Aristotle and the Church
Aristotle in his Nicomachean (pronounce: nicama-KEE-an) Ethics groups types of friendship into 3 categories:- Pleasure – I am your friend because I find you fun.
- Utility – I am your friend because I find you useful.
- Respect – I am your friend because I admire you and wish to be like you.
The more I thought of these categories, I realized that they were useful for analyzing the business of the church. It seems to me that many churches develop themselves around groups 1 and 2, and for the most part neglect group 3. We try to orchestrate church so that it is fun and practical but rarely model the abundant life Christ came to bring us. We tell children and youth: Be a Christian because it is radical, awesome, off the hook, extreme. We tell adults: Be a Christian because it will help you balance your check book or keep your kids out of trouble.
We are so busy copying the world that we never model the transformed humanity that the body of Christ is supposed to be.
Oliver Goldsmith once wrote:
At church, with meek and unaffected grace.
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff remained to pray. (The Deserted Village)
Instead of showing ourselves worthy of respect and imitation, we attempt to convince the lost that we are capable of entertaining and assisting. I think we need to follow 1 Cor. 11:1 and focus on imitating Christ and on being ourselves worthy of imitation.
So what do you think? Am I way off base?
posted by steve | 2:06 PM
9 Comments:
Wow, this reminds me of that Douglas Wilson quote that Rob used to read in Vanguard occasionally:
"...much of contemporary Christianity fights with bumper stickers and self-esteem seminars. As the enemy smiles and schemes to ravage our children and decapitate our churches, we try to play down our differences with our attackers and use their institutions as models for our own. As they mock Christ to His face, we learn to relax, take a joke, and create a more entertaining worship atmosphere. The only thing worse than being cut to death in the middle of a war is having it happen without realizing it."
No doubt our pleasure-driven society is to blame for all these world views. Deep down I think many Christians accept the world's answers to the Bible's questions. We begin asking ourselves 'is living like the world really that bad?' As people, especially in the church, we must constantly remind ourselves, to quote C.S. Lewis, that "all mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be."
steve you are so "on base" that it hurts, that was an awesome post.
I would like to say hello! and I'm officially the bird and babe public house's reader :)
Welcome, Tiffany!
Tiffany,
Here is the key to unlocking the treasures of this blog:
1) Steve is a liar.
How do we know this?
2) Steve told us he was a liar:)
and aaron is a gnostic.
Does that make Paul a druid? In that case, do I get to be the paladin? I rolled a 17 for Charisma on 3d6, no kidding!
As creatures of our culture, we're indeed all too busy selling to the world as witness instead of modeling the transformed life; I'm with you on that. But does attributing the former to #1 & #2 and the latter to #3 perhaps miss the point? Attracting the lost by #3 in hopes of imitating us can "in the flesh" just as easily lead to disillusionment (if we fail to model), despair (if we model but they fail to imitate), or complacency (if we fail to model but they imitate anyway). Indeed, the desired response of the lost to our good works is not imitation of us men but glorification of God (Matt 5:16).
On the other hand, being "in Christ" ("in the spirit") does offer #1 not only the sufferings but also the pleasures of knowing God ("What is the chief end of man?"), #2 the blessings of God-fearing wisdom (Prov. 1-3, cf. 1 Tim 6:6), and #3 the ultimate role model (the Son of Man) and means of imitation (the process of Spirit-filled sanctification). The gospel still bids us to "come and die," yes, but it still fulfills us in those various ways.
In The Four Loves, Lewis gives as another classical mode of friendship (#4?) a common bond to some rare, exclusionary focal object - I am your friend because we see the same truth. To the unrepentant lost, we at least offer neighborly love as fellow residents (though not citizens) of earth by laboring for the common good and heeding common consciences (modulo culture). To the convicted sinner, we offer Jesus' gospel in word and deed as fellow sinners "saved by grace." To the fellow saint, we offer this pledge: "Heck, any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine."
Lawton,
Good post. I agree with you for the most part. I would say focus on #3 and get #1, 2 thrown in, but perhaps in a way that you didnt expect (as you point out).
I think Lewis's category is another way of saying what I (and Aristotle) mean by #3.
I think that following individuals can indeed lead to disillusionment when/if we think they are perfect or a substitute for CHrist. Rather, they are supposed to be an indeed to a larger goal of following christ. If you cant see Christ, folllow someone who can.
I think Paul hits it on the head in Pil 3:17, when he suggests that the way to avoid this is 2 fold: immitate in a group (Paul invites others to JOIN in following him) and to immitate a group of people (Paul says to immitate those who are walking according to the standard he had taught them).
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