G. W. F. Hegel, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of German philosophers, surveyed the whole of human history in order to trace the obscure but providential workings of the Divine Spirit. At the end of his massive historical study, would you believe, he concluded that that Spirit had reached its historic fulfilment, it was finally incarnated, as it were, in the rule of the King of Prussia in Hegel’s own time.
Not for a moment would I propose a Hegelian reading for our time, according to which the Divine Spirit has realized itself all over again in the life and works of our king, Donald J. Trump, however much Trump himself might agree with such an interpretation, were it to be explained to him. But I do want to give credit where credit is due.
Whether to gain global fame or possibly to win a Nobel Peace Prize someday or even out of the goodness of his heart, Trump has recently made his own mark on world history by reining in some of the warrish works of Israel’s Netanyahu—thereby making the diminishment of constant conflict in Israel-Palestine more likely, although probably not the occasion for any kind of permanent peace. To be sure, Trump’s vision of a future Palestine as a new Riviera exhibits a moral sophistication that may be rivaled only by Marie Antoinette’s approach to justice for the masses, “let them eat cake.” But that’s beside my point.
Here I’m more interested in the fact that a large number of evangelical Protestants in American have taken to celebrating Trump as a world-historical figure, almost in Hegelian terms, as if the Divine Spirit has in fact settled on the soul of the Donald. For these evangelicals, to be sure, the defining frame of reference isn’t the whole of world history as it was for Hegel. It’s the narrative of salvation that they read as revealed by the Bible.
In order to help make sense of Trump, these particular Protestants typically lift up the biblical account of the King of ancient Persia, Cyrus the Great, whom the Bible credits with delivering the People of God from captivity in 538 B.C. Yes, these evangelicals acknowledge, Cyrus was a pagan. They also allow that Trump, too, may well be a pagan. But Trump, following in the footsteps of Cyrus, they believe, is saving the beleaguered community of American evangelicals from the tyranny of a rampantly secularizing and unbelieving American cultural elite.
Trump the divine deliverer? Not so fast. There’s another way to read Holy Writ, not informed by the vision of Hegel, but by the witness of Mother Mary. This is her oft-celebrated testimony about the promise of the lowly King of kings to whom she’s soon to give birth in a stable: “My soul magnifies the Lord… for the Mighty One has done great things for me…. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things….” (Luke 1:46-53)
How has God done these great things? The vision of Mother Mary is accomplished, according to biblical testimony, through the life, death, and resurrection of Mary’s child, Jesus, who was “filled with the Spirit without measure.” (John 3:34)
The King of Prussia, Trump, or Jesus – in whom do you encounter the Spirit?
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