Did early Christians Worship Openly or Secretly?
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:27 pm
In the letters of Paul we encounter the admonition that worshipers should not look like mad people to outsiders. Example: What if someone comes in on your worship and finds you babbling in nonsense-sounding tongues? The gospels have Jesus teaching followers to let their light shine for all to see their good works.
But then we come to early accounts of persecution of some kind in which the rationale for viewing Christians as undesirables is their secrecy in worship and the suspicions that this arouses. Example: Minucius Felix reports that among pagans there are suspicions of cannibalism and incestuous orgies behind closed doors after lights out. It is easy to imagine such lurid accusations if Christians were indeed secretive in their practices.
One can understand a culture of secrecy if Christians are seeking to avoid persecution but if we accept the arguments that there was in fact relatively little persecution in those early years, and therefore no widespread cause for fear of being thrown to the lions merely because one is a Christian, why would Christians appear to go against the instructions we read in Paul and the gospels and worship in secret?
If the persecutions were justified by suspicions arising from secrecy then the secrecy must have preceded persecutions. What might have led to a change from openness to secrecy, if that's what happened?
This question may also relate to the notion that early Christianity was akin to "mystery cults". But the evidence we have indicates pagans knew at least the fundamentals of what happened in pagan mystery cults but they seem to have had no idea about Christianity (e.g. except for a report we find in a letter from Pliny to Trajan -- but I think that may not be genuine.)
I am speaking of Christians here as one body but I'm open to any response that applies to any part of "the Christian phenomenon" and makes sense of the evidence for apparent secrecy.
But then we come to early accounts of persecution of some kind in which the rationale for viewing Christians as undesirables is their secrecy in worship and the suspicions that this arouses. Example: Minucius Felix reports that among pagans there are suspicions of cannibalism and incestuous orgies behind closed doors after lights out. It is easy to imagine such lurid accusations if Christians were indeed secretive in their practices.
One can understand a culture of secrecy if Christians are seeking to avoid persecution but if we accept the arguments that there was in fact relatively little persecution in those early years, and therefore no widespread cause for fear of being thrown to the lions merely because one is a Christian, why would Christians appear to go against the instructions we read in Paul and the gospels and worship in secret?
If the persecutions were justified by suspicions arising from secrecy then the secrecy must have preceded persecutions. What might have led to a change from openness to secrecy, if that's what happened?
This question may also relate to the notion that early Christianity was akin to "mystery cults". But the evidence we have indicates pagans knew at least the fundamentals of what happened in pagan mystery cults but they seem to have had no idea about Christianity (e.g. except for a report we find in a letter from Pliny to Trajan -- but I think that may not be genuine.)
I am speaking of Christians here as one body but I'm open to any response that applies to any part of "the Christian phenomenon" and makes sense of the evidence for apparent secrecy.