Submission to God or to Religious Authorities?

I intend to introduce you to a lost Christianity: The Christianity of the first century which came to an end at the close of the fifth century (so that modern scholars have to deal with the end of Ancient Christianity and then try to detect a bridge to the current edition of Christianity) and to give you a sense of how we got from there to here. The crucial difference is that initially Christians had an unmediated contact with God Himself and eventually with the emergence of the modern issue of Christianity, people ended up with an utterly mediated form of a State Religion in which it is not even necessary for God to exist, because the whole system works so perfectly without Him…



I am going to study, today, in a sketchy reconstruction, the transition from the unmediated contact with God Himself to this particular form we currently experience in our life, which is Christianity without God,-because the agents of God have become so powerful, that we have substituted them for Him - and then to ask the question whether any human being can really substitute for God. I will start by reminding you of three well-known parables in the Gospel, which enable me to ask the fundamental questions leading us into the core of the subject. “Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men”. This is a very well known passage. Of course, we always accept that Christianity is the salt of the earth and if the salt is to loose its quality what is going to happen? Have we ever asked ourselves though what would happen if the earth itself were to become salt? There are two extremes: One is to have the salt disappearing, and becoming tasteless and itself in need of salt and the vital substance not to be found anywhere. The other extreme, which we do not usually imagine of, is that the earth itself should become salt. In this scenario, there would be no real need for salt. It would be superfluous.



“Ye are the light of the world”. This presupposes that there is darkness in the world, so that the light is meaningful. Supposing for a moment that the world itself becomes divine light, what is the point for anybody, even for Christ, being the light of the light, i.e. being the light of the world?



Thirdly, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid into three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened”. The fermentation cannot expand beyond the three measures of flour and thus no “leavening” occurs once all three measures of flour become dough…



In all these examples it is obvious that in order that Christianity remains meaningful there must be a certain background, something else which is NOT whatever Christianity is, or whatever Christianity brings about and so Christianity makes sense as long as the unsalted earth receives the salt, the darkened world enjoys the light and the unleavened flour absorbs the leaven.



There are two dangers. First, that the salt may loose its savour. However, there is another danger, which apparently happened in the history of the church: the temptation to christianize the world thoroughly and entirely, so that, as it were, the earth itself becomes salt, the world becomes entirely light and the leaven finds no more flour to ferment. This can turn into an undesirable situation, a negative outcome, if we were to cause it ourselves hic et nunc, as indeed happened in the course of historic Christianity, and if is done by force, by coercion, it certainly results in tragedy. Secularity, atheism, indifference, profanity, anything that is not Christian is most likely to emerge if we were to force the whole earth to become salt, the whole earth to become light, or all the flour to become leaven. It is important that the salt, the light and the leaven remain active within something else, which is not identical with them, or –paradoxically- they become useless.



Let us see how a modern historian, Peter Brown, has traced such a mentality through historical evidence he drew from early Christian sources: “The avoidance of pollution by pagan rites, and not the spread of the gospel through the total suppression of pagan worship, weighed most heavily with the average Christian of the post-Constantinian age”. You see, the early Christians (of the faith which is lost to us now), were not so much concerned with spreading the word, preaching the gospel, converting the world into salt or light or leavened bread or whatever, as they were preserving themselves from pollution by the rites of the pagans who surrounded them, from whatever was not Christian, as if they sensed that they had to keep a balance: “A strong sense of pollution, focussed on the act of pagan sacrifice and its associated ritual was framed in such a way as to imply both that paganism lay outside their own community and that it was there to stay”. Initially, there were no plans to eradicate paganism. You could be a perfect Christian without intending to impose Christianity on everyone else. This was unthinkable at that period. Paganism could be permanent but at the same time, you had to keep clear of it. It was a different attitude.



This perception was based on the fact that Christ was Master of the cosmos, of the universe, and he had really achieved EVERYTHING by His victory on the cross. He was not in need of our support or of our collaboration in order to accomplish His work. The famous phrase, which he addressed Himself to the Father on the last night before his Passion was “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”. If we believe that this work still remains unfinished (implying that He needs our collaboration in order to finish it), then we have a completely different understanding of Christ Himself. Christ is either the victor over this world, completely and definitely by His cross and resurrection, having accomplished everything as He said to His Father, or He is an extremely weak human being, not divine at all, who can do nothing without our co-operation. This Christ is one who could be intimidated at any time if we were to strike against this co-operation.



Therefore, early Christianity could never imagine that Christ was not the Master of the Cosmos, and saw Him as eternally with a cosmic role. His role was conceived before the beginning of the world and fully achieved and accomplished before all ages. There was nothing at all before or after His incarnation that could become an obstacle to His divine plan for the salvation of the world. That is why it is important to see that Christ can only be a cosmic Christ and not the Christ of the individual, because salvation in the early period of Christianity was perceived as the salvation of THE WORLD only and never as the salvation of particular individuals. The individual could be saved simply and merely because they were part of the world. The modern idea of privacy and individuality that prevails in our society, especially in civilised and advanced societies, was unknown in the past. Reality was seen and understood as totality. Human beings were seen as extant only in their interconnections within the cosmos, within the world, and saved as such. That is why Jesus Christ is seen as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. It would have been quite different if the Bible had stated, “This is the lamb that takes away the sin of each one of us”. Superficially, it sounds the same but makes a tremendous difference in the way that we visualize reality. In the terms of early Christian understanding, salvation in Christ does not apply to individuals. It applies only to the world. Because we are inseparable part of the world, we can be saved. God loved the world so much that he gave his Son, but he has never given his Son just to open up personal relations with each individual; to become, as it were, our private property. We are saved altogether as part of the world or we are lost and perished altogether as part of the world. This is the cosmic understanding, which comes very close to modern scientific perceptions of the cosmos, the way we were created, the Big Bang. We hear that scientists have found in our cells remnants of this original explosion of the Big Bang. It still survives in our DNA through generations and generations. Everything makes sense when we perceive ourselves as part of the Cosmos, and Christ as the Saviour of the world, the Saviour of the totality of what He has created in His Image and Likeness rather than as the paticularizer, that choosy Person, the choosy God, who picks up here the elect person but rejects the other one over there. He is not like this.



“The particular idea, as Oscar Cullman has put it, adopted by modern, (especially Western) theologians is that Redemption is not a thing that occurs in time but rather an abstract teaching. However, Christ can only redeem us within time and space as He has created us in time and space from the very beginning and the Bible begins with the Creation: the Creation of the Universe by God. All these things are so interwoven, that we cannot perceive redemption outside space and time”.



The modern historian Peter Brown, again, has found connections with this idea in examining the relationship between early Christianity and the pagan world: “Not only was the triumph of Christ preordained: each manifestation of it was instantaneous. As a result, the immediate human consequences of that victory could be taken for granted. The gods were thought to have passed away from all regions, much as, in the Christian rite of exorcism, the demon was believed to have passed out of the body of the possessed in a single, dramatic spasm, that left the sufferer free to return, immediately, to normal health of mind and body. Narratives of the end of paganism-such as the dramatic destruction of the Serapeum of Alexandria in around 392- follow an analogous brisk rhythm. It was enough that Serapis should be seen to have been driven from the shrine that he had “possessed” for so many centuries, by the power of Christ, made palpable through the successful violence of his servants. It was assumed that Alexandria had been “healed” by the passing of its greatest god and could henceforth be treated as a Christian city. More important still, such an otherwordly narrative even enabled the devotees of the old gods to accept what was, often, a brutal fait accompli. The worshippers of Serapis declared that, in a manner characteristic of the gods of Egypt, their god had simply withdrawn to heaven, saddened that so much blasphemy should happen in his favoured city”.

You see, it was a matter of “keeping within your borders” in a sense, but not trying necessarily to destroy your opponents. Christ had destroyed the gods. It was His business so to do. He did not need their help, their support or their assistance in order to do this.



Therefore, the non-Christianized parts of the cosmos were never a problem for early Christians. Peter Brown once more: “In the 420s Shenute of Atripi observed that the provincial governor, a man with a reputation for being wise, had taken to wearing a jackal’s claw tied to his right toe. The governor informed him that he did this on the recommendation of a holy Great Monk. A leading Christian ascetic had validated what appeared to Shenute to be a blatantly non-Christian occult remedy. Shenute’s reaction is interesting. Faced by the thoughtful governor, he did not think of denying the existence of a universe sharply divided between upper and lower powers. (The lower powers are the demons, the devils. You can find evidence of that. In the New Testament, we can find the Principalities, the Archons who crucified the Lord. Therefore, even in the New Testament it has been accepted that there is a lower region belonging to the devil. This does not contradict the existence of Christianity on earth.) Shenute countered, rather, with an exaltation of the power of Christ, as the one being Who was uniquely able to bridge the imaginative fissure that ran across the universe, separating its highest from its lowest reaches. The power of Christ was able to reach down to touch all aspects of daily life in the material world: “Try to attain to the full measure of this Name, and you will find it on your mouth and on the mouths of your children. When you make high festival and when you rejoice, cry Jesus. When anxious and in pain, cry Jesus. When little boys and girls are laughing, let them cry Jesus; And those who flee before barbarians cry Jesus; those who see wild beasts and sights of terror, cry Jesus; those who are taken off to prison cry Jesus; and those whose trial has been corrupted and who receive injustice cry the Name of Jesus.” This was the way to face the pagan world.



The final example from Peter Brown is very characteristic: “Even the symbols of the new, Christian dispensation - the Christogramm, the labarum, a little later, exquisite ornamental crosses -, appear in places allotted to them by the common celebration of the reparatio saeculi, of the felicitas saeculi, of a world restored and at ease, despite potential chaos. They appear on almost any prestigious or significant object connected with the new elites, -on milestones, on mosaic pavements, on sets of luxury cutlery,even, indeed, on the iron dog-collar of a slave, with the inscription: Arrest me for I have run away and bring me back to the Mons Caelius, to the palace of Elpidius, Vir Clarissimus”….(All references are from “Authority and theSacred”Cambridge,1995) You could be a Christian and still have a slave, even wearing dog collar decorated with the sign of the cross!

In the middle of all this, Augustine appeared and created a new kind of Christianity, sort of Christian culture that aimed at annihilating the pagan culture. Christianisation suddenly was seen (and ever since is being seen), no longer as the decisive victory of the cosmic Christ upon the authorities and principalities of this world and the demons, but as conversion to a distinctive mannerism of speech and worship, of habits which composed compulsory ascetic standards for all human beings, thus turning ascetic life from spontaneous dedication and submission to God to a conventional Christian fashion. This was the great shift that emerged at the end of the fifth century through the influence of Augustine. Before Augustine, Christianity was construed by its followers as the best way to enjoy divine intimacy. It had much more to do with recreation and entertainment, than with strict discipline and self- mortification... The latter was a degradation of what originally had been pursued as a solemn and lifelong act of gratitude towards the One who, as if not content with being the Creator of Man, also made Himself Man’s Saviour before all ages, further granting Mankind, apart from Being, Well-being and, finally, Everlasting Being, namely, ultimate union with Himself.

Augustine, instead, discovered that sin, the enemy of humanity, had overcome Christ’s victory and nothing at all could ever eradicate it, not even baptism, as concupiscence remains active after it. Up to Augustine, the enemy was outside man, it was a challenge out there and the Christian world had only to protect themselves from its pollution. However, with Augustine and after Augustine sin becomes a tangible reality and the enemy within. So the borderline between Christian and non-Christian worlds suddenly becomes very significant as Christ’s universal and unique victory over the powers and principalities of this world was being gradually relativized in so far as sin still prevailed in all human beings. Therefore, whatever had been considered to be peculiar to Christianity looses its particularity from now on and Christians must collaborate with and help Christ to accomplish what (out of weakness or unwillingness) He left unaccomplished in us…



All this is only background. Merely an introduction to a sermon by John Chrysostom, which was delivered in the year 387, a unique example of the unmediated intimacy with the divine in a period, which was not going to last for long. In the following extracts, you can really witness this intimacy with the divine and their understanding of Christianity, which is so different from ours. The sermon was addressed to both Catechumens and baptised people: “…You are called to a wedding, beloved. Do not go in wearing stained clothing but take the proper apparel. People invited to a wedding, however poor, will often borrow or buy clean clothing before meeting those who invited them. But as you are called to a spiritual wedding and an imperial feast, bear in mind that the clothes you buy should be extraordinarily proper. There is, however, no need to shop for them. The host

Himself gives them to you as a gift, so that you will not have poverty as an excuse. Guard then the clothing you received, since, if you ruin it, you will not be able to borrow or buy it again, for it is not for sale anywhere…” You see, the intimacy with God is obvious. God provides for everything even for your spiritual clothing. You put on Christ by baptism. This is the meaning of the phrase. He does not need agencies. Himself provides for everything. He acts immediately without any mediators: “Notice that it is the same with grace as with virtue. If anyone is lame , if he has lost his eyes, if he is disabled in body, if he has fallen into debilitating chronic illness, by none of these is grace hindered from coming upon the soul, for grace seeks only the soul eager to receive, and neglects all such outer things. In the case of earthly soldiers, those about to induct them into the army examine both their bodily size and physical health, and not only these are required of the recruit, but he must be free as well. If anyone is a slave, he is thrown out. The King of heaven, however, does not examine such criteria, but will accept into his army without shame slaves and the aged and those feeble in limb.” You see, the problem that there are slaves, as the one reported above by Peter Brown with the chain, is not a problem for the King of heaven. This is how they faced slavery. “What could be more philanthropic than this? What more beneficial? He seeks only what is in our control, while they seek what is not in our control. [This was going to be reversed in the next two centuries and the church would seek whatever was not in our control. However, look, at this point in time, this distinction is clear; those in power in this world are seeking things that are not in our control. God seeks whatever is in our control.] “… To be slave or free is not our decision, nor again is it in our control to be tall or short, nor old nor young, nor such things. To be gentle or good, however, and things like these, belong to our will. God asks of us only the things over which we are master, which stands to reason, because it is not from any need of His but from beneficence that He calls us to His grace. Yet kings recruit for the service rendered them; and while they lead into a physical war, God leads into a spiritual battle. One can see the same analogy, not only in the case of worldly wars, but also in the case of the games. Those who are about to be led into that arena, do not immediately go down to the events until the announcer takes them and leads them before everyone’s eyes, calling out, “Does anyone accuse this one?” Yet indeed these are not bouts involving the soul, but bodies. Why then do you demand an account of his lineage? Here, however, there is none of this, but everything is different, the bouts not involving wrestling grips with the hands, but involving philosophy of the soul and virtue of the will. The commissioner acts differently, too. He does not take him, lead him around, and say, Does anyone accuse this one? Instead he calls out, “If all people, - if all demons arrayed with the devil himself accuse him of the most unspeakably dire crimes, I will never dismiss him nor disdain him. Instead, delivering him from the accusation and freeing him from this base condition, in this way do I lead unto the events”. This also stands to reason .There the commissioner does not help the contestants to victory, but stands in the middle. Here, however, the commissioner of the contests of piety is an ally and aid joining with them in the fight against the devil. That God forgives our sins, is not the only amazing point. But also that he does not disclose them nor make them plain and clear, nor require a public appearance to confess one’s offences. [Despite what we used to believe of the ancient church, that it was customary to confess their sins in public, in the year 387 this was utterly unknown. Nobody would do that.] “…To Himself alone he requires an accounting and before Him a confession. Among the secular judges, indeed, if anyone offered to some captured thief or tomb-robber that he could admit his offences and be forgiven the penalty, he would certainly admit it eagerly, discounting the shame in his desire for safety. But here there is none of this. Instead, He forgives the sins and does not require that they be paraded before others. One thing only He always seeks, that the person who himself enjoys the forgiveness might know the greatness of the gift…”



This is an eloquent example of divine intimacy. It is an exquisite description of what Christianity meant to be.

Now, in order to help you see what you already know, I will take you nine hundred years later to examine where we stand on exactly the same issue. Here is a passage from John of Paris; Jean Quidor was his real name. He lived in the second part of the thirteenth century and wrote a book On Royal and Papal Power: “According to the gospel, six powers were granted to the apostles and disciples of the Lord and so therefore to their successors, the ministers of the church. One is that power of consecration, sometimes called the character or power of order, which the Lord gave to his disciples at the Last Supper when, in giving them his body in the form of bread, he bade them “Do this in remembrance of me”. Another, the second, is the power of administering the sacraments and especially the sacrament of penance.” [the power of absolving sins is the most important sacrament in the Middle Ages, not the Eucharist.] “… This is the power of the keys or of spiritual jurisdiction in the sphere of conscience, consisting in the authority of judging between leprosy or non-leprosy. (Deuteron. 17: 8) in the power of absolving from guilt and changing the condition of the guilty from deserving the punishment of eternal damnation to being punishable by temporal punishment. The third power is the authority of the apostolate or preaching which the Lord gave them as is recounted in Matthew 10. The forth power is judicial, the power to coerce in the external forum by which things are corrected by fear of punishment especially sins in scandal of the church. The concession of this power is in Matthew 18. The authority to judge in this form, has been given to the church when it is said: Tell the church, that is, so that it might have cognizance, and also the authority to coerce and punish through ecclesiastical censure when it is said: If he will not hear the church let him be to thee as the heathen etc. The confirmation of this is added with the words: Truly, I say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven etc and the gloss: by the bond of anathema. It is especially to be reflected upon that in these three acts, illumination through doctrine, purification through correction, perfection through the sacraments, priests have the full power of priestly rule over the community of the faithful.” [Christ has no such power because all Christ’s powers have been transmitted fully to the priests. Thus, the initial immediacy, the intimacy with God Himself has been definitely lost.]

“Fifth prerogative: The fifth is the power according to the opinion of some of distributing ministers by establishing ecclesiastical jurisdictions, so that confusion be avoided. For the power of the keys and the power of jurisdiction were given to all equally without establishing boundaries, and each could use it effectively on any sinner at all, since the sinner is the proper subject of which the action of the jurisdiction, the absolution, calls, in the same way as wheaten bread, without qualification, is the matter on which falls the exercise of the power of order.



Sixth prerogative. The sixth power would seem to spring logically from all the foregoing: it is the power to receive what is necessary to maintain a suitable standard of living from those to whom they minister spiritually. This power was given to Peter and the Apostles and declared obligatory when, in Matthew 10, after Christ had begged them to go out and preach, he added instruction as to how they should conduct themselves towards temporal possessions. You received without pay, give without pay, and the gloss: Just as I give you such power without pay do you also give freely lest the grace of the gospel be corrupted. and again in the text: Take no gold, no silver etc You who exhort others to despise riches; and again in the text: no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff, gloss: He deprives them of the mere necessity of the help of a stick lest they who teach them that all things are ruled by God should take heed for the morrow. The text goes on about their power to accept: For the labourer deserves his food. Here is why he ordered them to carry nothing since all is their due… These six privileges then are the powers, which the Apostles receive from Christ. They receive no other except that of working miracles to confirm faith.” Listen to that: “There is no necessity for bishops and priests to follow them here, for the confirmation of our faith is so manifest as no longer to need confirmation by miracles.”!!!



You can make the comparison and see how full power has been transmitted to agents and, Christ the Victor, who in Chrysostom’ s catechism does everything Himself to everyone, has simply been put aside. Had He never existed, it would make no difference, for the system ever since works by itself…



I will conclude by reading out to you a small passage from the letter to Galatians in order to provoke your reaction. It is from the fourth chapter: “This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the date set by his father. So it was with us. During our minority, we were slaves, subject to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the appointed time came, God sent his son, borne of a woman, borne under the law, to find freedom for those who were under the law in order that we might attain the status of sons. And to prove that you ARE sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son crying Abba, Father”. But what really happened in history is that the trustees would never accept or recognise anybody coming to adulthood, because this would be to their detriment. It would restrict their prerogatives, the six powers granted to them by Christ! Therefore, we have to remain slaves for life -this is the latest edition of Christianity we are familiar with - we are not familiar at all with the edition of Christianity described by Chrysostom… Therefore, we have to remain minors for life because our spiritual adulthood is a real threat to the people who have been granted the six powers. This is the edition of Christianity that has prevailed since Augustine’s time. The rest of it can be deduced: How salvation was privatised, how Christ ceased being the cosmic Saviour of every human being that comes into the world, how Satan was established on the throne of Christ in all churches and why we are where we stand today. ..

FACING THE AFFLICTION OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIGIONS

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not unique in depicting religious practice as the most important among the basic needs of a fallen humanity; since the dawn of history insecurity of the mere mortal and the quest for the individual’s happiness have been the two main factors generating religious orientation as one of the most essential necessities of human life.
From Homeric times, a terminology of reverence and fear (αιδως και δεος) has been in use to signify the magnetic attraction exerted on mankind by the sacred or divine and experienced either as mysterium fascinosum or as mysterium tremendum. Inextricably connected with such experiences –in fact originating from them- is an apprehension of “supreme authority” as the imaginary recipient of the human soul’s submissive responsiveness to powers, gods and demons. Hence, “authority” in all its aspects has initially been perceived as evidence of divine presence, and thus as the prerequisite for making religion possible… This explains both: how religion became the core of all civilisations as well as why every human culture had to be preserved through religiously authorised practices: The very concepts of law and order were indistinguishable from divine authority and thus to exercise authority of any kind (as leader of a tribe or king of a nation, even as father of a family) became identical with playing God. The primitive idea of the city-state is based on the belief that everlasting divine powers have pre-ordained the lifestyle of man as part of their role in maintaining human life on earth.
As was to be expected, “supreme authority” in human hands has caused severe conflicts and-consequently- tremendous loss of life throughout the history of mankind. Abuse of power and jurisdiction exercised in the name of God or gods always was and still is rife all over the world. Two dismal developments have immensely contributed to that: 1) Manipulation of the inherent desire of the human soul to keep in unconditional and unmediated touch with the Sacred; it aims at enforcing compliance with strictly prescribed forms and practices or “traditions” almost always added a posteriori to the fundamental principles of faith for the sake of distinguishing its followers from all other human beings – hence the most disturbing question: do religions unite or divide? and 2) Substitution of God or gods by a lasting institution of either His single locum tenens or His collective sacerdotal agency under the pretext of preserving divine transcendence.
Because of these two developments, religions not only have been enabled to sustain and perpetuate themselves down the ages but –most significantly- they have managed to induct and institutionalise themselves as if by divine command and in the name of the “ truth” they are supposed to embody. In doing so religions have become overtly mundane thus contradicting their implicit or explicit promise of translating mankind into the divine realm: to patch up this discrepancy the translation of the faithful has been inevitably postponed till after death, in an after life which is customarily described as “eternity” only to be met with disbelief by a vast majority of sceptics. Because of such discordance, those who strive to practise what they believe to be truth according to their religion, rather than those who renounce religions altogether or openly betray and violate particular religious principles, are doing much more harm to mankind. Hence, most of the known religions can only prove themselves far from being consistent or reliable and this renders the question of their credibility or truthfulness almost redundant; all the more so, in the face of that ambiguity all religions would seem less humane and certainly far from wonderful especially if true…
Paradoxically it is precisely this evasiveness that lends every religion its ultimate appeal! Exactly as on the stage, religious ceremonials can instil submissiveness into the human soul as far as their pageantries sublimate reality and render salvation tangible; it comes as no surprise then that all religions saturate their followers with a peculiarly submissive culture. This evokes the ambience necessary to showing them what to do and –even more importantly- what not to do! No wonder therefore that many of such followers sink into existential benightedness assailed as it were by heavy waves of guilt - a state of being that has often enabled the noblest minds to become great masters in fine arts. Hence, the long trail of cultural legacies whereby religions mark their presence in history. Yet, cultures thoroughly submissive to an ultimate authority bring always about all sorts of religious creativity in perpetually desperate attempts to preserve certainty and stability through faith in universally compulsory axioms. Worst amongst them is probably the fallacy that the Almighty need receive constant support from and collaborate with a fallen mankind so that His salvific will may be done; and this involves the duty of Mission.
Mission in this context is not exhausted in announcing the good tidings to ignoramuses; it posits a determination to compel, the willingness to exercise divine authority in the name of God or gods, for nobody is allowed to resist divine will. The mere conjecture that such a Will need become reality through peaceful or violent human effort has never been questioned; yet, such undermining of God’s omnipotence is a disservice to Him verging on blasphemy! St. Augustine became the first Christian to presume that there was nothing wrong in coercing people to accept the “truth” of God: on the contrary, it was God’s will to do so as he had found out in the Gospel: “Compel them to come in!” (Luke, 14:23). This doctrine provided the medieval Church with sufficient excuses for raging holy wars against the infidels and burning “heretics” at the stake. As the Dominican Jean Quidort of Paris (+ 1306) has succinctly put it in his De Potestate Regia et Papali: “…initially the Church had no powers of compulsion because it was itself subject. But now, in its modern state, it has full authority to compel and command everyone as Augustine says…”(XI, 34).
In the course of centuries two massive tides of religious coercion have surfaced and are still causing havoc to mankind: the first, known as fundamentalism, functions indirectly as a moral imperative implying that the Supreme Being always needs to communicate his messages to the world through appointed agents or authors of holy books; people must give heed to divine instruction or face temporary and everlasting penalties either side of the grave. The second tide, known as terrorism, is a purely religious militant movement though it may easily be mistaken for political; it functions directly as God’s agency seeking to enforce His will through the capital punishment of infidel, sinful and unjust people implying that those who offer themselves as instruments of divine wrath by sacrificing their own lives now, are instantly rewarded with sanctity and eternal glory in heavens. (Medieval crusaders, all sorts of nationalistic liberation groups seeking a certain motherland’ s independence and Islamic activists belong here). There is also a wide range of political, economic and philosophical ideologies to be counted here as forms of religious coercion, - because of their dogmatic rigidity and underlying devotion to absolute principles whereby they pursue their otherwise mundane aims – especially all totalitarian systems from fascism to communism, whether atheistic or not. All these movements share largely the very same anthropological aspects: a) human nature is the very source of evil (racists tend to except their own race). b) Virtue has nothing to do with nature but very much to do with nurture. c) Meritocracy, systems of values and moral codes are society’s indispensable tools for discriminating between its own members and making a social pyramid inevitable. d) The individual’s rights take precedence over any other rights (in communist systems only superficially this seems to be not so) e) felicity or happiness of the individual is the ultimate goal of human existence either side of the grave. f) Divine transcendence can never be compromised – any idea of real union with God is only the by-product of immature intellects (though mysticism is very good for spiritual entertainment) g) Metaphysics – not Physics is the cardinal pointer to a single “objective” reality (either theistic or atheistic).
Against these massive tides of religious coercion, mankind has countered a vast variety of passive resistances down the ages. The three most enduring attitudes towards oppression, intransigence and violence of any kind have been solidified in:
1) Non-institutional Piety such as is found in Quakers, certain types of Buddhism and Sufism. The irresistible appeal that some aspects of eastern and far eastern religions have exercised over the modern and post-modern era stems from their non-authoritarian approach to the present human condition: they offer holistic companionship on a universal journey rather than a standardised plan for personal salvation. In the Buddhist perspective in particular, individuality is definitely marked as the cardinal problem of humanity, [precisely as was the case in Biblical Judaism and early Christianity: if anything is to enter into the divine realm and thus be saved, this can only be the whole, not the part (1 Corinth. 13: 10); the world, not the individual (John 3: 17)].
2) Secularity (not to be confused with profanity): as a genuine gift of Providence to mankind, it knows no boundaries whatsoever in redeeming freedom - thus enabling individuals to be human - and in preventing institutional religions and absolutistic ideologies from turning the planet into a huge concentration camp. It is amazing how incomprehensible secularity remains to all closed circuits of global uniformity even today. That kind of “unlimited” freedom, which holds firm to universal principles without confining salvation to anything less than the cosmos, shall remain for ever inconceivable to all institutional religions. It shall keep threatening their very existence as long as they fail to see that being human is immensely more significant than being a devoted member of any religion - especially of one originating from the Bible. This is so because the God of the Bible has inalienably bestowed upon humanity the insuperable attributes of His own Image and Likeness. Having been naturally integrated into this humanity need be utterly more meaningful to a Christian or a Jew – even to a Muslim - than membership of any religion. No initiation or other rites of passage whatsoever can ameliorate a perfect Maker’s work, which He Himself has deemed excellent: “and God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good”(Gen. 1: 31). Only real union with their Creator exalts human beings to status identical with God’s, beyond humanity. The inescapable destiny of mankind is that exaltation to which all are naturally predisposed by two innate factors: a) the capacity to orientate themselves unswervingly towards their pre-eternal destiny and b) the incapacity to err (infallibility) regarding their destiny. Any error occurring to human beings in this life (including death) is the result of preposterous choices made by malfunctioning genes or mental faculties; and malfunctioning is the outcome of inadequate determination to realize their full potential. The medical problem thus created has only to do with intentions (biological, inherited, idiosyncratic or other), not with nature per se.
Taking advantage of people’s errant condition the Medieval Church conceived and gave birth to a very peculiar notion of authority, the power of binding and loosing sins, in the hope of achieving ultimate submission in its membership and thus turning believers into subordinate functionaries ratione peccati. A new concept of being human, that of the sinner, emerged and universal salvation was privatised in order to be monopolised as the most precious commodity. Obedience was declared the cardinal virtue at the complete expense of freedom and Canon Law (Corpus Iuris Canonici) transformed Christendom from Corpus Christi into slavery of body and soul for the sake of paying satisfactions to Christ. Thanks to lengthy religious wars and controversies on whether the same person is entitled to hold both swords (spiritual and secular monarchy), the revolt known as Reformation gradually led all sides to the conclusion that there is no such thing as absolute truth about anything and secularity was reinstated. Thus, the trouble begun on the day the Roman emperors Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius I imposed “that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans” (380 A.D.), ended properly on the day Luther burnt up the book of Canon Law (1520 A.D.); but the ramifications are still obvious all over the divided Christian Churches.
3) Spirituality, finally, is currently the driving force against all persisting forms of religious coercion. Giving priority to people – who are longing for experiencing the divine omnipresence - rather than to any holy structures, rules or remnants of religious past, Spirituality is rapidly becoming the most promising asset for the unity of mankind; a unity that disregards styles, forms, traditions obsessions and prejudice for the sake of substance alone. A sharp distinction between Faith and Religion does already make sense; believing in God, not belonging exclusively to a certain congregation is what mankind is after. Diversity, tolerance, inclusiveness are not obstacles to unity as long as the journey is in progress. All those who realize that an abundantly good and benevolent God could have never created the great majority of people spiritually handicapped, predestined to spend their lives in permanent dependence on a tiny minority endowed with spiritual powers and divine gifts and delegated to provide for the majority’s salvation, would rather dump institutional religions for the sake of a humble and meaningful spirituality. What irresistibly attracts humans to a living God is the desire for unmediated contact with the source of all Goodness hic et nunc, not a willingness to subject themselves throughout this life under the yoke of His vicars or ayatollahs in the hope to be rewarded by Him in the life to come. After all, no creature can ever substitute for the Almighty. (This was the argument whereby Arianism was defeated at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.) Eventually spirituality has aptly provided the space where human beings are valued for their human nature alone rather than for what distinguishes them as individuals i.e. their talents or merits. Healing spirituality is a prominent feature following the realization that all are part of a divided and dispersed original integrity, hence incomplete, unsustainable and craving for love and mutual acceptance. New insights always bear the risk of leading to extremes and certain forms of spirituality do not escape this rule. There is some good overlapping with secularity and some bad overlapping with New Age worship verging on the daemonic and paranormal. However, people trying to find shelter from the abuses of institutional religions might sometimes fall victims of spirituality abuses…
----CONCLUDING REMARKS---
All institutional religions are rapidly loosing authority and their attendance numbers are dwindling. Their demise is certain and makes good news, although it is rather early to rejoice! This comes as no surprise at least to biblical religions: it is clear that in Judaism and Christianity whatever has a beginning has of necessity an end :( 1 Pet. 4: 7) Churches are no exceptions. Only God is without beginning or end and all those created in His Image and Likeness shall share by grace in His everlasting life. Faith shall last until the end of this world but religious institutions that proclaim it shall not. Their terminal decline is due to mankind’s maturity, which enables it to see that the Almighty has never been in need of any services rendered to Him by His own creatures, whereas all man-made gods have! Believers can also discern that no institutional religion can survive without providing God with such services!
Significantly, Psalm 15 appositely expounds this truth in verse 2: “ I said to the Lord, Thou art my Lord, for thou hast no need of my good deeds” (Septuagint). Early Christian writers such as Irenaeus have made it clear that no acts of worship or self-dedication on behalf of man must be seen as responding to divine needs but only as expressive of gratitude and thanksgiving (Against Heresies, IV, 17 -18). That is why those who insist on offering undesirable services to their God may inadvertently worship the devil! All those who divide the world into the sphere of the faithful and the sphere of infidels saying that conflict will never cease until all are brought into the same fold of faith or denomination, all those, finally, who undertake missionary work for the salvation of their fellow-men, most likely serve the devil, - certainly not God. Announcing His Uncreated Kingdom - being at once omnipresent and inaccessible, can be the task of no creature. Bearing witness to It is impossible for mere mortals apart from those already called to be sharing It together with their Risen Lord (Luke 22: 29-30).
If mankind can still advance a reason for paying attention to its Maker, this must have to do very much with His ineffable Silence in the face of all disasters – a Silence utterly indicative of His infinite Goodness. He tolerates everything, as He runs no risk of losing anything. He waits down the ages for His creatures to mature enough so that they may discover in their own nature how to link up properly with Him without receiving help from any religion. His compassionate and abiding endurance in waiting for us suffices to keep us ecstatic in this life, as He will in the life to come.