Power And Divinity:On The Transcendent Root Of Locke's Theory Of Political Power

Locke's discourse on the relationship between divinity and politics is complicated,which lead to the debate as to the orientation of Locke's political theory in academic circles.Philosophers hold different views on this question.According to Leo Strauss and the Straussians,they defend the modernity position of Locke and argue that Locke is a modern philosopher who extends the political thoughts of Thomas Hobbes.To them,Locke's theory can be explained from an entirely secular perspective.While Cambridge school scholars have argued that Locke is a devout Christian.They give priority to explain Locke's political theory in historical context.They also point out that theology and the transcendent premises is the core of Locke's political theory.Recently,some scholars propose that both theology and secularization are the basis of Locke's political theory which has dual traits.Three separate viewpoints represent the different way to understand Locke's political thought,which make it difficult to explain the orientation of Locke's political theory.My paper aims to explore this question and re-examine the position of theological dimension in Locke's political theory.For the disagreements of academic circles,the focus of debate is on the root of Locke's theory of political power.In Two Treatise,Locke discusses the theory of political power from the perspectives of theology and secularization separately.Therefore,scholars of Cambridge school propose that the root of political power should be the divinity,while Leo Strauss and the Straussians point out that political power should be grounded in human reason.The discuss in this paper aims to illustrate that a transcendent lens is necessary to construct the theory of political power.This viewpoint can be demonstrated as follow:Firstly,If we understand the theory of political power solely based on human reason,this will lead to the self-consistency of argument logic of political power cannot be satisfied;Secondly,this problem can be solved through emphasizing the divine root,which means that Locke never discuss the theory of political power without theological lens.Therefore,this paper emphasizes that the transcendent root is necessary to construct Locke's theory of political power and tries to respond to the debate of academic circles.This paper explains the dual context used by Locke to explore the theory of political power and the theoretical dilemma caused by the dual context.After that,it mainly discusses from two aspects:On the one hand,by clarifying the misunderstanding of Locke's theory by Leo Strauss and the Straussians,this paper analyses the concept of reason and the rational premise of Locke's theory of political power.Meanwhile,this paper argues that human reason cannot provide a plausible explanation for the theory of political power,which may lead to theoretical dilemmas.On the other hand,the discuss in this paper focus on exploring the divine condition of the theory of political power.The divinity is indispensable for the logically constructing the theory of political power.The logical starting point of political power lies in human nature based on the divinity in Locke's theory.Locke demonstrates that people's freedom and equality are derived from workmanship argument in Two Treatise.All men are equally subject to the law of nature which is the divine law,and the law of nature also imposes moral constraints on the governor's political power.The legitimacy and limitation of political power can be explained through divine root.The discuss in this paper is of great significance for a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of modern political philosophy and the relationship between the classical political philosophy and modern political philosophy.In Locke's political theory,religious and politics are not hostile relations but a relationship of cooperation and alliance.Locke inherits the moral elements of the classical political philosophy.His transcendent natural law laid the moral foundation for modern political philosophy.Thus,Locke achieves a prudent transition between classical political philosophy and modern political philosophy.Modem political philosophy and classical political philosophy is closely connected,rather than the "fracture" as some scholars proposed.This provides us a useful reference for us to understand the relationship between religion and politics from the perspective of modernity.Finally,this paper points out that exploring the issues about the relationship of religious and politics in modernity is a meaningful task to complete.