Postliminium

The Great Postliminium

By John Taylor; 2009 April 08, Baha 19, 166 BE

John Amos Comenius gives the twenty-fifth chapter of the Panorthosia the title, "The World Assembly Or Ecumenical Council, The Authority For Universal Reform." It is the most important part of this great book. As noted here before, this and a couple of other chapters of Panorthosia were translated into English and put in a compilation published on the occasion of the founding of UNESCO in the 1950's. Here Comenius proposes a council with three branches based on the three kinds of knowing, knowledge of self, of the world and of God. He details here what we must do to accomplish the most important event in the development of humankind, the formation of a democratic world government. This huge leap forward would allow what he calls the Great Postliminium to take place.

A footnote explains that the word "postliminium" means a "return to one's former home in order to resume one's ranks and privileges," after fighting a war or undergoing exile (this differs slightly the current meaning of postliminium, which is a legal term). In his sense the word describes the great benefit of a just, democratic world government, that it would let us all go home and get back to normal, moral living. War by nature deprives us of freedom and human rights, and we have been on a war footing for so long that we have forgotten what natural human rights are. A permanent peace would free up massive resources to invest in people and liberate us from the need to support an oversized military by feeding a trillion dollar a year armament industry.

Today most expect a world government to come out of the efforts of politicians making a primarily political body. Others expect scientists to take the lead in such an enterprise. Indeed Albert Einstein and other physicists of the Pugwash conferences attempted just that after the atomic bomb had made old warlike ways clearly obsolete. Comenius, though, reasoned that since the knowledge of God is by nature transcendent we should expect world government to come from a religious impulse for reform and revitalization. The Postliminium would come about only after an ecumenical council of Christian bishops met to consult on how to purify their church first.

A founding group of enlightened Christians, united by a return to pure faith, would purge all "elements of moral corruption (such as impiety and hypocrisy)" (Panorthosia, p. 142) from the spiritual life of humanity. He devotes considerable space to the need not to restrict the ecumenical process to Christianity. The ecumenical counsel should reconcile with the Jews, as is prophesied in the Bible, and join with other religions as well. This would put them in a moral position to form a permanent world inter-faith body, which he suggested be permanently housed in London, England, where the delegates would have access to the means of survival. At first, this institution would be concerned with matters of faith and education. Only later, having succeeded at that would they broaden their mandate to politics and the proclamation of what amounts to a world constitution.

In the first paragraph of this chapter he plays on the similar sounding Latin words for "ecumenical" and "economic" to describe how the ecumenical counsel might reform all human affairs. The ecumenical counsel, having accomplished its first order of business of uniting Christians and removing corruption from their midst, would become "economic," from the Greek word for householder or manager.

"But we shall have a truly economic council only if we assemble enlightened men from all over the habitable world, philosophers, churchmen, and politicians of outstanding eminence in wisdom, piety, and prudence pledged to introduce plans at long last full enough to secure, establish, and increase the safety of all mankind." (Panorthosia, Ch. 25, para 1, p. 128)

This next step, inviting experts in science and politics to form two other houses, he describes near the middle of this twenty-fifth chapter,

"The council's fourth duty will be to establish a college of light, a dicastery of peace, and a consistory of holiness. These will serve as three universal antidotes to the plagues which have afflicted us in the past, namely, heresy, hypocrisy, and tyranny." (para 10, p. 142)

As this indicates, the three institutions, religious, political and scientific, would have more or less equal status once formed. The original religious conference would turn into a permanent body called the Consistory of Holiness. The second institution, the College of Light, would be concerned with science and research into nature and act as a sort of global department of education.

The third institution, the Dicastery of Peace, is designed to extirpate conflict among national governments.

"Lastly, the dicastery of peace will keep the whole political world in order, so that no power either succumbs in face of danger to its possessions or degenerates into tyranny by destroying the possessions of others." (142)

Compare this extremely broad mandate -- which includes intervention in civil wars and internal conflicts, and even imperialism and the trans-border intrigue that is unfortunately the norm today -- to the second article of the original United Nations charter, the strongest language found in that document.

"Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

The United Nations was born as a response by self-interested and often less-than-sincere politicians to a terrible world war. Comenius's world government would be an outcome of more positive motives. It would arise from what we now call a grassroots reforming initiative, one born of relationship with our Creator. "Such a universal council is an urgent necessity as a universal remedy for universal misunderstanding..." (129)

The Dicastery of Peace would have full authority to remove every block to peace. Thanks to our permanent war footing, we too often we forget what Comenius repeats often in Panorthosia, that the beginning and end of politics is peace. For that reason, the name "Dicastery of Peace" is far more appropriate for a world parliament than "United Nations." Although he makes no mention of an army or peacekeeping force to enforce its decisions, it is still amazing that in the 17th Century someone was calling for a world political institution with a firmer grounding and even a better name than the one that Winston Churchill called our current world body.

One might ask, why does Comenius do it in this order? Why have the founding institution a religious one, the one he calls the Consistory of Holiness? Does it not make sense to start with political brass tacks (the United Nations), then add on education (UNESCO), and then sit back let the Parliament of Religions and the Earth Charter sneak in later by the back door? Do I really need to ask that question? Although the UN has kept us from destroying ourselves quickly by war, it is clear now that the present system is incapable of summoning up the moral fibre to address slow moving disasters like environmental degradation and climate change.

Comenius was an experienced peace negotiator. As he was writing Panorthosia, he was fresh from brokering the end of hostilities between Holland and England. For good reason he advised that we not jump right into world government. We should be wise, pause, and then follow a special order of approach. By concentrating our thoughts first on God, then on philosophy and teaching, we would mentally prepare ourselves for the essential first step to world governance, complete abandonment of competition, parties, partisanship and the entire adversarial model of law and governance. Harmful as these are on the local and national level, they would be fatal when blown up to a global scale.

Comenius starts his discussion of this crucial first step by referring to a saying that is unfortunately still common today, for example in jokes like, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." He writes,

"There is no reason why one should recall to mind the well-known saying `I have not known any good to come out of any council.' For that was true in olden days when the times of partiality (mentioned by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 13:9, 12) had not yet passed, when bitterness between opposing factions was at its height. But today with God's blessing the times are approaching when that which was in part shall be done away (I Corinthians 13:10-11). In olden days men met together to fight, today they should meet in conference. For this will no longer be an age of folly when anyone pronounces upon matters unknown, but an age like that of the wise Elihu ..." (para 3, p. 129)

The partisan spirit, then, cannot infect a permanent union. To avoid it, we must first forget completely old habits of contention, advocacy, plotting, protest, opposition and learn maturity in our political relationships. We must constantly remind leaders and officials that the real goal of politics is in fact peace, not the reverse. In a passage that should be printed on a card and read aloud by everyone entering into any forum of world government, Comenius states,

"I am not asking for a council where one part of the church or the world will assemble in opposition to the rest, or party confronts party for the purpose of disputing, quarrelling or deceiving one another and entering into sworn conspiracies, but one where all will meet together in peace with the unanimous desire to procure the common good through common policies. What, then, has one to fear from such a universal council?" (129-130)

This fear, needless to say, remains with us today. It is the chief reason we dare not clutch at the straw of world government, even as the planet's atmosphere heats ominously. If only more thinkers had examined the peace proposal of Comenius with due care, this understandable trepidation would have been dispelled centuries ago.

The wisest procedure, he maintains, is to found a two and later three-chambered house for coordinating universal reform. It would send his already-written plan as a manifesto to every government, religion and other institution around the world, inviting each and all to participate.

Comenius does not exclude any country from his proposed world government, but, following Descartes' method (he had had a long interview with Descartes in earlier years) he suggests starting with the easier and simpler issues first. These are above all the prejudices that subsist and persist in the mind.

"The third duty will be to establish a new philosophy, a new theology or religion, and a new political system..." (Panorthosia, Ch. 25, para 10, p. 140)

Daunting as it may seem to start a new philosophy, a new theology and a new political system designed to be acceptable to the vast diversity of human beings, it really is not. Unlike physical objects, it takes no energy or materials to reconstruct ideas from their foundations. All it takes to start the Great Postliminium are self-criticism and mental effort. The enemy is nothing but insubstantial ideas. We can erase ethereal products of the mind easily and quickly, though admittedly not always painlessly. That, then, should be the first order of business of a world confederation.

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