Luther, Machiavelli, and American Democracy

When I first opened my syllabus and found that we were reading Luther’s On Christian Liberty right after Machiavelli’s Prince, I was struck by how dissimilar the two works seemed at the time. Of course, I was not surprised to find many differences in writing style and subject matter between the two. I was, however, interested to discover that Luther and Machiavelli focus extensively on the same topic: namely, whether the appearance of “x” is more important than the actuality of “x”.

This dilemma is addressed clearly by Machiavelli, who argues that “a prince should…show himself a lover of the virtues, giving recognition to virtuous men”(91), but he must always be willing to abandon those virtues when necessary for the survival of his state. In other words, the appearance of possessing virtue is more important than actually possessing virtue. It is clear that this willingness to adapt to the circumstances is the key to political success in Machiavelli’s eyes, and I find it difficult to refute him. Politics, in my opinion, is nothing other than a game of appearances, especially in a democracy. As Virginia states in her post, we are given the responsibility to direct our government, yet it is frightening how easily and quietly we are fooled into the empty appearance of being politically informed.

On the other hand, Luther argues that possessing internal faith is incomparably more important than having the appearance of righteousness, which comes from the performance of good works. (This may seem like a comparison of apples to oranges, but bear with me). Luther writes that “nothing makes a man good except faith, or evil except unbelief”(42), no matter how many times he may attempt to prove his goodness through works. In Luther’s eyes, the man with the greatest outward appearance of righteousness is damned if he lacks real faith.

On Tuesday, when we discussed Christians who believe that simply going to church absolves them of all sins, it was clear that many of us seem to agree with Luther. The class consensus was that it is not easy to be a true Christian. Now, looking again at the efficacy of appearances on the general public in our democracy it seems clear to me that we must apply the same principles. Participation in American democracy may be the birthright of all citizens, but to do so intelligently and responsibly is not a simple task. Appearing virtuous may be more important for our politicians than actually being virtuous, but it is the duty of American citizens to make sure that they do not succeed in masking their true goals.