Killing for the Telephone Company: Why the Nation-State is Not the Keeper of the Common Good

Christian ethicists often assume that the state is the agency whose purpose it is to protect and promote the common good. This conclusion is based on a series of assumptions of fact: that the state is natural and primordial, that society gives rise to the state and not vice‐versa, and that the state is one limited part of society. In this essay I examine the origins of the state and the state‐society relationship according to those who study the historical record, and argue that the above assumptions of fact are untenable in the face of the evidence. The essay concludes by registering a theological challenge to the state's sometimes overreaching claims to be the keeper of the common good and the repository of sacred values that demands sacrifice on its behalf. In the face of these tendencies, one of the church's urgent tasks is to demystify the nation‐state and to treat it like the telephone company—i.e., as a provider of goods and services that contribute to a certain limited order.