A pre-Christian argument for reluctant rulers
Whatever else is Christian, this is heathen.
The contrast has a significant ancient counterexample. In Plato's Republic, Book I, 347b–d (fourth century BCE; inspected in David Horan's online English translation), Socrates argues that good people avoid government for money or honour and accept it to escape being governed by worse people. A city of good people would compete to avoid office; genuine rule serves the governed. Plato, 347b–d.
This resembles Chesterton's suspicion of political eagerness, but differs from declaring oneself incapable: Plato's unwilling rulers need not doubt their qualifications. Nor does the resemblance establish a democratic conclusion. It shows that reluctance to govern is not exclusively Christian, while leaving Chesterton's more specific emphasis on self-distrust open for assessment. The passage works better as a polemic against confidence as a title to power than as a complete division of Christian and pre-Christian political thought. No direct influence from this Platonic passage is established.
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