Make the Great Learning (大學) Great(er) Again: How Confucius, Augustine, & Aquinas Might Instruct Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and Yoon Suk Yeol

With South Korean President Yoon, Suk Yeol’s unsuccessful “emergency” military decree (비상계엄 緊急戒嚴) on December 3, coupled with the beginning of the Second Trump Administration seven weeks later (on January 21, 2025) the world has witnessed a seismic shift in the deepening and troubling trends towards global authoritarianism. Both the Yoon and Trump Administrations have  defended their policies and practices in a number of ways, including “creative” reinterpretations of established political “sacred texts” in each culture. Yoon and his supporters claim that as the only legitimate ruler he is entrusted with fulfilling the First of the Five Confucian Relationships (五倫) between the Ruler and his Ministers (君臣) to guide the nation and hold it safe from threats both internal and external. In this project his supporters wave both the Korean flag (Tae-geuk-gi 太極旗) and the American Stars and Stripes. Clearly their struggle is intentionally cast in a global framework.

Meanwhile President Trump has brought into his orbit a number of religious leaders, ranging from Protestants such as the official White House Faith Advisor Paula White, Franklin Graham to Catholic hierarchs such as Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan. His Vice-President, J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, lectured both the country and Vance’s co-religionists on the “proper” interpretation of Augustine’s and Aquinas’ concept of ordo amoris (Order[ing] of Love), the proper ordering and ranking of the hierarchy of duties associated with civic charity. 

At first hearing it may seem that Vance was channeling Confucius. In a January 30, 2025 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News (https://youtu.be/o98Po0lWZxE?si=yPr1dMYOjH1HA5I9) Vance asserted that “authentic” Christian love of neighbor begins first to “love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.” The clear implication was that the Trumpian “America First” policy not only made political sense, but was in accord with the “best” of classical Christian ethics as well.

Vance’s rendition of what good government required does, at first hearing, seem to find a a certain rhyme in Confucius’s exposition laid out in the classic text of The Great Learning (大學) as 正心而后身脩身脩而后家齊家齊而后國治國治而后天下平: 

When the mind (心) is just (正), the self (身)is cultivated. When the self is cultivated, the household (家)is harmonized. When the household is harmonized, the country (國) is well governed. When the country (國) is well governed, there will be “harmony” (平) “under heaven” (天下).

At a cursory first glance the Trump and Yoon Administration’s respective takes on their countries “sacred” texts might appear plausible, but upon closer attention to the sacred texts themselves as well as their credentialed commentators the serious deficiencies  in these lines of application become abundantly clear. For example, Vance and company found their views on ordo amoris clearly and quickly contradicted by no less than Pope Francis, in the latter’s pointed Letter to the U.S. Bishops of February 10, 2025 (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2025/documents/20250210-lettera-vescovi-usa.html) which dealt with treatment of immigrants and refugees in the USA. 

Pace Vance, the Holy Father stated 

Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! … The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.

Similarly in Confucian ethics the “concentric expansion of interests” outlined in The Great Learning is in fact more of a closed circle: only when one shows oneself truly centered on the cultivation of the core human virtues will one be able to mature as the Confucian ideal of the “Superior Person” (君子Jūnzǐ) in bringing into concrete form the ethical demands of the Five Relationships in accord with the principle of the “Rectification of Names” (正名 zhèngmíng) that Confucius stated should be the first, and most important, policy of good government.

This key Confucian insight on proper government has been referenced explicitly by any number of reactions to President Yoon’s attempts to cement his power through martial law and similar legislative actions. The Korean Catholic Bishops’ Statement (https://www.cbck.or.kr/Notice/20242501?gb=K1300) unequivocally denounced Yoon’s actions as anti-democratic and therefore anti-Korean. Writing a week later (December 10, 2024) in the Seoul daily newspaper, the 경향신문 (Kyunghyang Shinmun), Sogang University sociology professor Oh, Saeil quoted directly the Confucian principle of good government through proper “rectification of names” 政者正也 정자정야 expounded in Analects Book 12, Chapter 17. Thus, according to Professor Oh, a proper understanding of the First Confucian Relationship would require “the attitude of a civil servant who puts the common good of the country and society first, beyond selfish desires and partisan interests” (https://www.khan.co.kr/article/202412102048005).

This paper will draw on my cross-cultural, philosophical and linguistic areas of expertise, as well as personal experiences in teaching in both Korea and the United States. Combined these all have afforded me an unique vantage point to reflect on how these two political cultures engage with their “Sacred Texts and Traditions.” The Presentation will briefly summarize the relevant political backgrounds and then move to an analysis of the Confucian and Christian texts in the contemporary context of both Korea and the United States. Since the sacred texts themselves are truly global in their history and impact, these analyses will help stimulate reflection and discussion in a wider venue.