[lit-ideas] Re: non-violent Christians?
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 17:08:25 -0400
Michael Chase wrote:
"Phil Enns refers to the "non-violence" of early Christians, and cites
Tertullian in his favor. But was it really violence *as such* that early
Christians objected to, or rather enlistment in the *pagan* army, and
fighting for the *pagan* state?"
Michael is correct that early Christians objected to the paganism that
was actively promoted within the Roman army. So this objection was one
reason why they rejected military service. Furthermore, Michael is
correct that most early Christians did not object to violence as such.
I have tried to be careful in my comments to claim only that they held
non-violent beliefs and not that they were pacifists as we think of that
term. They were not pacifists. One could divide up the early
Christians into three rough groups with regards to non-violent beliefs.
The first group would include people like Tertullian who held that the
sword was taken from Peter to show that it would be Jesus/God who would
be doing the fighting. These people believed that a spiritual battle
was raging between the divine and the demonic, and that in Jesus the
battle had been decisively won and would soon come to an end. The
second group would include people like Augustine who held that
Christians were not to engage in violence but that it was permissible
for rulers to use violence to bring about peace. That is, violence was
to be avoided by Christians but it wasn't to be absolutely rejected.
The third group would include people like Origen who reject the sword
completely because God is love as shown in Jesus. God is acting to save
all of humanity and therefore the Christian attitude towards all
humanity ought to be that of love. This last group is perhaps closest
to what we would now think of as pacifist. Therefore, while one of the
reasons for holding a belief in non-violence was because violence was
often associated with the pagan army and state, this reason was not
primary.
Tertullian is hardly an example of orthodox early Christianity and, as
Michael noted, some of his writings ought to make us wince, but he does
provide some insight into the beliefs held at that time.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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