The Liberty of the Soul: Jerusalem, Athens, and the American Conscience
The concept of liberty—as expressed in both Greek and Hebrew traditions—finds its convergence in the soul of American democracy. These two ancient lines of thought, Athens and Jerusalem, meet in the soil of Puritan New England, where ideas of law, grace, order, and freedom began to take shape in a uniquely American context.
The Hebrew tradition, steeped in the spiritual reality of sin and the hope of redemption, speaks of liberty as freedom from bondage—not just politically, but spiritually. It is a liberty grounded in submission to God and inner self-restraint. The Puritans carried this worldview across the Atlantic, along with a classical education shaped by Greek political thought. In New England, these influences blended into a society where church and state interwove, as seen through the lens of literature like Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Law Without Grace, Grace Without Liberty
In Hawthorne’s depiction, Puritan legalism replaces liberty with religious law. Grace is scarce; forgiveness withheld. The outward practice of Christianity becomes bound in rules, leaving little room for the heart's transformation.
In contrast, Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, views early America as a fusion of Jerusalem’s moral restraint and Athens' civic engagement. He observes a people who are free not because of laws—but because of mores, or moral customs, rooted in Judeo-Christian values. For Tocqueville, liberty lives not in legislation alone, but in the soul of the citizen.
Democracy’s Promise and Its Peril
Yet Tocqueville also critiques America. He warns that the very success of democracy—unchecked by humility—breeds pride, hypocrisy, and insatiable desire. The drive to conquer land, dominate others, and ignore injustice (as seen in the treatment of Native Americans and enslaved peoples) reflects not freedom, but bondage to appetite.
Democracy, in his view, is always hungry. It moves forward by nature—but without moral restraint, it risks becoming a tyranny of desire. The same laws that once upheld righteousness could be reshaped to serve ambition.
A Tale of Two Cities
The conflict between the monarchy of Christ and the democratic soul of America is real and ongoing. Hawthorne shows us the failures of a theocratic regime—Mount Sinai built on earth. In contrast, Pilgrim’s Progress and Plato’s Republic remind us that the perfect city—the New Jerusalem—is not one we build, but one we await.
As citizens of this earth, we build flawed cities. But as followers of Christ, our hope rests in the City of God.
Inward Liberty First
True liberty does not begin with government or culture—it begins in the soul. As Tocqueville and Hawthorne both hint, when the heart turns toward New Jerusalem, one can live with grace even in a broken system, as Hester Prynne did.
The liberty we seek outwardly must first be won inwardly. Without grace, democracy becomes legalism. Without truth, liberty becomes license. But with Christ, the soul can be free—and only then can the world begin to change.