Designs of Faith - Mark McGinnis

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was eager to dismantle much of the traditional law and regulations of the Jews, there were aspects he was equally eager to maintain. One of these aspects was the position of women in the Christian community. While Jesus had shown a somewhat more open attitude toward women — he had women as followers and traveling companions, he healed women, he spoke of harlots entering heaven before Jewish leaders, and some people view his abolishing divorce as an attempt to protect women from abandonment and poverty (Frend 67) — Paul’s attitude was firmly based in the Old Testament. He gave quite precise orders:

      Women must dress in a becoming manner, modestly and soberly, not with elaborate hairstyles, not adorned with gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, as befits women who claim to be religious. Their role is to learn, listening quietly with due submission. I do not permit women to teach or dictate to the men; they should keep quiet. For Adam was created first and then Eve afterwards; moreover it was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who yielding to deception, fell into sin. But salvation for the women will be in the bearing of children, provided she continues in faith, love, and holiness, with modesty. (Timothy I, 2:9-15)

      While abandoning most rituals of the Jews, Paul structured the rituals of Christianity. Circumcision was now a symbolic rather than physical act. Rather than stripping away the foreskin, Christ would strip away the old nature. Baptism became the symbol of a new covenant, now with Christ. The baptism was, and is, a symbolic death by submerging in water and rebirth in Christ by rising out of it. The Eucharist was a sacramental communion between the participants and Christ. It was, and is, the consumption of the body and blood of Christ, a ritual of becoming one with him: Christ enters the participant and the participant enters Christ. This ritual re- enactment of the ultimate sacrifice replaced the many sacrifices of Temple required by Jewish law; they were no longer necessary.

      Paul’s tremendous energy and conviction was balanced by a sense of insecurity. He was never fully accepted by the disciples in Jerusalem and in turn he reflected a sense of enmity toward them. In a statement of arrogance sandwiched in humility Paul said:

      Last of all he [Jesus] appeared to me too; it was like a sudden, abnormal birth. For I am the least of the apostles, indeed not fit to be called an apostle, because I had persecuted the church of God. However, by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace to me has not proved vain; in my labours I have outdone them all - not I, indeed, but the grace of God working with me. (Corinthians I, 15:8-10)

      Paul professed that his was the only true teaching of Christ and that all others should be ignored. He made many enemies and suffered persecution from many directions. James in Jerusalem was still working within the framework of Judaism and Paul’s successes in the Jewish communities around the Mediterranean put strains on the unity of the church. In 58 C.E. Paul returned to Jerusalem and was jailed. Being a Roman citizen he was transported to Rome in 60 C.E. for trial, where he was kept under token arrest and allowed to preach and make converts. In 64 C.E. Rome suffered a massive fire and Nero needed a scapegoat to blame it on. He chose the Christians. Later Christian writings record that nearly a thousand martyrs died, including Paul and Peter who was also preaching in Rome at the time. Nero’s persecution of Christianity as an “evil religion” made it illegal throughout the empire (Frend 109). In 62 C.E. a rival group of Jewish leaders succeeded in arranging the murder of James in Jerusalem. While the Christians in Palestine were still in shock from his death, the great Jewish revolt against the Romans broke out in 66 C.E. and removed the Christians from any contemporary significance; some accounts have some Christians fleeing to Greece, but it is not certain. The Roman emperor Titus crushed the Jewish rebellion in 70 C.E. and destroyed the Temple (Frend 120). The Jews rallied back to their traditional leaders for guidance in the disaster. What developed was Judaism without the Temple but with a new, far more flexible structure established by the writings that were to evolve in the Mishnah and Talmud. Christianity was to survive as well, in spite of its illegality, and to flourish in the communities created by Paul and his disciples. It would be Paul’s vision that would shape this new religion for Jews and Gentiles alike: a religion of love and salvation.

      The morality and ethics of Christianity revolve around a central point, the focal point of the teachings of Jesus; love. Love was a major theme of Judaism as well, but Jesus transformed it into the central focus of Christian actions and deeds. By commanding that we are not only to love our neighbors but also our enemies, He changed the intensity level to a very difficult degree. It is a task that calls for selfless commitment, a task that asks us to emulate God in His impartiality of sending the sun to shine on the good and bad alike. Our love is to fall on all equally. It is not to be done with the idea of transforming the enemy into a friend, but with a purity of maintaining a harmony of love for all; it is a law of love (Niebuhr 40). This law of love has been expressed by writers in many ways:

      The law of love is not obeyed simply by being known. Whenever it is obeyed at all, it is because life in its beauty and terror has been more fully revealed to man. The love that cannot be willed may nevertheless grow as a natural fruit upon a tree which has roots deep enough to be nurtured by the springs of life beneath the surface and the branches reaching up to heaven. (Niebuhr 220)

      Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good; love alone lightens every burden, and makes the rough places smooth. It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable. The love of Jesus is noble, and inspires us to great deeds; it moves us always to desire perfection. Love aspires to high things, and is held back by nothing base. Love longs to be free, a stranger to every worldly desire, lest its inner vision become dimmed, and lest worldly self-interest hinder it or ill-fortune cast it down. (`a Kempis 97-8)

       …we can be happy in this world only in so far as we are free to rejoice in the good of another: specifically, in so far as we are free to rejoice in the good which is God’s.

      If the whole world were only capable of grasping this principle that true happiness consists only in the freedom of disinterested love — the ability to get away from ourselves, and our own limited sphere of interests and appetites and needs, and rejoice in that good that is in others, not because it is also ours, but formally in so far as it is theirs! (Merton 316)

       Christ does not call his benefactors loving or charitable. He calls them just. The Gospel makes no distinction between love of our neighbor and justice. (Weil 139)

      This all-encompassing, universal love is the center around which all other Christian virtues revolve. These virtues are traditionally numbered seven: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, Faith, Hope and Charity. Prudence is common sense, thinking about what you are going to do before doing it, and what the probable outcome will be. Temperance is often confused with abstaining from intoxicants, but it is meant to have much broader application to all pleasures — not in the abstention from pleasures, but in the moderation of pleasures. Justice extends beyond the contemporary legal context and relates to fairness in all interactions. Fortitude means facing danger when needed and sticking with your undertaking even if it involves pain or discomfort. Faith is the art of holding on to beliefs through changing moods and conditions; it represents the need for prayer, church, and ritual. Hope is belief; the belief that the kingdom of God is waiting for the faithful. Charity is the giving to the needy as another expression of universal love (Lewis 74-124).

      In the fifteenth century a German monk by the name of Thomas `a Kempis wrote a small book to help instruct those coming into the brotherhood; it is titled The Imitation of Christ. For the past five hundred years it has been one of the most, if not the most, revered Christian books after the New Testament. It is a book of great clarity and devotion that lays out the aspects of the above-mentioned Christian virtues with a lucidity few writers have equaled:

       Lofty words do not make a man just or holy; but a good life makes him dear to God. I would far rather feel contrition than be able to define it. (27)

       We could enjoy much peace if we did not busy ourselves with what other people say and do, for this is of no concern of ours. (37)

       Judge yourself, and beware of passing judgment on others. In judging others,

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