Sunday, July 18, 2004
The "benefits" of being a Christian
After a few posts showing some of the charges against Christianity, it is interesting to think whether one could get some personal benefits from being or becoming a Christian. With "benefits" I am thinking here mainly of social/worldly improvements.
Let's have a look at some of the acts of charity mentioned in early church documents. See Christian charity in the early Church.
But especially in the first two-three centuries, it seems clear that, on the one hand, this social attitude of the Church may well have disrupted established rules and conventions (release from slavery? Help those in prison? Or those exiled to the islands?). And, on the other hand, it seems likely that membership in the church implied for many material advantages (a pattern often repeated throughout history). As a matter of fact, this may be an important factor to explain the attractiveness of the "new religion" for the masses (remember how a constant objection to Christianity was that it attracted mainly "illeterate people").
Another point worth considering is the personal power advantage that membership in the Church could imply for some. The "president" (of the assembly) had in his hand perhaps a considerable amount of money, plus the power to direct use of this money for various causes. This power was perhaps something actively looked on; Tertullian explains that the elders of the Church are men "obtaining that honour [to preside] not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God", which may be a bit idealistic.
This power to help (or not) obviously gives greater significance to membership itself: so that, as Hall suggests, excommunication from the Church was a very severe penalty, and one that might have had direct and harsh consequences in one's life. Like in a spiralling circle, this would have therefore more and more reinforced the power of the "elders".
Categories: Church_History
Let's have a look at some of the acts of charity mentioned in early church documents. See Christian charity in the early Church.
- Hospitality is praised in 1 Clement 1 as one of the main characteristics of the Corinthians. The same document says that some Christians offered themselves to release others from slavery:
We know that many among ourselves have delivered themselves to bondage, that they might ransom others. Many have sold themselves to slavery, and receiving the price paid for themselves have fed others.
(1 Clement 55) - Ignatius uses these words to designate the unbelievers:
They have no care for love (i.e., charity), none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, none for the hungry or thirsty.
(Smyrn. 6:2) From which we understand how Christians were to behave. - Justin says that
the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together.
(1 Apology, 67)
[...]
And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. - Similar remarks are made by Tertullian:
Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession.
(Apology, XXXIX) - Eusebius reports that in a church there were
forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolyths, fifty-two exorcists, readers, and janitors, and over fifteen hundred widows and persons in distress, all of whom the grace and kindness of the Master nourish.
(HE 6,XLIII)
But especially in the first two-three centuries, it seems clear that, on the one hand, this social attitude of the Church may well have disrupted established rules and conventions (release from slavery? Help those in prison? Or those exiled to the islands?). And, on the other hand, it seems likely that membership in the church implied for many material advantages (a pattern often repeated throughout history). As a matter of fact, this may be an important factor to explain the attractiveness of the "new religion" for the masses (remember how a constant objection to Christianity was that it attracted mainly "illeterate people").
Another point worth considering is the personal power advantage that membership in the Church could imply for some. The "president" (of the assembly) had in his hand perhaps a considerable amount of money, plus the power to direct use of this money for various causes. This power was perhaps something actively looked on; Tertullian explains that the elders of the Church are men "obtaining that honour [to preside] not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God", which may be a bit idealistic.
This power to help (or not) obviously gives greater significance to membership itself: so that, as Hall suggests, excommunication from the Church was a very severe penalty, and one that might have had direct and harsh consequences in one's life. Like in a spiralling circle, this would have therefore more and more reinforced the power of the "elders".
Categories: Church_History
