States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Because of a
faulty copyright, Dr. Sheldon did not receive money
from the sale of this book, but, periodically, the “What
would Jesus do?” theme of the book revived in U.S.
society, most recently in the “What Would Jesus Do”
movement in the 1990s, partly due to an updating by
Sheldon’s great-grandson of In His Steps,under the
title What Would Jesus Do?
As an example of CHURCH-AND-STATErelations in the
United States, Charles Sheldon shows the continuing
relevance of Protestant Christianity in U.S. politics.
His other books include The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
(1894), Jesus is Here!(1913), and In His Steps, Today
(1921).
Further Readings
Miller, Timothy. Following in His Steps.Knoxville: University of
Tennessee Press, 1987.
Sheldon, Charles M. Charles M. Sheldon: His Life Story.New
York: George H. Doran Company, 1925.
Skinner, Quentin Robert Duthie (1940– )
British political philosopher and academic
Best known for his study of Western POLITICAL THEORY
in terms of IDEOLOGY, Quentin Skinner (regius profes-
sor of modern history, Cambridge University) applies
this approach in a much more sophisticated and effec-
tive way than the MARXISTmethod. As he described it
in his first volume of The Foundation of Modern Politi-
cal Thought(1978): “I have tried not to concentrate so
exclusively on the leading theorists, and have focused
instead on the more general social and intellectual
matrix out of which their works arose.” He sees that
“political life itself sets the main problems for the
political theorist,” and an understanding of the social
context of a thinker is as important as the intellectual
environment of the thinker: “the context of earlier
writings and inherited assumptions about political
society.” This balanced approach to historical ideolo-
gies contributed greatly to the scholarship of Western
political thought.
Educated at Cambridge University, Q.R.D. Skinner
has lectured at Oxford University, Princeton, Harvard,
the University of Paris, Rutgers, and numerous other
schools and institutes. A member of the British Acad-
emy Council, he has received several academic awards
(notably the Wolfson Literary Prize) and has written
or edited 18 books.
slavery
The social institution in which one human being owns
another human being as private PROPERTY. Human slav-
ery has existed in almost every country and culture in
history and still exists in some African, Middle East-
ern, and Asian nations. In the history of POLITICAL THE-
ORY, slavery is discussed by ARISTOTLE, CHRISTIAN
political thought, John LOCKE, Karl MARX, Thomas JEF-
FERSON, G. W. F. HEGEL, George FITZHUGH, and others.
CLASSICAL Greek political thought (Aristotilean)
gives the ancient justification for slavery: In The Poli-
tics,Aristotle argues that some people (individuals or
races) are by nature slaves because they cannot rule
themselves (and therefore require masters). Because
the ruling faculty is reason, those without rationality
are the natural slaves of the reasonable. In fact, most
slaves in ancient Greece and Rome were the result of
military defeat (as in ancient Israel), so the more com-
mon reason for enslavement was military conquest (as
by King David in the Old Testament or Jewish Bible).
Christianity (as in the Epistles of St. Paul) accepted
the institution of slavery but advised masters to be
kind to their slaves as they themselves have a master
in God, to whom they are accountable (Ephesians 6).
German philosopher Hegel writes of the famous
“master-slave” DIALECTIC, in which slavery is largely a
matter of recognition, the slave giving the master his
identity, and therefore the ruler is actually dependent
on the slave. MARXISMadapts the image of slavery to
the enslaved working class under CAPITALISMruled by
an economic ruling class. That even formally free peo-
ple in a DEMOCRACYcan be slaves affects all MODERN
sociological thought, beginning with Jean-Jacques
ROUSSEAU. The radical, revolutionary character and
rhetoric of various liberation movements is explained
by this equating of any social or economic dependence
with slavery, so slavery to men (FEMINISM), to imperial-
ism (LENIN), to sin (St. AUGUSTINE), or to consumerism
(ENVIRONMENTALISM) becomes a common metaphor in
Western political thought.
American slavery of blacks (Africans) in the 18th
and early 19th centuries gave rise to a distinctive polit-
ical theory. Based on both racial and intellectual
grounds, American enslavement of AFRICAN AMERICANS
is most rationalized in the writings of southerner
George Fitzhugh. Although most black slaves in the
United States had been previously enslaved by other
Africans in their native land, the principles of FREEDOM
and RIGHTSin Jefferson’s DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
made the institution untenable in America. The anti-276 Skinner, Quentin Robert Duthie