wkp@lanl-a.UUCP (10/12/84)
Jeff Gillette has suggested that we listen to Tertullian in support of his thesis that the early Church repudiated pagan teaching in favor of "the porch of Solomon." As an education to those who are not aware of the non-Jewish trappings of the later Church (approx. 200 CE), it is probably worthwhile to listen to some more words from the triumphant Father of the Church (Tertullian) himself. I quote from Chap. 29 in _De Spectaculis_: Our faith offers us so much more and something so much stronger [than public spectacles]. We have martyrs instead of athletes. If we crave blood, we have the blood of Christ...But think what awaits us on the day of his triumph! ...Yes, and there are still to come other spectacles--that last, that eternal Day of Judgment, that Day which the Gentiles never believed would come, that Day they laughed at, when this old world and all its generations shall be consumed in one fire. How vast the spectacle that day, and how wide! What sight shall wake my wonder, what my laughter, my joy and exultation.... And the magistrates who persecuted the name of Jesus, liquefying in fiercer flames than they kindled in their rage against the Christians! Those sages, too, the philosophers blushing before their disciples as they blaze together...And then, the poets trembling before the judgment seat...of Christ, whom they never looked to see! And then there will be the tragic actors to be heard, more vocal in their own tragedy; and the players to be seen, lither of limb by far in the fire; and then the charioteer to watch, read all over in the wheel of flame; and, next, the athletes to be gazed upon, not in their gymnasiums but hurled in the fire.... Such sights, such exultation--what praeter, consul, quaestor, priest, will ever give you of his bounty? And yet all these, in some sort, are ours, pictured through faith in...the spirit. But what are those things...? Things of greater joy than circus, theater, or ampitheater, or any stadium, I believe. [end quote] So much for the "porch of Solomon"! bill peter los alamos (wkp@lanl)
yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) (10/14/84)
Fine piece of work! My compliments.