Countercultural Holiness as Evidence of Devotion to the True God
“Something Divine Mingled Among Them”: Countercultural Holiness as Apologetic in the Second Century: Part 3 of 5
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When Aristides begins to recount the impact of Christian theology on Christian ethics, he describes in detail the countercultural nature of the Christian way of life. The behavior of Christians is, Aristides declares, “beyond all the nations of the earth” (Apology 15, Greek). He begins his summary of the Christian way of life with clauses that echo the Septuagint text of the Torah: “They do not adulterate or fornicate,” “they do not covet what is not theirs,” “they honor father and mother,” “they love their neighbors,” “they judge with justice,” and so on.
Despite the Jewish origins of these declarations, some of them might have caused at least a few philosophically-minded Romans to nod their heads in agreement. Adulterous relationships were widely condemned, after all, and the first-century Stoic Musonius even took a negative view of all sexual relations outside of marriage. At the same time, some of these ethics would have caused a pause for these Romans. According to Aristides, for example, Christians refused to “eat the meats of idols,” in a context where it was generally agreed that “even if rationality led to skepticism about the nature of traditional gods, the ancient customs [regarding the worship of these gods] should be maintained.”
Holiness Beyond All the Nations of the Earth
As Aristides continues, the countercultural nature of the ethics formed in people’s lives by the deity described in his opening sentences becomes increasingly clear. This is indeed a way of life that stands “beyond all the nations of the earth.” Christians “walk in humility and kindness” (Apology 15). “As for their slaves and their children if they have any, they persuade them to become Christians because of the love they have for them. When they become Christians, they call them ‘brothers’ without distinction.” “They rescue orphans from the ones who abuse them, and they give without grudging to the one who has nothing.” “If any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name ‘Christ,’ all of them provide for his needs, and if it is possible for him to be delivered, they deliver him” (Apology 15). These are the patterns of life that the second-century satirical writer Lucian of Samosata ridiculed in Passing of Peregrinus (12–13, 16). When the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus played the part of a Christian and ended up in prison, Christians provided his needs and worked to have him released, according to Lucian. Lucian mercilessly mocked the generosity of Christians for those who had been imprisoned.
Uncommon Common Ground?
The church does function as an apologetic for Aristides. Yet his ecclesial apologetic does not prevent him from beginning his apologetic with a rational argument from nature. In one sense, the moral habits of the church provide another type of common ground in the Apology of Aristides. This ecclesial common ground is not “common” in the sense that Christians and non-Christians both practice these ethics or even in the sense that both aspire to practice these ethics. The Christian way of life provides a common point of understanding in the sense that this life was so well known that non-Christians could not deny that this was how Christians lived.
According to Aristides, the order and beauty of the cosmos declare a deity with particular attributes, and neither the barbarians, nor the Greeks, nor the Jewish people are devoted to such a deity. Since the deity that one serves shapes the life that one lives, the defective liturgies of the barbarians and the Greeks result in depraved lives. The Jews confess the self-existent deity required by the cosmos and thus do some good, but their goodness is only partial because their service is not to God but to the angels who mediated the Mosaic law. Christians, however, practice a holy way of life “beyond all the nations of the earth” that has never been seen before. The theology and liturgy of the Christians produces this never-before-seen way of life because Christians are devoted to the true God, the very deity to which the cosmos testifies.
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