My basic understanding is that in the process by which Jesus's work and teaching became "Christianity" - something simple and inner, became something complex and outer.
With Christianity; Jesus's teachings became an "outer" set of laws/ rules embedded in a structure of government, with "the Christian's" duty being, primarily, obedience.
Christianity defined being-a-Christian as obedience to the rules and laws of The Church (and/or of the Christian State).
As part of this, Christianity became a "system" of dos and don'ts - a system of rules that were - overall and on average - Good...
Yet, at the same time, external rules (no matter how many, and how perfectly obeyed) can never, in principle, capture the essence of being a follower of Jesus Christ... Which is ultimately an inner matter - a matter of motivations.
This has always been obvious enough to thoughtful Christians - obedience to the structure is never enough; and the rules can only (at most and at best) serve as "pointers" towards being-a-Christian.
Furthermore, the rules - by their nature - are incomplete, to some extent incoherent, and have exceptions.
Even the best rules do harm, as well as good. For instance; rules that benefit the majority, in the long term; will often harm a minority (which may be a large minority) in the short term. And the harms may be immediate and certain, while benefits are delayed, and somewhat conjectural.
In other words, the essence of Christianity is personal, and private; and always has been.
In a strict sense, therefore; all real Christians are "Secret Christians" - Christians in their hearts; and this subjective reality cannot possibly be "captured" by even the best sets of Good rules; even when these rules/laws are most ideally administered and obeyed.
But in practice; the rules were very much more imperfect than ideal, there was corruption in their administration; and plenty of people were hypocrites - who exploited the letter of the law to subvert the Christian spirit behind the law.
Yet it was usually asserted that the real and true Christianity was its laws and institutions. Or, that this must be the case in practice.
What happened in private was therefore down-rated to merely subjective - and the objective fact of the actual religion was made the observable, the measurable, the societal.
Secret Christians were relegated to an idea realm of fantasy; ignored, regarded (often accurately) as an excuse for apostasy - and so forth.
So Real Christianity was in practice reduced to what was public, what was legal, what was political...
And thereby Christianity was made ripe for destruction!
The situation was that real Christianity was said (implicitly and in practice, even when officially denied) to be the rules, laws and institutions.
Yet exactly this actuality of Christianity was very imperfect - even in theory, and even at its best it was incomplete and probabilistic; and Christian rules and laws did significant harm, even when they did overall Good.
Over several generations, over the past couple of centuries; the rules and laws of external Christianity were analysed, dissected, subverted - and they were significantly discredited as Not Good Enough.
Having been proved inadequate -- at least, proved to be incoherent, incomplete, and significantly harmful to the satisfaction of the ruling and dominant classes; these "Christian rules" were increasingly confidently seen as A Problem (indeed seen as The Problem), not as an answer.
Christian rules and laws were seen as not reformable; but as something we would be better rid of.
And once the rules and institutions of Christianity evil were seen as a problem; then the stage was set for the incremental inversion of these rules, and the take-over or destruction of the church institutions by the governing ideology of hedonic materialism.
For instance; the rules of patriarchy were inverted to feminism; laws encouraging and enforcing chastity was inverted to "free love", and so forth.
My point here is that - in the space of about 150 years - The West has gone from a set of net-Good but imperfect and partly-harmful "Christian" rules; via a stage of critique and subversion of these rules; to the current situation in which there has been a value-inversion.
The current ideology is one that is orientated against the rules, laws and institutions of what was defined as "Christianity"; and which came to be regarded as intrinsically limited, hypocritically administered, and actually harmful - albeit usually harmful in a minority (whether large or small) of applications and instances.
With this behind us; we cannot, and indeed should not try to, return to the pre-current-ideology System of rules/ laws/ institutions...
Even though the rules and laws of Christendom were indeed better than the present situation overall and on average.
The traditional externally-defined Christianity of rules/ laws/ institution has been discredited - discredited in theory, as well as in practice.
The problems of the past are just too obvious, and too well-known, for sufficient (and sufficiently widespread) motivation to restore it (even if that were possible).
But the Secret Christianity, of which we can read in the Fourth Gospel, remains as ever it has.
This is and was a personal and private Christianity (or following of Jesus) that existed without (and before) there was church, scriptures, theology, or traditions.
Secret Christianity is still the real thing, un-capturable by any set or rules and laws; and immune to any institution - and attainable whether the system is for net-Good, or against it...
Just as it was during the ministry of Jesus Christ.
5 comments:
This is exactly what Jesus was overturning in the sermon on the mount with his “you have heard that it was said (outer rule), but I tell you (inner motivation)”.
He talks constantly about the inner being the source of the outer (a good tree bears good fruit, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, etc) and the outer as revealing the truth of the inner state. The outer isn’t thrown out as useless (“I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them”), but the inner and outer are put in proper order. Outer action is supposed to flow from inward motivation, and you can’t change the inner state solely by outer action (ie attaching apples to a thistle bush, or whitewashing a tomb). However, it’s an error to say that outward action doesn’t matter at all - it is overall congruent with and thus revelatory of the inner.
@Kate - But, I believe that a slave could be a Christian; and a slave might have all his actions compelled (on pain of death). So, at the extreme, there can be a wide distinction between outer action and inner commitment.
Clearly, such unfreedom as slavery is highly suboptimal - but the situation of a slave is present in all human lives to some degree.
And the example seems to indicate that the difference between inner and outer *can* be very great.
James said "Faith without works is dead." Meaning in my view that if your Christianity is only secret, it is not really Christian. Even in a maximum security prison you will see acts of Christian faith and works. These men, by and large most American prisoners are men, are told when they can eat, sleep, who they can and cannot talk to, some of them don't get to choose when they use the bathroom. Even there you will find works of brotherly love, Christian charity, common decency.
Now I've never seen a slave in their bondage. But having seen men and a few women in about the worst legal life in America I can still see Christ in my fellow man
@BH - "Even in a maximum security prison you will see acts of Christian faith and works." But what does Christian faith and works actually mean in the secular materialist society of 2024?
I see a lot of churches that claim to be Christian that raise money and do voluntary work for causes - and a few of these causes are probably helpful to people - at least in the short term.
But I do not see anything specifically, or even mostly, Christian about what most people consider good works. Even among those Christians who are genuinely doers of good works, they often don't seem to be really Christian, when it comes down to it.
What I am saying is that being Christian is about wanting what Jesus Christ made possible. When that is not present, then good works may palliate this mortal life, but are not really relevant to the definition. And when a person is committed to follow Jesus, then we cannot predict how this will manifest in his specific life and circumstances, so it is very difficult to define what Christian works might be.
You may disagree, but I have come to believe that we must be clear and simple about these things, because the fuzziness of the past is not strong enough anymore.
As was evident in 2020 when All the major Christian Churches enthusiastically closed themselves and suspended their activities for several/many months (without stated end-point) - with apparent indifference to the spiritual dimensions that ought to have been primary.
Bruce, I'm not saying that this or that act is always a visible sign of Christ's presence, however I am saying you will find Christian acts where there is Christ. I'm the last guy to make excuses for churches or pastors who closed their doors because Caesar demanded it. I was in a hospital during the worst of covid. An ancient Father came in to my room without a paper mask. He gave me the blessing for the sick, reconciliation, and communion. He's was retired but spent every evening he could at the hospital. Some men didn't burn the pinch of incense for Caesar.
If you look, you will see the light of Christ in your fellow man. I try to although I don't always succeed. I hope I never quit seeing it.
Sorry my real name is Don I am not tech savvy enough to figure out how to change this ridiculous name.
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