I do not wish to be a king: Tatian and the Dynamics of the Church in the World

Here are some highlights from Tatian's Address to the Greeks. Tatian is an oft forgotten early (2nd c.) Christian author because of his lapse into some sort of hyper-ascetic, perhaps even gnostic, heresy. Irenaeus (I think) accounts him of having fallen in among the Valentinians, having departed from his teacher Justin Martyr. Having spent time in Rome among the philosophical Christian circles, Tatian believed Christians had become lax and profligate. Such reveals the disjunctures between the organized, episcopal, confederated churches and the philosophic "schools" that cropped up both in and out of the former. But churches were more than zealous disciple, where an influx of converts could damage the the image of the church's sanctity. Reform is a normal disposition in the Christian life, but the need to balance fidelity with pastoral care also remains. For every Justin or Origen, willing to continue in the bounds of institutional authority, a Tatian or Terullian will jump ship. This sort of struggle presages the later disciplinary crises in the 3rd century. Cyprian in Africa and Novatian in Rome represent efforts to resolve the issue of laxity. Forgiveness was tempered with serious living.

In this regard the Constantinian era was something of a watershed, though not because of what Constantine did per se. It was not until Theodosius that Christianity received official sanction as the cult of the Romans. However, the wall between Christians and the world faded, and the empire seemed a far less hostile place. Constantine's novum was the need for Christian doctrine to not only reveal the true way, as well as offer pastoral counsel, but now establish civil peace and unity. The debate over Arius was not novel because of its Christological focus (the issue over Paul of Samosata's monarchianism, besides his outrageous social climbing under Zenobia of Palmyra, drew equal intensity). As bishops became less shepherds of their flock, fighting wolves and feeding the sheep, they became more like imperial governors. Monasteries assumed the old mantle of the philosophic schools, as well as their tension. Monastic schism (like the Messalians) continued into later ages (though, now with questions of imperial beneficence or prosecution, splitting was far more risky). It was a long, and somewhat imperceptible, change as similar institutional and dogmatic instabilities became sites for volatility.

From this vantage, one takes stock. While I don't believe the Anabaptist "fall of the church" narrative, pinning everything on the rise of Constantine (who can't be blamed for further developments that made Christianity a tool of state), there were substantial changes. One must revere a figure like Cyprian, who had tried to strike a balance between pastoral sensitivity and rigor. It's no surprise his legacy became contested between the Donatists and Caecillianists/Catholics in Africa.

The following are some interesting quotes I pulled from Tatian in a work produced during his "orthodox" phase. I think they're worth considering. I'll follow each quote with some brief commentary:

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Here Tatian is describing his (and thus the basic Christian) disposition towards the world:

How, then, shall I admit this nativity according to Fate, when I see such managers of Fate? I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to be rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not contend for chaplets; I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise death; I am superior to every kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul. Am I a slave, I endure servitude. Am I free, I do not make a vaunt of my good birth. I see that the same sun is for all, and one death for all, whether they live in pleasure or destitution. The rich man sows, and the poor man partakes of the same sowing. The wealthiest die, and beggars have the same limits to their life. The rich lack many things, and are glorious only through the estimation they are held in; but the poor man and he who has very moderate desires, seeking as he does only the things suited to his lot, more easily obtains his purpose. How is it that you are fated to be sleepless through avarice? Why are you fated to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free-will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it. (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, XI)

Tatian repudiates any pagan social hierarchy of fate. It's not that he's advocating a levelling measure, but rejecting the entire paradigm. Becoming a Christian frees you from the rat race, whether you were born in wealth or in poverty. Detachment from these things sets up the far more important paradigm: we are all human in bondage to death and now free in the redemption of Christ. In this we are free from the material constraints of wealth and power, but tasked in whatever allotment we're given. Here Tatian grasps both St. Paul's social radicalism and his superficial conservative disposition. On the one hand, the Apostle doesn't reject an institution like slavery, but undermines through rescripting human relations. The far more challenging effort is not so much to abolish slavery but to see the fundamental equality of man despite social position. Unfortunately this idea has been twisted and abused to justify preserving one's place on the social ladder and keeping others locked down. But, as Tatian clearly understands, none of it actually matters, but how one lives.

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Another quote involves Tatian's thoughts about violence, especially in sports:

I have seen men weighed down by bodily exercise, and carrying about the burden of their flesh, before whom rewards and chaplets are set, while the adjudicators cheer them on, not to deeds of virtue, but to rivalry in violence and discord; and he who excels in giving blows is crowned. These are the lesser evils; as for the greater, who would not shrink from telling them? Some, giving themselves up to idleness for the sake of profligacy, sell themselves to be killed; and the indigent barters himself away, while the rich man buys others to kill him. And for these the witnesses take their seats, and the boxers meet in single combat, for no reason whatever, nor does any one come down into the arena to succour. Do such exhibitions as these redound to your credit? He who is chief among you collects a legion of blood-stained murderers, engaging to maintain them; and these ruffians are sent forth by him, and you assemble at the spectacle to be judges, partly of the wickedness of the adjudicator, and partly of that of the men who engage in the combat. And he who misses the murderous exhibition is grieved, because he was not doomed to be a spectator of wicked and impious and abominable deeds. You slaughter animals for the purpose of eating their flesh, and you purchase men to supply a cannibal banquet for the soul, nourishing it by the most impious bloodshedding. The robber commits murder for the sake of plunder, but the rich man purchases gladiators for the sake of their being killed. (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, XXIII)

I recall a conversation I had with the late Garret Fagan (historian of ancient Rome), after a lecture he gave, about Christians and violence. He claimed, ridiculously, that Christian condemnation of gladiator games only had to do with idolatry, not the violence. I challenged him but he just hand-waived me. The above is quite clear evidence to the contrary. Tatian's concern is that this violence is unbecoming and inhumane.

This quote has clear implications for the recent turn towards more violent forms of sport. Christians should abhor these activities not only because they spill blood needlessly and feed our cannibalistic appetite, but because they're a waste of time. His point about "men weighed down by bodily exercise"  can sound somewhat gnostic, but I imagine the figure of a body-builder. They waste time sculpting their body and increasing their muscles (a fixation that had, in all but recent times, a homoerotic undertone). The result is basically mistaking the function of the body. Our bodies aren't for glamour or for death-dealing, but for service and worship. While most in the western world struggle more often with obesity, one should note that gym obsession is equally perverse if it's not oriented towards a clear use.

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The final quote of note is Tatian's universality when it comes to justice:

On this account I reject your legislation also; for there ought to be one common polity for all; but now there are as many different codes as there are states, so that things held disgraceful in some are honourable in others. The Greeks consider intercourse with a mother as unlawful, but this practice is esteemed most becoming by the Persian Magi; pæderasty is condemned by the Barbarians, but by the Romans, who endeavour to collect herds of boys like grazing horses, it is honoured with certain privileges. 

Wherefore, having seen these things, and moreover also having been admitted to the mysteries, and having everywhere examined the religious rites performed by the effeminate and the pathic, and having found among the Romans their Latiarian Jupiter delighting in human gore and the blood of slaughtered men, and Artemis not far from the great city sanctioning acts of the same kind, and one demon here and another there instigating to the perpetration of evil,—retiring by myself, I sought how I might be able to discover the truth. And, while I was giving my most earnest attention to the matter, I happened to meet with certain barbaric writings, too old to be compared with the opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared with their errors; and I was led to put faith in these by the unpretending cast of the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the precepts, and the declaration of the government of the universe as centred in one Being. And, my soul being taught of God, I discern that the former class of writings lead to condemnation, but that these put an end to the slavery that is in the world, and rescue us from a multiplicity of rulers and ten thousand tyrants, while they give us, not indeed what we had not before received, but what we had received but were prevented by error from retaining. (Tatian, Address to the Greeks, XXVIII-XXIX)

I'm someone generally favorable towards the fragmentation of power in the world and the use of the nation-state to rein in global corporate abuse. However, Tatian's remarks strike at a more classical concern for empire among late-antiquity. Christians may positively apprise the dispersal of power, but not because they're for cultural diversity. As Tatian is quite clear, there's nothing good about that in itself. Instead, we should pursue and obey a single code of justice which comes only from our Lord. One ought not become a relativist when it comes to right/wrong, but have understanding through the God-breathed scripture.