ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω.
"Foolish people think their gifts are given by the demons they worship; indeed they sometimes say to themselves, 'God is necessary for eternal life, for spiritual life, but we need to worship those other powers to make sure of temporal things.' Oh, the empty-headedness of the human race! You set greater store by those advantages for the sake of which you want to worship demons; in fact you think it more important to pay cult to them - well, perhaps I should not say more important, but at any rate equally important. But God does not want to be worshiped along with them, not even if he gets much more worship and they much less. 'What,' you will say, 'aren't those gods necessary too, if we are to secure everyday things?' Absolutely not. 'But we should still be afraid that they may do us harm if they are angered.' They will do no harm unless God allows it. They will always have the will to do harm; they never stop wanting to, even if they are appeased or appealed to, for this is characteristic of their ill-will. What will you achieve, then, by worshiping them, except to displease God? And if he is offended you will be handed over into their power, with the result that those who could do nothing to you when God was well disposed will be able to do whatever they like once he is angry. If any one of you thinks that this sort of worship is necessary to secure temporal well-being, the following example will help you to see the futility of it. Take all those who worship Neptune: are they immune to shipwreck? What about all those who scoff at Neptune: does that mean they never reach harbor? And all those women who worship Juno: do they all give birth successfully? Or do all those who scoff at Juno miscarry? You must understand, beloved, that the men and women bent on worshiping these gods are empty-headed, for if it were necessary to pay cult to them for earthly things, only people who worship them would have these earthly things in plentiful supply. Even if that were the case, we should nonetheless shun such gifts and seek from God only the one thing [namely, to contemplate the Lord's delight], and all the more so because the God who is slighted when such gods are worshiped gives us earthly things too. So let our [former] father leave us, and our [former] mother too; [that is,] let the devil leave us and the city of Babylon leave us. And let the Lord take us into his arms to console us with temporal things, and bless us with the gifts of eternity. [So the Psalmist says,] 'My father and mother have abandoned me; but the Lord has taken me up.'"
Augustine of Hippo. "Exposition 2 of Psalm 26." In Exposition of the Psalms 1-32 (III/15), ed. John E. Rotelle, 15, 274-290. (Hyde Park: New City Press, 2000), 286-287.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
St. Augustine Against Idolatry
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2 comments:
Here's to a renewed push for the blog!
What a great passage. So, my dear friends, what shall we do? What is Auggie taking aim at? Setting temporal goods up as idols is common enough pious speak, with the usual assumption being that idols are made by "attitude", or some such, so that, to pull an extraneous example, "whoever does not hate..." becomes "whoever does not love less." Even so. How shall we not love less?
In this context he's taking aim at idol worship of the more traditional variety; the Neptune and Juno references are more literal than illustrative, in other words. But the broader context has him drawing the contrast between life with "our" former parents, the devil as Father and Babylon as mother, and "our" new parents, God as Father and holy Church as mother.
What caught my eye in reading it was the reference to other "powers" as objects of worship. My mind went immediately to Paul's comments about the principalities and "powers" in Ephesians 6:12. Augustine's sermon suddenly took on a much more overtly political tone for me, though, simpleton that I am, this was probably there and intended by him from the start. And if Augustine does have Ephesians 6 in mind as writes this bit of his exposition on Psalm 26 (27 in English translation), then I suppose part of an initial answer to what you ask, Colin, would be that idolatry, especially of the more obviously political stripe, is countered by putting on the full armor of God. This would fit particularly well given the rest of the psalm Augustine is here addressing: "Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a level path because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD." In the face of these powers, then, Augustine would seem to suggest that the Christian survives (and conquers) only by means of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, the Logos, and prayer (i.e., what Paul lists in Ephesians 6). In short, Christian virtue is the means by which idolatry is avoided.
Anyway, that's an initial response, familiar enough of one though it is.
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