130. COVENANTS

Political science professor Daniel Elazar in his The Covenant Tradition in Politics, Max DePree in his Leadership Is an Art, Marcia Pally in her Commonwealth and Covenant, and New York Times columnist David Brooks have all penned thoughts about covenants from which we might learn in our quest for clues to being all we are ordained to be.

Elazar: “Both covenants and compacts differ from contracts in that the first two are constitutional or public and the last private in character. … Contracts normally contain provisions for unilateral abrogation by one party or another under certain conditions (and with penalties where appropriate); compacts and covenants generally require mutual consent to be abrogated, designed as they are to be perpetual or of unlimited duration.

“A covenant differs from a compact in that its morally binding dimension takes precedence over its legal dimension. In its heart of hearts, a covenant is an agreement in which a higher moral force, traditionally God, is either a direct party to or guarantor of the particular relationship.”

“More than anything else, cultures, systems, and humans informed by the covenantal perspective are committed to a way of thinking and conduct which enable them to live free while being bound together in appropriate relationships, to preserve their own integrities while sharing in a common whole, and to pursue both the necessities of human existence and the desiderata of moral response in some reasonable balance.”

“Since covenants are grounded in moral commitment, they also provide a basis and a means for placing all of us under judgment. That is to say, a proper covenant not only offers humans the right path or way but provide means for the self-same humans to judge and be judged as to how well they stay on that path or maintain that way.”

DePree: “Covenants bind people together and enable them to meet their corporate needs by meeting the needs of one another. … The best people working for organizations are like volunteers. … Volunteers do not need contracts, they need covenants. … True covenants, however, are risky because they require us to be abandoned to the talents and skills of others, and therefore to be vulnerable.”

Pally: What she suggests is separability amid situatedness. “We want to go off and create and explore and experiment with new ways of thinking and living. But we also want to be situated — embedded in loving families and enveloping communities, thriving within a healthy cultural infrastructure that provides us with values and goals.”

In his column “How Covenants Make Us,” David Brooks identifies four big forces coursing through modern societies: global migration, economic globalization, the Internet, and a culture of autonomy. “All of these forces have liberated the individual, or at least well-educated individuals, but they have been bad for national cohesion and the social fabric.”

Brooks’ focus on the weakening of the social fabric leads to these issues. “Alienated young men [and women] join ISIS so they can have a sense of belonging. Isolated teenagers shoot up schools. Many people grow up in fragmented, disorganized neighborhoods. Political polarization grows because people often don’t interact with those on the other side. Racial animosity stubbornly persists.

“Odder still, people are often plagued by a sense of powerlessness, a loss of efficacy. The liberation of the individual was supposed to lead to mass empowerment. But it turns out that people can effectively pursue their goals only when they know who they are — when they have firm identities.

“Strong identities can come only when people are embedded in a rich social fabric. They can come only when we have defined social roles… . They can come only when we are seen and admired by our neighbors and loved ones in a certain way.”

“You take away a rich social fabric and what you are left with is people who are uncertain about who they really are. It’s hard to live daringly when your very foundation is fluid and at risk.”

Q: What are your covenants that enable you to build your life on a rich social fabric?