Christian Atheists

Though I absorbed a good deal of church history while attending parochial schools for ten of the twelve years of my K-12 education, I did not know this.

The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind.  It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment.  Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world.  To their apprehensions it was no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country.

The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment, and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety.  Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. (bold by ed)

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume One, Chapter XVI (180-313 A.D.), The Conduct of the Roman Government towards the Christians, from the Reign of Nero to that of Constantine, The Modern Giant Library, New York, pgs. 448-449

Who woulda thunk, Christian Atheists.

And on a related note, linked via a post by DougM at Sondrakistan titled unholier than than, we learn this. Anti-church sentiment rises in Europe as more people seek ‘de-baptism’

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/20 at 09:02 AM

  1. I have a book in my collection titled “Persecution in the Early Church,” by Herbert Workman, first presented in the Fernley Lectures in 1906, in which Workman indicates that the charge of atheism was rooted in a different charge - that of the early Christians being considered anarchists by the Roman State.

    A sample:

    “It was this absoluteness of the Christian faith, this intolerance of others, as the Romans considered it, that led to its being charged with anarchism because of its necessarily dissolvent effects on both the current religions and the political unity. For this anarchism on its
    religious side the Romans had a special name. They called it sacrilege, or atheism.”

    The theme is more fully addressed in his account of early persecution and though he says that history proved the Romans wrong in their charging of Christians as anarchists, others (a thread through Tolstoy, Jacques Ellul, Vernard Eller and others) would say that the Romans got it right - that Christianity is at the core anarchistic toward the world.

    Workman’s book is available for free at archive.org

    http://www.archive.org/details/persecutioninear00workrich

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  01/20  at  11:44 AM

  2. JR.  Appending Anarchists to Christians is more suitable, in my opinion, than Atheists, though I can understand Gibbon’s utilization of Christian Atheists.  Some time ago at blogspot I put up at post titled “God Is An Anarcho-Capitlist,” and I still think this is accurate.

    Thanks for the pointer to Workman, whom I was in most part unfamiliar with.  My Lovely Melis received a Nook for Christmas from my sons, so I think I’ll download it into her Nook for my use.

    I’ve a couple of books of Ellul sitting in my stacks which I have not delved into yet.  “Meaning of the City,” and “Anarchy and Christianity,” which I hope soon to read, but I’m not familiar Eller, so I’ll have to remedy that.

    Posted by John Venlet  on  01/20  at  01:03 PM

  3. While I disagree with Ellul in several important areas (his universalism for one), his works “Propaganda,” “Jesus and Marx” and “Anarchy and Christianity” have been very influential to me. Eller’s “Christian Anarchy: Jesus’ Primacy Over the Powers” builds on (and was inspired by) Ellul and is more approachable in my opinion.

    Once you get past the use of the word “anarchist” and wrap your head around the ideas, there is much that makes sense in their arguments. I’ve considered myself in the “Christian anarchist” camp since the late 1980s, but I rarely use that term to describe it. Makes people nervous and puts an end to conversations before they begin. It’s too hard to work past most people’s pre-conceptions.

    Many of Eller’s works are available for free at: http://www.hccentral.com/eller1/

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  01/20  at  02:07 PM

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