Focus On the MECS Threads - Justice Seeker

“On the right side of history.” Have you heard this idiom? It is often used as an appeal for the ‘other’ to do that thing that ‘we’ think future generations will approve of, or at least what we approve of now, and is usually applied with a hefty dose of self-moralism. It also can contain theological inferences of ‘righteousness’ – and in more extreme cases it is a co-opting of God to ‘our’ side in a stated battle against evil. In a broader sense it appeals to a conviction of inevitable social progress. However, these days we aren’t quite as convinced of this as we used to be, mostly because we don’t do a particularly good job of it when left to our own devices.

In studying the causes of World War Two in Year 10 Humanities, and in particular the creation and enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles following World War One, it is clear all these elements above are present. Germany, singled out for blame for the ‘Great War’ due to their unsettling of existing power structures in the lead-in and many atrocities during, are forced to sign an agreement to which they didn’t contribute: their nationalistic honour and economy to be fully shattered.

We frame this WW2 unit by the MECS Thread of ‘Justice Seeker’ and have sharpened this focus by the application of our Biblical Signpost, ‘being good neighbours’.

At this time Christianity is still giving shape to public life yet competing cultural stories of political and military empires and the glorification of power across Western Europe (and beyond) are dominant. Such is this influence the Apostle Paul’s claims of Jesus and our charge to imitate seem jarring: “being in very nature God, [he] did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant… [humbling] himself by becoming obedient to death.” (Phil 2: 6-8)

How could history (and by consequence, the present) have been different if we followed Jesus’ model? Specifically, what could be the consequences of a renegotiated Treaty of Versailles, guided by the just principle of seeking to be ‘good neighbours’? An interesting question, but first to perhaps a more important question: how do we ‘do’ the study of History Christianly? N.T. Wright suggests that it “requires humility, patience, penitence and love.” (2019, p. 77)

So, we went there – we renegotiated the Treaty of Versailles. The starting positions were stark: France wanted Germany smashed. Britain wanted a strong Germany with whom to trade. The USA wanted a new world order of peace. Italy missed the memo and still wanted more land and power. Germany, now present, was willing to give up much, but not their honour. Sure, things got off to a rocky start. Germany stole all the water jugs, but then again, they weren’t given any to start with. Several rounds of complex negotiations laid bare the fact that even the victors found it hard to agree on what they wanted let alone Germany. Yet a compromise was reached. For the record: limits on Germany’s armed forces, a neutral Rhineland patrolled by both regular German and Allied forces, the coal fields and factories of the Ruhr shared, with reparations taking the form of both gold and output from this industrial base. Alsace-Lorraine was to be finally returned to France along with remaining German warships.

This achievement was remarkable – a hypothetical ‘sliding doors’ moment of history. Yet it was the manner in which the negotiations took place. Humility, patience, penitence, and dare I say it, love, were on display. Was it not just that history was ‘done’ in this way, but that it was also a display of being a good neighbour?

Perhaps being on the 'right side of history' has far less to do with forcing others to agree with us and far more to do with loving our neighbours.

Doug Allison

Secondary Teacher & Humanities Faculty Leader 

Reference:

Wright, N. T. (2019). History and eschatology: Jesus and the promise of natural theology. Baylor University Press.