There is a wide variety of views which change from time to time. Often these views are conditioned by contemporary opinion and the political climate. In the short run, political activity undoubtedly bows to expediency. The Christian World in which we live has as its sustaining principle the idea of the individual as the central feature of society. We reject the philosophical basis of Hegel and Marx.
Man alone possesses the capacity to think and act purposefully.
Although the implication is over- implified because the causes of change are highly complex, this implies that the primary driving force throughout history has been the individual man and woman. I accept the idea that the individual determines change in society. Consequently I reject the materialistic thesis of Socialism and Communism that the forms or conditions of production are the fundamental determinants of social structures and change. The Doctrine of Original Sin. Following St. Paul that Man is born with the tendency to sin, of hereditary weakness which, if not disciplined, will lead to excess or sin of one kind or another.