Summary of Yoram Hazony's The Virtue of Nationalism

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The conflict between these two visions of world order is as old as the West itself. The idea that the political order should be based on independent nations was an important feature of ancient Israelite thought, and was revived time and again throughout Western history.

#2 The Bible was born out of a deep-seated opposition to the idea of universal empire. It promoted the idea that the members of a nation should regard one another as brothers, and that the king should be drawn from among them.

#3 The Bible puts a new political conception on the table: a state of a single nation that is united, self-governing, and uninterested in bringing its neighbors under its rule. The king is not empowered to make the laws, and he is limited in his right to tax and enslave the people.

#4 The idea of a universal empire, which would bring peace and prosperity to all nations, was proposed by the Roman Empire. But Christianity had the Hebrew Bible, with its vision of the justice of a world of independent nations, which clashed with the idea of a universal empire.

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Rafbók: 18 maj 2022