What Is a Nation?

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Tower of Babel (1563)

There are some words that have the power to invoke strong emotional responses, without being fully understood. These words are so potent that men would gladly kill and die in their name, but when asked about what said word means, they are lost for words. One such word is Nation. For centuries man has killed and died in its name. But when asked what it means, he would say: “my country.” Or maybe he might say, “my race,” or in some cases, “my religious group.”

Germany and Austria both share the same language, but they are of two different nationalities. The Serbs and the Croats speak the same language, but they are also two different nations --- in a large part due to religion.

And the United Kingdom is one country, but there are at least four different nationalities that reside within its borders.

Moreover, the Filipinos are said to belong to one nation, but they have hundreds of different languages and cultures. And to limit being Filipino to being Malay would be unacceptable to the Chinese and those people of Spanish descent, whose ancestors were the first to be called “Filipinos.”

So, what does it mean to belong to a nation? Political scientists have attempted to provide various definitions. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities called it the “imagined political community…imagined as limited and sovereign.”

It, according to him, is a modern invention that came after the Age of Enlightenment. And, by its nature, the Nation—according to him—seeks to be expressed through an independent State.

Admittedly, the current form of nation that we see today is very recent. This is the nation that took upon the political expression of the nation-state, or at the very least, the nationalist political movement. But to say—without qualification—that there were no nations before the nineteenth century is historically untenable. The word “nation” in Greek and Hebrew form is mentioned in the Bible countless times. The Nation is so fundamental to salvation history that without it, we would have no Passover, no Passion, and no Pentecost.

There must be some underlying reality that bridges the ancient nations with the modern forms we are used to today. This is the similar and very connected notion of the family. The nation is the community, first and foremost, of families. It is the “family of families” (St. John Paul II, Homily, March 23, 1998).

This community of families is primarily a unity in certain qualities (Henricus Grenier, Cursus philosophiae, IV, 1107). These qualities can involve blood-descent, genetic makeup, culture, language, customs, habits, and ways of thinking. Hence the formula from Genesis: “ each with its own language, according to their clans, by their nations” (Gen 5 v. 10).

And with the union of families comes a certain authority. This authority brings together various persons and families to live life in a way which, ultimately, is meant to lead them to the truth. It is the pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful that is the ultimate end of every nation (St. John Paul II, Centesimus annus, n. 50). So, the nation becomes the cultural community of families, and not merely of individuals. For it is in the family that a nation’s culture is transmitted to the next generation. And it is in the nation that the family can complete its task of education (St. John Paul II, Address to UNESCO, 1980, n. 14). In other words: without the family, there can be no nation.

Daniel Tyler Chua is the founder and president of the Collegium Perulae Orientis. He is also a contributor to the Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Sentinel PH.