The Long Work of Conservatism

The Second Discourseman

I am inspired by The Fourth Discourseman’s article, Christianity, Conservatism, and the Tyranny of the Present.

Amid the unhappy conflict between conservatism and progressivism, it is easy to forget that at heart these are just two different views of time. They are no more than expressions of frustration at our pace through this fallen world. Some see the second hand spinning away from all that we hold true and dear, while others yearn for the sun to rise faster, and bring us into the light of dawn.

In keeping with the nature of time, this produces a curious asymmetry. The progressive focuses on an eternal and blank canvas which is to be affected, and so is constrained in his longings by neither temporal finitude nor historical fact. (Certainly, we are granted foresight by the constancy of the laws of nature and more wonderfully by the promises of God, but this foresight is strictly limited, whether by human weakness or by divine mystery). In contrast, the conservative has to do with all that is transparently known; namely, that which has happened. 

An immediate result of this is that the colours of conservatism are much richer and deeper, simply because there is infinitely more substance. Thus conservatism has a monopoly on beauty, but so too must it bear the stains of humanity’s evils and sorrows. All that has caused us to weep has happened in the past, and we do not look kindly on those who would take us back to days of sadness. This vast depository of emotion and information is the very stuff with which the conservative must concern himself wholeheartedly. 

Such study is not merely a case of choosing the year or century in which the world was optimal; the only time for which this would not be self-centred nostalgia is the Beginning, and there is a cherub with flaming sword to keep us from that instant. The task of the conservative is rather one of humble and determined resignation. It is to recognise that our frustration with the passage of time is exactly that: a sincere sense of loss and mortality, but not a fruitful reaction. Time progresses and we as physical beings progress with it. But while the self-styled progressive draws plans in thin air, we careful travellers are to pore over history and find ancient paths upon which to walk. It is a lifelong labour, but it is accordingly a profound one. 

At the very centre of our studies, we find the jewel of the Incarnation, ‘the point of intersection of the timeless/ With time’. Here, in the appearing, ageing, dying, living Christ is the anchor point of conservatism, but also the vanguard of progress. He is the Word which shall never pass away, and His is the Spirit-filled Church which marches onwards to glory. In Him, conservative and progressive alike find forgiveness and our divisions – whether exaggerated or heartfelt – are healed.

However, we must not imagine that Christ is an easy fix for our disagreements. I am still a conservative, and the associated complexities are intertwined with my faith as they have been for Christians throughout the past two millennia. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, England was torn between those who held onto the thread of the apostolic succession and those who sought reformation, even desiring to usher in the end of history. (I have not done the matter justice, but it is a stark reminder that Protestantism has an intrinsic element of progressivism).

Today the legacy of those centuries persists, but the more obvious (though not unconnected) divisions within the Church are in matters of liberalism and social justice. As The Fourth Discourseman describes, the response of conservative evangelicals has often been to look back in longing on better days. However, we have seen that this is not satisfactory. We must look back, but with the particular aim of finding those old paths which will carry us into the future. How did early converts fight the cruelties of their pagan surroundings? How did eighteenth century Christians respond when facing overwhelming godlessness?  Our answers and actions will involve the happy habit of conserving, but also a conservative attitude towards progress. It is this attitude which, I suspect, will take a lifetime to establish.