# Burke and Protestantism



## Tychicus (Oct 2, 2022)

Greetings all,

Was there any interaction with Burke by the Reformed/Presbyterian theologians during 18th-19th century? Did they have any animosity towards him?

I don't think the question really is, if there was any interaction, but rather who were the interlocutors?

Thank you.


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## Tychicus (Oct 2, 2022)

Apologies, being on the other side, it slipped my mind that it's the Lord's day for most of you. Moderators can lock this thread and open it tomorrow.


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## Tychicus (Oct 3, 2022)

Bump


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## yeutter (Oct 3, 2022)

Russell Kirk was the chief apologist for Edmund Burke in the late 20th Century. Kirk was himself a convert to Catholicism, and has been accused of setting the tone for the discussion of Burke in America through his crusade on behalf of his version of Burke, that may have colored how many of us understand Burke.
I remember Kirk noted that Burke’s extended family was to a large extent Roman Catholic. In almost the next breath, Kirk said that it was Anglican Christianity provided Burke with an ontological view of the world. In his 1958 study on 'Edmund Burke and Rome' which Tomas H. D. Mahoney wrote for The Catholic Historical Review, Mahoney claims that Burke had very good knowledge of the Catholic faith. But, although it is understandable that Burke was often accused of being a Catholic, it is also recognized that he never became one himself.
Burke saw religion was beneficial to society if it was in agreement with tradition and Truth. Burke clearly identified Christianity as true, while emphasizing toleration of other faiths. In the desire for the well-ordered society, Burke believed that the good man knows that many decisions must remain guesses and that true order comes from the justice of choice and dignity. “It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss to the object, than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of a political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist.” Thus Burke seems to have been a free willer.
Edmund Burke's did not seem to rely on Thomism as the system of thought that underpinned his political thought. Nor did he seem to be looking to St. Augustine and his City of God when he critiques the French and American Revolutions. Some historians point to a reliance upon the philosophical assumptions of "Common Sense Realism" school of as articulated in the writings of Thomas Reid, as foundational to Edmund Burke's mature thinking on Christian Humanism. 
Thus, Burke seems more to stand in the tradition of Thomas More and Erasmus than anyone in the Presbyterian or Reformed tradition. Burke was a Whig. Whigs were often associated with evangelicals. Where Burke was concerned, that does not seem to have been the case

Reactions: Informative 2


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## Reformed Covenanter (Oct 3, 2022)

To be honest, in all my reading of pre-20th-century Reformed literature, I never recall seeing Edmund Burke mentioned. I may have missed it or forgotten about it, but I honestly do not remember ever seeing his name mentioned. Perhaps he comes up in R. L. Dabney's_ Discussions_, though I have not read them all.

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 1


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