Nationalism

Nationalism is said to be a "patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts." And has been defined as "an extreme form of this, especially marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries."

Nationalism can simply be the "advocacy of political independence for a particular country."

The word nationalism came from the word nation and from the Latin natio which was a native with a common ancestry or place of birth.I can be both the aggregate of the inhabitants of a place or geographical area or a kingdom with a common collective identity from a mutual history, a common system of laws and traditions, a single language, political interaction, and system of welfare.

A country may contain several nations.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary the 1856 Edition does not have an entry for nationalism but it defines NATIONS:

1. Nations or states are independent bodies politic; societies of men united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength.
2. . But every combination of men who govern themselves, independently of all others, will not be considered a nation; a body of pirates, for example, who govern themselves, are not a nation. To constitute a nation another ingredient is required. The body thus formed must respect other nations in general, and each of their members in particular. Such a society has her affairs and her interests; she deliberates and takes resolutions in common; thus becoming a moral person who possesses an understanding and will peculiar to herself, and is susceptible of obligations and rights. Vattel, Prelim. §1, 2; 5 Pet. S. C. R. 52.
3. It belongs to the government to declare whether they will consider a colony which has thrown off the yoke of the mother country as an independent state; and until the government have decided on the question, courts of justice are bound to consider the ancient state of things as remaining unchanged. 1 Johns. Ch. R. 543; 13 John. 141, 561; see 5 Pet. S. C. R. 1; 1 Kent, Com 21; and Body Politic; State.

So in the first definition we see a nation may simply be "societies of men united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength."

Under that definition the early Christian church and the early Christians were virtually a nation. Even by a modern Legal definition the Church could qualify as a nation.

"CHURCH In its most general sense, the religious society founded and established by Jesus Christ, to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines and ordinances."

"A body or community of Christians, united under one form of government by the profession of one faith, and the observance of the same rituals and ceremonies."

Black's Law Dictionary 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th... eds.

We also see that "But every combination of men who govern themselves, independently of all others, will not be considered a nation;" They must also "respect other nations", As a "society" must have a body that deliberates their "affairs" and "interests" publishing "resolutions in common". By these actions there must be a body that expresses itself as "a moral person who possesses an understanding and will peculiar" with a "susceptible of obligations and rights".

This is why the Apostles or called out Church established by Christ was appointed a kingdom with duties and directives which they had to fulfill according to the perfect law of liberty without exercising authority one over the other. They could be in the world but not of the world.

The Church and its clergy set up their own daily ministration for the benefit of the people; they respected other nations; and the Church itself was a body that deliberated their "affairs" and "interests" publishing "resolutions in common". Although it did not exercise authority over the people it did exercise authority over that which the people gave it.

The Church even sued the Roman government for property confiscated during persecution before Constantine.

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