Render Unto Caesar – Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life

Render Unto Caesar Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life

"People who take God seriously will not remain silent about their faith. They will often disagree about doctrine or policy, but they won't be quiet. They can't be. They'll act on what they believe, sometimes at the cost of their reputations and careers. Obviously the common good demands a respect for other people with different beliefs and a willingness to compromise whenever possible. But for Catholics, the common good can never mean muting themselves in public debate on foundational issues of human dignity. Christian faith is always personal but never private. This is why any notion of tolerance that tries to reduce faith to private idiosyncrasy, or a set of opinions that we can indulge at home but need to be quiet about in public, will always fail."
— From the Introduction

Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver.

While American society has ample room for believers and nonbelievers alike, Chaput argues, our public life must be considered within the context of its Christian roots. American democracy does not ask its citizens to put aside their deeply held moral and religious beliefs for the sake of public policy. In fact, it requires exactly the opposite.

As the nation's founders knew very well, people are fallible. The majority of voters, as history has shown again and again, can be uninformed, misinformed, biased, or simply wrong. Thus, to survive, American democracy depends on an engaged citizenry — people of character, including religious believers, fighting for their beliefs in the public square — respectfully but vigorously, and without apology. Anything less is bad citizenship and a form of theft from the nation's health. Or as the author suggests: Good manners are not an excuse for political cowardice.

American Catholics and other persons of goodwill are part of a struggle for our nation's future, says Charles J. Chaput. Our choices, including our political choices, matter. Catholics need to take an active, vocal, and morally consistent role in public debate. We can't claim to personally believe in the sanctity of the human person, and then act in our public policies as if we don't. We can't separate our private convictions from our public actions without diminishing both. In the words of the author, "How we act works backward on our convictions, making them stronger or smothering them under a snowfall of alibis."

Vivid, provocative, clear, and compelling, Render unto Caesar is a call to American Catholics to serve the highest ideals of their nation by first living their Catholic faith deeply, authentically.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Hoping for more definitive statements
The book is very conversational in style with many stories mixed in with some church teachings. I had been hoping for more definitive statements and guidance. It did lead me to go and read Living the Gospel of Life, which provided more of the guidance I was hoping for. Archbishop Chaput does state that if the book does nothing else than lead people to read Living the Gospel of Life, then the book will have accomplished its goal.

5 Stars Refreshing and radically courageous
Charles Chaput is one of the most honest, heartfelt Catholic authors of our time. His societal observations in Render Unto Caesar are both honest and sobering, yet his insights are deeply inspiring in the way that they challenge a person of faith to truly LIVE what they say they believe. "Render Unto Caesar" challenges the world's logic, yet does so for the sake of preserving the goodness of our society – in our marriages, in our families and thus, by extension, the peace and joy of our nation as a whole.

5 Stars Render unto Caesar
This book talks to catholics and other Chistions about the dificult issue of political involvement. Some issues (such as abortion) go beyond politics, or the beliefs a particular church: they are issues of human rights.

5 Stars Required Reading for Serious Christians
Archbishop Chaput makes a strong case for courage in an age when moral wimpiness is more rewarding. The title of the book tells it all: Christ was confronted by an unlikely alliance of pharisees (strict religious adherents) and herodians (backers of the Roman regime). These two extreme ends of the political spectrum of the day were united only by their common hatred for Jesus. Their carefully crafted question was a trap–and they tried to lure their prey with false praise. Christ answered that they should "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's."

Chaput points out that the early Christians lived out their faith in just such a way. They were instructed by St. Paul and the apostles that they were obey the laws and respect authority–recognizing that all authority came from God. By the same token, they could not DIS-obey the Highest law and the Highest Authority for lesser ones. In fact, they would rather die–and many did. But by living out their faith in love AND TRUTH, they changed the face of western civilization in less than 400 years. By contrast, too many so-called Christians today live a watered-down, politically correct "faith" that would have been unrecognizable to the early Christian martyrs.

Archbishop Chaput gives us Thomas More as an example of courage and love in the modern world. And he points out that the two–courage AND love–are so intricately entwined that the modern Christian cannot have one without the other. Courage, he points out, is not Christian courage if it is not motivated by and lived out in love. And love is not love if it is so weak that it will not or cannot speak out against injustice–both for the sake of the perpetrator as well as the victim. Living out the faith this way is much more than just something "nice" to do; it's an obligation–and, yes, it does require courage and sacrifice.

No one could have put it more succinctly than St. Thomas More, right before he put his neck on the chopping block, when he said "I am the king's good servant, but God's first."

The pablum that is too often served up as religion today is for those who have no teeth. Hoorah for Archbishop Chaput! At least he serves up a hardy fare. This should be "required reading" for any serious Christian.

5 Stars Outstanding

Archbishop Chaput has written a brilliant primer on church, state and the Catholic life. Among many subjects, it especially deals with recent Church history, in particular Vatican II and its interpretation, and explains the writings of Josef Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. "Render Unto Caesar" also effectively justifies the history of the Papacy and of the Church in the Reformation, particularly in the life of St Thomas More, and does so in the context of many modern political questions.

Best of all, this book is well-written in forthright and plain English. It is also written with realism about the nature and foibles of humans, and is accompanied by sound historical references and a refreshingly limited use of personal anecdotes.

While written from an American perspective, "Render Unto Caesar" can be read by Catholics anywhere, especially in the rest of the English-speaking world where "cafeteria-Catholicism" has been a feature of the public lives of some Catholics.

"Render Unto Caesar" would be suitable for students, laymen and practitioners, and belongs in the library of any Catholic interested in politics and law-making.

An outstanding effort.

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