Zuqnin, Zalmoxis, bar Penkaye, et al.

I’ve been following Roger Pearse’s weblog primarily for post titles like “More from the Chronicle of Zuqnin, part 4” and “Scythians worship Zalmoxis, and serve them right!.” As a bonus there’s usually some interesting material about the ancient world and early Christianity, like Borrowings from Christianity in late paganism. And sometimes there’s a helpful insight:

“My first impression, on reading this passage, was to sympathise with the fugitives [from the plague]. ‘We’ve tried repenting, and the plague did not go away, so what’s the point?’ Indeed faced with such a disaster, some superstitious cleric admonishing them that it is all their own fault, and that they should ‘repent’, rather than helping them in practical terms, sounds like the very epitome of priest-craft, of the kind of monkish superstition that we are all taught to abhor. Would that ‘repentance’ involve money for church funds, we would naturally ask next.

“But then I thought about this some more. I can’t quite imagine the state of mind that says, ‘I’m going to try to repent to make the plague go away.’ What is that about? And ‘I don’t believe in God, then, because I did repent and the plague did not go away.’ There’s something odd here.

“There is always a temptation for the clergyman in a superstitious age to make Christianity seem like theurgy — a set of rituals designed to invoke a greater power in order to obtain material benefits. This kind of ‘religion’ is what paganism was, and in a way is more akin to an atomic power plant than a church. Doing this and that will make the sun come up, reasoned the pagans. Pray and the Lord — whoever he may be — will bless your lawsuit. … “[But] ‘Go to church and God will make sure nothing bad happens’ is not a Christian view.” — Should we blame our sins for plague? Or blame God for not preventing it?

The emphasis is mine, because I think this needs to be emphasized.