Running away from society has long been a pastime. Who was the first monk? How did monasteries begin?

ASCETICS AND MONKS

St. Anthony the Great of Egypt, considered the Father of Christian Monasticism

Josephus, John the Baptist, and Qumran

John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1760

In New Testament times there were both individual and communal ascetics in Palestine.  Josephus, the Jewish historian, mentions that he received some of his teaching from a hermit called Banus.  John the Baptist, living a solitary ascetic life in the Judean desert, also represents this tradition.  On the communal side, the best-known are the Essenes, of whom the group at Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls were the most prominent.  But some Essenes lived ascetic lives in their community, as did some of the Pharisees.

James, the Lord's brother, and moral laxity

Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, early 6th century

None of the earliest Christians appears to have lived as a hermit or in an ascetic community.  Individuals, however, were noted for their rigour of life and devotion to God.  James, the Lord's brother, for example, was admired by many non-Christian Jews for his constant fasting and prayer.  Also, in the early period, any consistent Christian life was likely to be viewed as extremely ascetic by a morally lax society.  Some noble Roman ladies, who may have been Christians, are reported by pagan sources to have lived in mourning and seclusion for years, presumably because they had no time for the pagan social life surrounding them.

Martyrdom, Syriac-speaking churches, the spiritual elite, widows, virgins, Jewish-Christian groups, Marcionites, Montanists, Encratites, Clement and Origen

Clement from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by André Thévet. Origen reportedly studied under Clement of Alexandria and was influenced by his thought.

While Christianity was under threat of persecution, congregations tended to be small, and to keep very high moral standards (even if there were some lapses, which were severely punished).  Martyrdom was valued as the supreme example of devotion to God.  Although some churches may have had church membership requirements that were ascetic (for instance, some Syriac-speaking appear to have accepted as baptized members only those were celibate), there was no sign of an organized 'spiritual elite' inside the church apart from groups of widows and virgins.  On the fringes of mainstream Christianity, for example among Jewish-Christians groups, Marcionites, and Montanists, asceticism was very popular, often in the form of 'encratism' (Greek for 'self-control').  Encratites rejected marriage, wine, and meat.  Clement of Alexandria and Origen laid the foundations for an orthodox theology of asceticism.

THE FIRST MONKS

Icon of Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian monasticism

Monks replace martyrs as the spiritual elite

Frescos at the Syrian Monastery, Scetes, Egypt

The late third and early fourth centuries saw the beginnings of monastic asceticism in Christianity.  General toleration of Christianity even before Constantine produced an influx of new members into the churches and growth in numbers was accompanied by a lowering of standards.  At the same time martyrdom became less and less frequent, and the martyrs and confessors were replaced as the spiritual elite by the first monks.  The monks aimed to live the Christian life to the full, and felt that continued residence in the 'world' hindered this.  They tried to achieve a pure Christianity and a deep communion with God which they considered unattainable in the existing churches.

Saint Catherine in Egypt's southern Sinai Peninsula, on a snowy winter morning.

There is considerable debate as to where monasticism began.  The first monks were individuals who retreated to the desert in Egypt or Syria.  Sometimes these retreats were only temporary, and may have been prompted by the need to flee persecution; often they became permanent.  Although he may not have been the earliest, Antony (about 256-356), a Coptic peasant from Egypt, was the first famous hermit.  His example was followed by others, and soon there were many hermits, living either singly or in loosely-associated groups on the edge of the desert.

The hermit

St. Jerome, who lived as a hermit near Bethlehem, depicted in his study being visited by two angels (Cavarozzi, early 17th century).

The main routine of the hermit was prayer and meditation, supplemented by reading of the Bible.  Fasting was also important, and they attempted many other rigorous feats such as standing for hours while praying.  Some of the prayers were rather mechanical, involving the repetition of short set formulas.

Loneliness and shortage of food

Solitude, Jean Jacques Henner

The prolonged loneliness and the shortage of food and sleep fostered hallucinations as well as growth in spiritual awareness of God.  Conflicts with demons were frequent.  Many of the visions, trances, and strange experiences of the desert hermits have obvious psychological explanations (for example, the appearance of the devil as a seductive woman could be the result of repressed sexual feelings).  Those who retreated to the desert inevitably abandoned family life, and celibacy was the rule, although some married couples retreated together into the desert, but lived without sexual intercourse.  Most hermits remained fairly stationary, but there were some wanderers, especially in the regions of Syria, including more extreme groups such as the unruly Messalians who wandered about, sleeping rough and keeping up a continual chanting.

Going to extremes

A copy by the young Michelangelo after an engraving by Martin Schongauer around 1487–9, The Torment of Saint Anthony. Oil and tempera on panel. One of many artistic depictions of Saint Anthony's trials in the desert

Some hermits went to unnatural extremes, such as living at the top of pillars, or walling themselves up in caves.  Early hermits were largely lay people.  Occasionally they might meet to receive the Eucharist, or a priest who was a hermit would minister to a group throughout an area.  But the Eucharist had little place in the routines of the early hermits.

PACHOMIUS STARTS A COMMUNITY

Pachomius the Great, Father of Spiritual Communal Monastic Life

Pachomius founds communal monasticism

Painting of Pachomius the Great in the Curtea Veche, Bucharest.

Communal monasticism was begun about 320 by Pachomius.  He was a converted solider, and after discharge he spent some time as a hermit before setting up his first ascetic community at Tabennisi, by the River Nile in Egypt.  The rule of his community survives in a Latin translation made by Jerome.

Life at the monastery

The Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt, built over the tomb of Saint Anthony, the "Father of Christian Monasticism".

Pachomius set his face against extremism.  He insisted on regular meals and worship, and aimed to make his communities self-supporting through such industries as the weaving of palm-mats or growing fruit and vegetables for sale.  Entrants to his community had to hand over their personal wealth to a common fund, and were only admitted as full members after a period of probation.  To prove their initial earnestness they were required to stand outside the monastery door for several days.  Part of the qualifications for full membership was to memorize parts of the Bible; and if the candidates were illiterate they were taught how to read and write.  Although Pachomius' first communities were for me, before his death he supervised the establishment of the earliest communities for women as well.  Pachomius created the basic framework which was followed by all later monastic communities.

Athanasius brings monasticism to the West

Icon of St Athanasius

Monasticism appeared first out of Eastern Christianity.  It was first brought to the notice of the Western Churches by Athanasius.  While he was in exile in the West between 340 and 346, he was accompanied by two Egyptian monks.  Athanasius spent parts of his later exiles hiding among the hermits of the Egyptian desert, and subsequently wrote the life of Antony.  This biography provides almost all our knowledge about Antony, and largely helped to spread the ideals of the ascetic movement.  It was soon translated into Latin, and among those influenced by it was Augustine of Hippo.  In the West monasticism had the backing of church leaders such as Ambrose from the very beginning.

Source: Smith, Michael A. "Chapter 15: Ascetics and Monks." In Introduction to the History of Christianity. Second Edition, ed. Tim Dowley, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013, pages 169-171.

John Newton (1725-1807) reproves those involved in contraband, smuggling and income tax evasion in 18th century England.

A word to professors in trade

A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853. A painting by Vasily Hudiakov.

Christians in the late 18th century are engaging in smuggling to avoid taxes

A book with a concealed space for hiding cigarettes.

It is suspected (or, rather, it is too certainly known), that, among those who are deemed Gospel professors, there are some people who allow themselves in the practice of dealing in prohibited, smuggled goods, to the injury of the public revenue, and the detriment of the fair trader.

Jesus says, "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

Egyptian peasants seized for non-payment of taxes. (Pyramid Age)

The decisions of the word of God, upon this point, are so plain and determinate, that it is rather difficult to conceive how a sincere mind can either overlook or mistake them. The same authority which forbids us to commit adultery or murder, requires us to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." "Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue." These precepts enjoin no more than what the common sense of mankind pronounces to be due, from subjects and members of society, to the governments they live under, and by which they are protected. But the obligation is greatly enforced upon those who acknowledge themselves the disciples of Christ, since he has been pleased to make their compliance herein a part of the obedience they owe to himself. And it is plain, that these injunctions are universal and binding, under all civil governments, as such; for none can justly suppose, that tributes exacted by the Roman emperors (under whose dominion the first Christians lived), such as Tiberius or Nero, had the sanction of our Lord and his apostles on account of their peculiar equity.

Honest businesses suffer because they have to raise their prices to pay for taxes so you shouldn't buy smuggled goods as this represents fraud and perjury

Poster issued by the British tax authorities to counter offshore tax evasion.

The vending of smuggled goods, or the buying them, if known to be so, is likewise injurious to the fair trader, who, conscientiously paying the prescribed taxes, cannot afford to sell so cheap as the smuggler, and therefore must expect the fewer customers. In this view, it offends the royal law of "doing to others as we desire that they should do unto us." The force of this argument may be easily felt, by anyone who will honestly make the case his own. Without any fancy reasoning, people may know in a moment that they would not like to be put to this disadvantage. It is therefore unjust (that is sinful, and utterly unfitting a professor of religion) to purchase smuggled goods, even in small quantities, and for family use. As for those who, being in trade themselves, make this practice a branch of their business, and, under the semblance of a fair reputation, are doing things in secret which they would tremble to have discovered, being afraid of the tax collector, though not of God; I can only pray, that God may give them repentance: for it is a work of darkness, and needs it. Transactions of this kind cannot be carried on for a course of time, without such a series and complication of fraud and baseness, and for the most part of perjury likewise, as would be scandalous, not only in a professed Christian, but in an avowed infidel.

Smugglers fight, murder, waste their money, and stupefy their consciences and you encourage them by buying their goods

X-ray of an abdomen piled up with cocaine

It should be observed likewise, that there is hardly any set of men more lost to society, or in a situation more dangerous to themselves and others, than the people who are called smugglers. Frequent fighting, and sometimes murder itself, are the consequence of their illicit commerce. Their money is ill gotten, and it is generally ill spent. They are greatly to be pitied. The employment they are accustomed to, has a direct tendency to deprive them of character and the privileges of social life, and to harden their hearts and stupefy their consciences in the ways of sin. But for whom are they risking their lives and ruining their souls? I would hope, Reader, not for you, if you account yourself a Christian. If you, for the sake of gain, encourage and assist them, by buying or selling their goods, you are so far responsible for the consequences: you encourage them in sin; you expose them to mischief. And have you so learned Christ? Is this the testimony you give of the uprightness of your hearts and ways? Is it thus you show your compassion for the souls of men? Ah! shake your hands from gain so dearly earned. Think not to support the cause of God with such gain; he hates robbery for burnt-offering. Think it not lawful, or safe, to put a farthing of it into your treasury, lest it secretly communicate a moth and a curse to all that you possess: for it is the price of blood, the blood of souls. If you are indeed a child of God, and will persist in this path after admonition received, be assured your sin will find you out. If the Lord loves you, he will not allow you to prosper in your perverseness. You may rather expect, that, as a little rotted corn is sufficient to spoil the whole heap to which it is laid, so money thus obtained will deprive you of the blessing and comfort you might otherwise expect from your lawful acquisitions.

Dealing in smuggled goods is in opposition to Scripture, law, equity, humanity, and Christian conscience

A poster warning the German women and girls about the danger of human traffic in the USA (ca 1900)

If you are determined to persist, in opposition to Scripture, to law, to equity and humanity, you have doubtless, as I suppose you a professor, some plea or excuse with which you attempt to justify yourself, and to keep your conscience quiet. See to it, that it be such a one as will bear the examination of a dying hour. You will not surely plead, that "things are come to such a pass, there is no carrying on business upon other terms to advantage!" Will the practice of the world, who know not Christ, be a proper precedent for you, who call yourself by his name? That cannot be, since his command is, "You shall not follow a multitude to do evil." That the truth and power of his grace may be manifested, he is pleased to put his servants into such situations, that they must forego some seeming advantages, and suffer some seeming hardships, in their worldly connections, if they will approve themselves faithful to him, and live in the exercise of a good conscience. He promises that his grace shall be sufficient for them. It is the blessing of the Lord which makes rich; and for lack of this we see many rise early, take late rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, to no purpose. And I believe, integrity and diligence in business, with a humble dependence upon his Providence, are the best methods of thriving even in temporals. However, those who lose for him are in no danger of losing by him. They may be confident of so much as he sees best for them; and they shall have his peace and blessing with it. But if, when you are placed in a state of trial, the love of the world is so powerful in your heart that you cannot resist the temptation of enriching yourself by unlawful means, you have great reason to fear you have not his Spirit, and are therefore none of his.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The tax collector's office, 1640

Source: Newton, John. The Works of the Rev. John Newton. Volume I, London: J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-yard and J. Smith, No 6, Coleman-Street-Buildings, 1808, Letter XL, pages 378-381.

"Make knowledge of the Scripture your love … Live with them, meditate on them, make them the sole object of your knowledge and inquiries." - Jerome (345 - 420 A.D.)

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Bernardino Pinturicchio

Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, thankfully known as Jerome, was probably the greatest Christian scholar in the world by his mid-30s. Perhaps the greatest figure in the history of Bible translation, he spent three decades creating a Latin version that would be the standard for more than a millennium. But this was no bookish egghead. Jerome was also an extreme ascetic with a nasty disposition who showered his opponents with sarcasm and invective.


From Cicero to scorpions

Stridon bishopric seat of Roman province Dalmatia, in today Bosnia, on map of Roman Empire about 395 from "Historical Atlas" (1911) by William R. Shepherd

Jerome was born to wealthy Christian parents in Stridon, Dalmatia (near modern Ljubljana, Slovenia), and educated in Rome, where he studied grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. There he was baptized at age 19.

A 1759 map entitled The Holy Land showing not only the Ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, but also their placement in different periods as indicated in the Holy Scriptures by Tobias Conrad Lotter

Like other students, Jerome followed his studies with travel. But instead of discovering the sensuous pleasures of the empire, Jerome found himself drawn to the ascetics he met along the way, including those in Trier (now in southwest Germany) and Aquileia, Italy, where he joined a group of elite ascetics. Among them was Rufinius, famous for his translations of Origen's works. The group disbanded around 373, however, and Jerome resumed his travels, this time taking "an uncertain journey" to become a hermit in the Holy Land.

A first century AD bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums, Rome

Exhausted, he only made it as far as Antioch, where he continued his studies of Greek. He even studied under Apollinarius of Laodicea (who was later condemned as a heretic for teaching Christ had only human flesh, not a human mind or will). But his Greek studies were interrupted by a dream—one of the most famous in church history—during Lent 375: dragged before a tribunal of God, he was found guilty of preferring classic pagan literature to Christian: "Ciceronianus es, non Christianus," (You are a follower of Cicero, not of Christ) said his judge.

The Syrian Desert is a combination of steppe and true desert that is located in the northern Arabian Peninsula, covering 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) of the region of Syria. The desert is very rocky and flat.

Shaken, Jerome vowed never to read or own pagan literature again. (More than a decade later, however, Jerome downplayed the dream and again began reading classic literature.) He then shuffled off to the Syrian desert, rediscovering the joys of an ascetic "prison, with none but scorpions and wild beasts for companions." He settled in Chalcis, where the rigors of this life were exhausting. He begged for letters to stave off his loneliness, hated the harsh desert food, and could not find peace.

Jerome in the desert, tormented by his memories of the dancing girls, by Francisco de Zurbarán. Rome.

"Though I was protected by the rampart of the lonely desert, I could not endure against the promptings of sin and the ardent heat of my nature," he later wrote. "I tried to crush them by frequent fasting, but my mind was always in a turmoil of imagination."

Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab by William Blake, 1795

Still, he learned Hebrew from a Jewish convert, prayed and fasted, copied manuscripts, and wrote countless letters. Despite his repeated assurances that he was happy in Chalcis, he returned to Antioch after a few years—shortly after other hermits began to suspect Jerome was a secret heretic (for his views on the Trinity, which, some argued, emphasized the unity of God at the expense of the three persons).


Sharp-tongued secretary


Nicholas ordained to priesthood painted by Jan Dunselman between 1918 and 1921

By then, Jerome was recognized as an important scholar and monk. Bishop Paulinus rushed to ordain him as priest, but the monk would only accept it on the condition that he would never be forced to carry out priestly functions. Instead, Jerome plunged himself into scholarship, especially that of the Bible. He attended exegetical lectures, examined Gospel parchments, and met other famous exegetes and theologians.


Pope Damasus I (c. 305 – 11 December 384) was Pope from October 366 to his death in 384 (19th-century imagined portrait).



In 382 he was summoned to Rome to be secretary and one possible successor to Pope Damasus. But during his short three-year stint there, Jerome offended the pleasure-loving Romans with his sharp tongue and blunt criticism. As one historian put it, "He detested most of the Romans and did not apologize for detesting them." He mocked the clerics' lack of charity ("I have not faith and mercy, but such as I have, silver and gold—that I don't give to you either"), their vanity ("The only thought of such men is their clothes—are they pleasantly perfumed, do their shoes fit smoothly?"), their pride in their beards ("If there is any holiness in a beard, nobody is holier than a goat!"), and their ignorance of Scripture ("It is bad enough to teach what you do not know, but even worse ... not even to be aware that you do not know").

Statue Of St. Jerome (Hieronymus) – Bethlehem, Palestine Authority, West Bank (in Jerome's time known as the Holy Land).

He even bragged of his influence, declaring, "Damasus is my mouth." Those who might have supported him, though already skeptical of his interest in "correcting" the Bible, were put off when one of his female disciples died during a severe fast. When Damasus died in 384, Jerome fled "Babylon" for the Holy Land.


Creator of the Vulgate

The Vulgata Sixtina was a Latin edition of the Bible from 1590, prepared on the orders of Pope Sixtus V. It was the first edition of the Latin Vulgate authorised by a pope, but its official recognition was short-lived.

A wealthy student of Jerome's founded a monastery in Bethlehem for him to administer (it also included three cloisters for women and a hostel for pilgrims). Here he finished his greatest contribution (begun in 382 at Damasus's instruction): translating the Bible into everyday Latin (later to be called the Vulgate, meaning "common"). Though there were Latin versions available, they varied widely in accuracy.

Fragment of a Septuagint: A column of uncial book from 1 Esdras in the Codex Vaticanus c. 325–350 CE, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton's Greek edition and English translation.

"If we are to pin our faith to the Latin texts," Damasus had once written to him, "it is for our opponents to tell us which, for there are almost as many forms as there are copies. If, on the other hand, we are to glean the truth from a comparison of many, why not go back to the original Greek and correct the mistakes introduced by inaccurate translators, and the blundering alterations of confident but ignorant critics, and, further, all that has been inserted or changed by copyists more asleep than awake?"

Complete set of scrolls, constituting the entire Tanakh.

At first Jerome worked from the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. But then he established a precedent for later translators: the Old Testament would have to be translated from the original Hebrew. In his quest for accuracy, he consulted Jewish rabbis and others.

Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Cristofano Allori, 1613 (Judith is the start of the Apocyphal book Judith)

One of the biggest differences he saw between the Septuagint and the original Hebrew was that the Jews did not include the books now known as the Apocrypha in their canon of Holy Scripture. Though he still felt obligated to include them, Jerome made it clear that he thought them to be church books, not fully inspired canonical books. (Reformation leaders would later remove them entirely from their Bibles.)

The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important ecumenical councils.

After 23 years, Jerome completed his translation, which Christians used for more than 1,000 years, and in 1546 the Council of Trent declared it the only authentic Latin text of the Scriptures. Sadly, the text of the Vulgate that circulated throughout the Middle Ages was a corrupt form of Jerome's work, encumbered by copyists' errors. (In the late sixteenth century, corrected editions were published.)

Papyrus 46 is one of the oldest extant New Testament manuscripts in Greek, written on papyrus, with its 'most probable date' between 175-225.

Jerome's work became so widely revered that until the Reformation, translators worked from the Vulgate; not for a thousand years did scholars again translate directly from the Greek New Testament. And ironically, Jerome's Bible added impetus to the use of Latin as the Western church's language, resulting centuries later in a liturgy and Bible lay people could not understand—precisely the opposite of Jerome's original intention.

In the Middle Ages, Jerome was often ahistorically depicted as a cardinal.

For Jerome, however, his scholarship gave him an appreciation of the Word of God he carried for the rest of his life: "Make knowledge of the Scripture your love … Live with them, meditate on them, make them the sole object of your knowledge and inquiries."

Galli, Mark and Ted Olson, eds. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2000, pages 337-339.

Faith provides support and armour, affects our behaviour, and enables us to overcome the world - John Newton (1725 - 1807)

The practical influence of faith

Faith provides support as we pass through this wilderness

Triumph of Faith over Idolatry by Jean-Baptiste Théodon (1646–1713)

The use and importance of faith, as it respects a sinner's justification before God, has been largely insisted on. But faith is likewise of great use and importance in the daily concerns of life. Faith gives evidence and reality to things not seen, and realizes the great truths of the Gospel, so as that they become abiding and living principles of support and direction while we are passing through this wilderness. Thus, faith is as the eye and the hand, without which we cannot take one step with certainty, or attempt any service with success. It is to be wished, that this practical exercise of faith were duly attended to by all professors. We would not then meet with so many cases which perplex us, and leave us at a great difficulty to reconcile what we see in some of whom we would willingly hope well—with what we read in Scripture of the inseparable attendants of a true and living faith. For how can we but be staggered, when we hear people speaking the language of assurance—that they know their acceptance with God through Christ, and have not the least doubt of their interest in all the promises—while at the same time we see them under the influence of unsanctified tempers, of a proud, passionate, worldly, selfish, or churlish behavior?


Faith Affects Our Behaviour

The Seven Works of Mercy is an oil painting by Italian painter Caravaggio, circa 1607. The painting depicts the seven corporal works of mercy in traditional Catholic belief, which are a set of compassionate acts concerning the material welfare of others.

It is not only plain, from the general tenor of Scripture, that a covetous, a proud, or a censorious spirit, is no more consistent with the spirit of the Gospel, than drunkenness or whoredom; but there are many express texts directly pointed against the evils which too often are found among professors. Thus the Apostle James assures us, "That if any man seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain;" and the Apostle John, "That if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him;" and he seems to apply this character to any man, whatever his profession or pretenses may be, "who having this world's goods, and seeing his brother have need, shuts up his compassion from him." Surely these texts more than intimate, that that faith which justifies the soul, does likewise receive grace from Jesus, whereby the heart is purified, and the life regulated as befits the Gospel of Christ.


The Apostle Paul was a Champion of Free Grace But Also of Walking Worthy of God

The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio.

There are too many who would have preaching limited to the privileges of believers; and when the fruits of faith, and the tempers of the mind, which should be manifest in those who have "tasted that the Lord is gracious," are inculcated, think they sufficiently evade all that is said, by calling it legal preaching. I would be no advocate for legal preaching; but we must not be deterred, by the fear of a hard word, from declaring the whole counsel of God; and we have the authority and example of Paul, who was a champion of the doctrines of free grace, to animate us in exhorting professors to "walk worthy of God, who has called them to his kingdom and glory." And indeed the expression of a believer's privilege is often misunderstood. It is a believer's privilege to walk with God in the exercise of faith, and, by the power of his Spirit, to mortify the whole body of sin, to gain a growing victory over the world and self, and to make daily advances in conformity to the mind of Christ. And nothing that we profess to know, believe, or hope for, deserves the name of a privilege, farther than we are influenced by it to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. Whoever is possessed of true faith, will not confine his inquiries to the single point of his acceptance with God, or be satisfied with the distant hope of heaven hereafter. He will be likewise solicitous how he may glorify God in the world, and enjoy such foretastes of heaven as are attainable while he is yet upon earth.

Faith means that pain, chastisements, sufferings are appointed for good by Infinite Wisdom

A 19th-century painting depicting the Sermon on the Mount, by Carl Bloch

Faith, then, in its practical exercise, has for its object the whole word of God, and forms its estimate of all things with which the soul is at present concerned, according to the standard of Scripture. Like Moses, it "endures, as seeing him who is invisible." When our Lord was upon earth, and conversed with his disciples, their eyes and hearts were fixed upon him. In danger he was their defender; their guide when in perplexity; and to him they looked for the solution of all their doubts, and the supply of all their needs. He is now withdrawn from our eyes; but faith sets him still before us, for the same purposes, and, according to its degree, with the same effects, as if we actually saw him! His spiritual presence, apprehended by faith, is a restraint from evil, an encouragement to every service, and affords a present refuge and help in every time of trouble. To this is owing the delight a believer takes in ordinances, because there he meets his Lord: and to this, likewise, it is owing, that his religion is not confined to public occasions; but he is the same person in secret as he appears to be in the public assembly; for he worships him who sees in secret; and dares appeal to his all-seeing eye for the sincerity of his desires and intentions. By faith he is enabled to use prosperity with moderation; and knows and feels, that what the world calls good is of small value, unless it is accompanied with the presence and blessings of Him whom his soul loves. And his faith upholds him under all trials, by assuring him, that every painful dispensation is under the direction of his Lord; that chastisements are a token of his love; that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings, are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be afforded him, according to his need. Thus, his heart being fixed, trusting in the Lord, to whom he has committed all his concerns; and knowing that his best interests are safe; he is not greatly afraid of evil tidings, but enjoys a stable peace in the midst of a changing world. For, though he cannot tell what a day may bring forth, he believes that he who has invited and enabled him to cast all his cares upon him, will allow nothing to befall him but what shall be made subservient to his chief desire—the glory of God in the sanctification and final salvation of his soul. And if, through the weakness of his flesh, he is liable to be startled by the first impression of a sharp and sudden trial, he quickly flees to his strong refuge, remembers it is the Lord's doing, resigns himself to his will, and patiently expects a happy outcome.

Faith means regulating your behaviour to be like Jesus

The Good Samaritan by Rembrandt (1630) shows the Good Samaritan making arrangements with the innkeeper. A later (1633) print by Rembrandt has a reversed and somewhat expanded version of the scene.

By the same principle of faith, a believer's conduct is regulated towards his fellow-creatures; and in the discharge of the several duties and relations of life, his great aim is to please God, and to let his light shine in the world. He believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him a habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit. Humbled under a sense of much forgiveness to himself, he finds it easy to forgive others, if he has anything against any. A due sense of what he is in the sight of the Lord, preserves him from giving way to anger, malice, and resentment. He is not easily provoked, but is "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to become angry;" and if offended, easy to be entreated, and disposed, not only to yield to a reconciliation, but to seek it. As Jesus is his life, and righteousness, and strength—so he is his pattern. By faith he contemplates and studies this great Exemplar of philanthropy. With a holy ambition he treads in the footsteps of his Lord and Master, and learns of him to be meek and lowly, to requite injuries with kindness, and to overcome evil with good. From the same views, by faith he derives a benevolent spirit, and, according to his sphere and ability, he endeavors to promote the welfare of all around him. The law of love being thus written in his heart, and his soul set at liberty from the low and narrow dictates of a selfish spirit, his language will be truth, and his dealings equity. His promise may be depended on, without the interposition of oath, bond, or witness; and the feelings of his own heart, under the direction of an enlightened conscience and the precepts of Scripture, prompt him "to do unto others as he would desire they, in the like circumstances, should do unto him." If he is a master, he is gentle and compassionate; if a servant, he is faithful and obedient; for in either relation he acts by faith, under the eye of his Master in heaven. If he is a trader, he neither dares nor wishes to take advantage either of the ignorance or the necessities of those with whom he deals. And the same principle of love influences his whole conversation. A sense of his own infirmities makes him sympathetic to those of others: he will not readily believe bad reports about them, without sufficient proof; and even then, he will not repeat them, unless he is lawfully called to it. He believes that the precept, "Speak evil of no man," is founded upon the same authority as those which forbid committing adultery or murder; and therefore he "keeps his tongue as with a bridle."


Faith preserves and armours the believer against the world

The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1503) shows the "garden" of mundane pleasures flanked by Paradise and Hell. The exterior panel shows the world before the appearance of humanity, depicted as a disc enclosed in a sphere.

Lastly, Faith is of daily use as a preservative from a compliance with the corrupt customs and maxims of the world. The believer, though in the world, is not of it; by faith he triumphs over its smiles and enticements. He sees that all that is in the world, suited to gratify the desires of the flesh or the eye, is not only to be avoided as sinful, but as incompatible with his best pleasures. He will mix with the world so far as is necessary, in the discharge of the duties of that station of life in which the providence of God has placed him, but no farther. His leisure and inclinations are engaged in a different pursuit. Those who fear the Lord are his chosen companions: and the blessings he derives from the word, and throne, and ordinances of grace, make him look upon the poor pleasures and amusements of those who live without God in the world, with a mixture of disdain and pity. And by faith he is armored against the world's frowns. He will obey God rather than man; he will "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but will rather reprove them." And if, upon this account, he should be despised and injuriously treated, whatever loss he suffers in such a cause, he accounts his gain, and esteems such disgrace his glory.

Faith justifies, purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world

The Harrowing of Hell as depicted by Fra Angelico.

I am not aiming to draw a perfect character, but to show the proper effects of that faith which justifies, which purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world. A habitual endeavor to possess such a frame of spirit, and thus to adorn the Gospel of Christ, and that with growing success, is what I am persuaded you are not a stranger to; and I am afraid that those who can content themselves with aiming at anything short of this in their profession, are too much strangers to themselves, and to the nature of that liberty with which Jesus has promised to make his people free. That you may go on from strength to strength, increasing in the light and image of our Lord and Savior, is my sincere prayer.

Source: Newton, John. The Works of the Rev. John Newton. Volume I, London: J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-yard and J. Smith, No 6, Coleman-Street-Buildings, 1808, Letter VI, pages 142-148.

While today's culture denies it, the Bible assumes human defilement and uncleaness before God and addresses it through the sacrificial system culminating in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, according to Eric L. Johnson

THE HUMAN STAIN

Europeans and indigenous Americans being judged at the court of Nature for modifying their bodies, from the frontispiece to John Bulwer’s Anthropometamorphosiss, London, 1656.

Indigenous religions around the world collectively recognize taboos

Cannibalism, Brazil. Engraving by Theodor de Bry for Hans Staden's account of his 1557 captivity.

According to international surveys, most people in the world report a positive sense of subjective wellbeing (Deiner, 2000). At the same time, there is also evidence that human beings sense, way deep down, that there’s something wrong with them. To begin with, indigenous religions around the world collectively recognize a state of contamination that humans can contract after violating a cosmic norm, a belief that anthropologists have called a taboo. Usually one becomes contaminated by physical contact with something associated with badness, like something dead, or by breaking a social norm, like incest. If the impurity is not removed, the “cosmic order” will bring about “disastrous results” (Young, 1995, p. 44). One might interpret this as a primordial kind of displacement.


The cleansing rites of religions point to moral unworthiness

Woman's Bath, 1496, by Albrecht Dürer

The world’s major religions generally have a more sophisticated understanding of the awareness that “something is wrong,” and they typically address it through a more elaborate and systematic set of procedures, using various "cleansing rites”—perhaps washing rituals; sacrifices of rice, flowers, or animals; or prayers—which are necessary to “purify” the worshippers and placate the gods. Why do humans from different cultures around the world experience themselves, at least at times, as unclean and desecrated and therefore needing cleansing? After reviewing the classical evidence of this in the West, Ricoeur suggested that it “points toward a quasi-moral unworthiness” (Ricoeur, 1967, p. 35), reflecting a primordial sense of ontological shame and guilt.

The Bible assumes this sense of defilement and uncleaness before God and addresses it through the sacrificial system in which the sinner's guilt is transferred to a sacrificial animal

Zurbarán Lamb of God, Prado Museum, c. 1635-1640.

The cultic religion revealed by God through Moses (found in the Torah, the first five books of the OT) assumed this sense of defilement, and seems intended to make it more salient, and to shape and refine it, in its stories and rules (Vos, 1949), especially in the detailed rituals of the Levitical sacrificial system. God was teaching the Jews that humans really are unclean—before God—those negative emotions are not mere subjective feelings, but, at their root, are valid signs that something is objectively wrong with us, ethically and spiritually, since he himself is offended. The Torah teaches, further, that humans cannot have a positive relationship with their Creator apart from a system of restoration that he has initiated, involving the bloody death of a substitute, in which the objective shame and guilt is transferred from the shameful/guilty one (or people) to a sacrificial animal (signified by laying hands on it), which was then either killed and burned or sent away, symbolizing the divinely sanctioned destruction or carrying away of “the badness” (cf. Lev. 16:15 22; Lev 17:11; Dempster, 2004; Vos, 1949). Christians realized that these cultic practices were a divine preparation for a much more radical and personal therapeutic intervention: the sacrificial death of God’s Son. “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jo 1:29; see 1Pe 1:18-19).

THE MODERN "ABSENCE" OF DEFILEMENT

Jackson Pollock, Blue Poles, 1952, National Gallery of Australia

Today's culture denies humans are good or evil, denies defilement, and attributes shame and guilt to socialization and evolution


Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910, Art Institute of Chicago

Things of course are more complicated in our post-Christian, increasingly secular culture. At the risk of overgeneralizing, contemporary culture holds together uneasily a few contrasting secular views of the sense of morality and the spiritual realm. Hard-core naturalists believe that there is no moral or spiritual order at all. The sense that there is one is simply a result of evolutionary adaptation; believing that there are “transcendent” values promotes solidarity and cooperation, so it has helped humans survive. Humans are neither good nor evil; they just are. Humanists hold some additional values, affirming some sense of human goodness and arguing for the self’s rights to self-expression and self-realization, that may trump biological norms, hence the celebration of gay marriage, which produces no children. Officially skeptical of the modern self, postmodernists uphold the diverse values of selves-in-communities, but end up affirming most of the same values as the humanists, with a generally greater appreciation of their social situatedness. As we have seen, in this late-modern sociocultural context, without a truly transcendent standard, the Self has become the implicit, religious center of our culture. Consequently, modern, secular culture teaches that humans are either morally neutral or innately good, in either case, without evil or alienation from God, and this has led, in turn, to the relative absence of a conscious awareness of a sense of defilement. Most Western intellectuals understand shame and guilt feelings to be the result of ancient evolutionary dynamics and contemporary socialization, and therefore have no ontological truth-value, other than promoting healthy social relations.


Humans become depressed or anxious, feel shame and guilt, and experience disorders

Eve covers herself and lowers her head in shame in Rodin's Eve after the Fall.  Éve, bronze, Auguste Rodin, 1881-ca.1899, Jardin des Tuilleries, Paris

At the same time, in spite of decades of promoting an autocentric orientation in schools and media, a significant number of Westerners remain haunted by a sense of “badness.” Millions are diagnosed with clinical depression (which usually includes feelings of shame and guilt) or anxiety (which often includes a foreboding that something bad will happen to them). Some people have disorders that would seem to symbolize self-punishment, most obviously “cutting,” but also eating disorders and aspects of some personality disorders. Some think OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) may be related to “a perceived violation of moral standards, guilt, and inflated responsibility” (Doron, Sar-El, Mikulincer, & Kyrios, 2012, p. 293). Substance abuse would seem to reduce shame and guilt feelings, whereas aggressive behavior, violence, prejudice, and even an undue interest in the failings of others may indicate the projection of repressed feelings of shame and guilt.


Our negative reaction to valid criticism indicates unresolved shame and alienation

The Dunce (1886) by Harold Copping (1863–1932).

Yet such individuals are admittedly exceptional and the extent of their sense of badness is often due, at least in part, to high levels of shame they internalized in their families-of-origin. More universal is the automatic reaction of even relatively healthy people to valid criticism, perhaps more subtly indicating the repressed remnants of a primordial, unresolved shame, and signifying simultaneously the inner conflict between a sense of original goodness and the shame of alienation from one’s Creator, lying on the boundaries of human awareness. One also wonders about the underlying significance of our culture’s interest in evildoers who are different from us: “monsters” like pedophiles, serial killers, and mothers who murder their children. Even so, it must be conceded that, analogous to its reduction in cases of polio, modern culture has done a fairly effective job of undermining and minimizing conscious experience of shame and guilt.


The Implicit Religious Agenda of Modern Psychiatry and Psychology

Dr. Philippe Pinel at the Salpêtrière, 1795 by Tony Robert-Fleury. Pinel ordering the removal of chains from patients at the Paris Asylum for insane women.

Modern psychiatry and psychology have played a critical role in this reduction by radically reconceptualizing what is wrong with human beings. In the premodern West, the soul’s worst problems were understood to be ethical and spiritual. However, the replacement of theism with naturalism as the worldview underlying the care of souls in the West necessitated that psychic problems be understood solely in terms of natural dynamics (i.e., biological and psychosocial). Consequently, as a secular version of psychopathology developed, its practitioners very consciously restricted themselves to the observation of natural events and processes and observable symptoms, voided of their ethicospiritual significance. Relevant ethical terms—like envy, hatred, bitterness, adultery, and pride—were studiously avoided. Similarly, the religious and spiritual significance and remediation of shame and guilt, as well as self-hatred, loneliness, meaninglessness, and unforgiveness, were rarely considered—except their influence on psychopathology (though thankfully that has changed remarkably in recent years). As a result, the sense of defilement manifest in shame and guilt came to be considered as either the illusory legacy of maladaptive upbringing or, at best, the socially adaptive effects of evolutionary selection. Secular treatment for these negative self-conscious emotions, when needed, is medication and talk therapy, in which counselees are encouraged to reinterpret their shame and guilt feelings as merely subjective experiences that are either entirely maladaptive (Rogers, 1961), or at best, useful guides in one’s social relations (Dearing & Tangney, 2011; Harter, 2012), but in neither case do they bear any transcendent ethical or spiritual meaning.

Source: Johnson, Eric L. God and Soul Care: The Therapeutic Resources of the Christian Faith. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, manuscript submitted for publication, chapter 8 on Sin.