The Origins of the Public and Private

Last week, I wrote a piece about the virtues of private life and its centrality to the good life. I want to go deeper into the role of the private and public in Western civilization, and to show how complex and contentious the issue is. The place all such discussions must begin is the two cities that were the origins of Western civilization, Athens and Jerusalem. They were very different cities addressing similar issues in very different ways, but together, they were the foundation of Christianity, which until the recent Western enlightenment was the intellectual and spiritual heart of the West and therefore embodied the tensions between the two cities. Christianity is built on the Hebrew Bible, but also on ancient Greece. One of the strengths of Christianity derives not only from these origins but also from the way it constantly balances their differences. This can be seen clearly in the question of the home and private life. The ancient Greek word for the household was “oikonomos.” Say it out loud and you’ll notice that it gave us the word “economy.” The home was the place not only for sleeping and eating but also for pursuing a broader sense of […]