Something to make you (me) go hmmmm. The Church on the Hot Seat Killjoy T. M. Moore For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 1 Peter 4:3-5 City of God Augustine of Hippo (354-430) “For what cause is there for you to exclaim at the prosperity of the Christian faith in these times, but only because you would follow your luxury uncontrolled, and having removed the impediments of all troublesome oppositions, swim on in your dishonest and unhallowed dissolution? Your affections do not stand up for peace, nor for universal plenty and prosperity, to the end that you might use them when you have them, as honest men should do; that is, modestly, soberly, temperately, and religiously: no; but that hence you might keep up your unreasonable expense, in seeking out such infinite variety of pleasures, and so give birth unto those exorbitances in your prosperities, which would heap more mischiefs upon you than ever befell you by your enemies.” Augustine speaks directly to those who were attacking the Christian faith. He lays bare the real motive behind their rage: Christianity is a killjoy when it comes to the pleasures of the flesh. The rise of Christianity throughout the Roman world of the fourth and early fifth centuries brought virtue and charity where vice and self-indulgence had been the norm, at least for the elite few. Christianity counseled generosity, modesty, and piety, and pastors all over the Roman world condemned excess and the desires of the flesh. It was Christianity, after all, which brought to an end the gladiatorial games, among other evils of the day. Those who had not become Christians did not like having their deeds exposed as wicked; more than that, they didn’t like it that their now-Christian friends and neighbors no longer would go along with their wicked ways. They wanted unbridled, unrestrained freedom to do whatever they wanted, without the feeling that someone disapproved of their chosen lifestyle. It has always been thus, no? Why is it important that pastors condemn sin and disciple their congregations for lives of virtue? All quotations are from Augustine, The City of God, tr. John Healey, ed R. V. G. Tasker (London: Everyman’s Library, 1945, 1967).
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 01:44:47 +0000
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