Martin Luther; Aristotle’s rational spirit was absorbed by Tomas·Aquinas building the floor for the modern rationalism; Enlightenment thinkers, quoted from natural law philosophy in stoicism, cultivated classical natural law. Rome’s decentralization system and bureaucratic organization were adopted by Christianity, which also helping advanced Roman Law got reserved and developed.Thirdly, the game between Christianity and secular political power has a deep impact on the system forming and cultural concepts of modern constitutionalism. The Pop’s reform in11th century was classified by Berman as one of the six defining revolutions affecting the development of Europe. And this reform brought some new political patterns and ideologies to the Europe. For example, the emperor’s power should be separated, balanced and restricted, which means that the king and the Christian church should manage the society according to the laws. The hierarchical structure of emperor, church, city and chamber of commerce formed the earliest and original federal system. And the great charter was the direct product of the power struggle between the king and the church. The history of the game between the church and secular society fully represented the nature of modern constitution, that is, constitution is developed from the game of multi-political interests and its balance as well as the restrictions on the powers.Lastly, the movement of religion reform facilitated the birth of capitalism spirit and formed the modern constitutional government. Martin Luther’s justification by faith broke the unification of Catholicism at that time, forming the freedom atmosphere of spirit and the ideological emancipation. At the same time,Calvin reform required its believers to be thrifty and industrious for accumulating the material wealth to get the redemption from god. And this asceticism provided the bourgeoisie’s capital accumulation with legitimacy, which greatly accelerated the development of capitalism. Besides, the British religion reform driven the Catholicism out of the political area and the sovereignty was thereby strengthened, confirming the principle of Nation supremacy. In the religion reform, some ideas like freedom of spirit, religious tolerance, sovereignty theory and separation of religion from politics which all coherent to the diversity and inclusion in the constitutional government. And the lots of new believers at the religion reform gradually lead the bourgeois revolution in their countries and create the first range of constitutional governments in the world.When gazing at the development of Christianity and the origin of constitutionalism, we can see that Christianity plays a very important role in the birth and evolution of constitutionalism. But, its promotion effect is not absolute. The fundamental reason why constitutionalism developed is because the civil society and civil spirit nurtured by the great progress of market economy. Our history is stepping forward because of the demands from social development and the interests of people. However, since every country has its different conditions, tradition, culture and religion, the constitutionalism mode to build will definitely be the one with their own characteristics. Even though in China we don’t have the tradition of Christianity, with the entry points of building market economy and nurturing civil society, we can still learn from the western world to innovate our socialistic constitutionalism based on our own national conditions and unique culture. Be more confident about our own culture, be unhurried about our own road and be tolerant about different modes also and always conform to the diversified culture and tolerance of constitutionalism in itself.