WHAT I BELIEVE
conception of welfare. I want to consider, in this chapter, how this affects our conception of the good life.
Christianity arose in the Roman Empire among populations wholly destitute of political power, whose national States had been destroyed — and merged in a vast impersonal aggregate. During the first three centuries of the Christian Era, the individuals who adopted Christianity could not alter the social or political institutions under which they lived, although they were profoundly convinced of their badness. In these circumstances, it was natural that they should adopt the belief that an individual may be perfect in an imperfect world, and that the good life has nothing to do with this world. What I mean may become plain by comparison with Plato’s Republic. When Plato wanted to describe the good
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