Chrysostom on Secularisation
April 26, 2011
I am told by friends that the evangelical celebrity discussion continues apace elsewhere on the web and has even thrown up some unusual but undoubtedly important questions, such as the one over at the Old Life theological Society: Which is the best Led Zeppelin album, IV or Houses of the Holy? The answer is: neither. It is actually Physical Graffiti, especially disc 1, as, to quote the great Nigel Molesworth, `eny fule kno' -- even Derek Thomas.
More seriously, the problem of creeping and unnoticed secularisation in the church is not new. The great century of church secularisation was surely the fourth. Constantine converts (which may not, as Peter Leithart has recently argued, be the bad thing that it is so often made out to be); but it did lead to the acceptance of Christianity as respectable, and with that came the inevitable forces of conformity to the spirit of the age. Monasticism, Pelagianism and even Augustine's Confessions can all be read as examples of responses to this secularisation, as the church wrestled with what it meant to be a genuine Christian now that state persecution had ceased and Christianity was even becoming quite a good career path.
In the midst of all this stepped John Chrystostom, the outspoken Patriarch of Constantinople who would ultimately die for his direct and forthright attacks on the church's enemies, within and without. Speaking about the human weakness for judging by appearance and giving honours on the basis of worldly criteria, he says the following in his book On the Priesthood:
More seriously, the problem of creeping and unnoticed secularisation in the church is not new. The great century of church secularisation was surely the fourth. Constantine converts (which may not, as Peter Leithart has recently argued, be the bad thing that it is so often made out to be); but it did lead to the acceptance of Christianity as respectable, and with that came the inevitable forces of conformity to the spirit of the age. Monasticism, Pelagianism and even Augustine's Confessions can all be read as examples of responses to this secularisation, as the church wrestled with what it meant to be a genuine Christian now that state persecution had ceased and Christianity was even becoming quite a good career path.
In the midst of all this stepped John Chrystostom, the outspoken Patriarch of Constantinople who would ultimately die for his direct and forthright attacks on the church's enemies, within and without. Speaking about the human weakness for judging by appearance and giving honours on the basis of worldly criteria, he says the following in his book On the Priesthood:
I once used to deride secular rulers because they distributed honours, not on grounds of inherent merit, but of wealth or seniority or worldly rank. But when I heard that this stupidity had swaggered into our own affairs too, I no longer reckoned their action so strange.His words are a timely warning to every one of us. The charms of Egypt are always seductive and, like a hidden, painless, malignant tumour, one may not notice their lethal presence until it is too late.
