The Early Church at Work and Worship - Volume 3

Worship, Eucharist, Music, and Gregory of Nyssa

Ferguson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532634116
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This is the third volume of Ferguson's collected essays, and includes some of his most memorable work, especially on "laying on of hands."

1

Spiritual Sacrifice in Early Christianity and Its Environment

Greek and Roman Poets and Philosophers

Ethical Requirements

Already in classical times the Greek playwrights protested against the conception of sacrifice characterized as do ut des. An important principle of the later philosophical criticism of sacrifice in popular religion was stated by Euripides, “For God, if indeed he truly is God, has need of nothing.”1

The early philosophers stressed the need for purity of soul and life to accompany the outward offering of sacrifices. Socrates was remembered as saying that the gods could not delight more in great offerings than in small, for in that case the gifts of the wicked would often find more favor than the gifts of the good; rather the gods rejoiced more in the gifts of the most pious.2 Plato learned the lesson well and taught that to sacrifice and commune with the gods by prayers, offerings, and devotions was profitable for the good man, but that it was not right for the wicked man with an unclean soul to receive gifts from the gods.3 His followers picked up the thought: the wicked offer gifts and sacrifices in vain, for the gods are not seduced by gifts; the gods have regard for the holiness and justice of the soul rather than the gifts and sacrifices.4

The Roman Stoics continued the emphasis. Seneca, for example, defined a beneficium by the intention of the giver and applied this to sacrifice:

The honor which is paid to the gods lies, not in the victims for sacrifice, though they be fat and glitter with gold, but in the upright and holy desire of the worshippers. Good men, therefore, are pleasing to the gods with an offering of grain, but the bad do not escape impiety although they dye the altars with streams of blood.5

The first-century satirist Persius, who was influenced by Stoic thought, expressed a similar sentiment:

Tell me this, you priests, what avails gold inside the sanctuary? . . . Rather let us offer to the gods . . . a heart rightly attuned towards God and man; a mind pure in its inner depths, and a soul steeped in nobleness and honor. Give me these to offer in the temples, and a handful of grits shall win my prayer for me!6

Epictetus said that it was fitting to sacrifice according to ancestral custom but to do so purely.7

This viewpoint was adopted by the rhetoricians and through them became not just a philosophical commonplace but also a part of the educated person’s outlook. Isocrates had already counselled:

In the worship of the gods, follow the example of your ancestors, but consider that the noblest sacrifice and greatest service is to show yourself the best and most righteous person, for such persons have greater hope of enjoying a blessing from the gods than those who slaughter many victims.8

The rhetorical topic was expressed, “It is not customary for the gods to rejoice in the cost of what is sacrificed but in the piety of those sacrificing.”9

Rational Worship

Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor, also advocated that the deity has more regard for the pure motives of the one sacrificing than for the size of the sacrifice, but he initiated anot...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Spiritual Sacrifice in Early Christianity and Its Environment
• Chapter 2: Praising God with “One Mouth” / “One Voice”
• Chapter 3: The Liturgical Function of the Sursum Corda
• Chapter 4: The Lord’s Supper in Church History
• Chapter 5: A Response to Robin Darling Young on The Eucharist as Sacrifice according to Clement of Alexandria
• Chapter 6: Psalm-Singing at the Eucharist
• Chapter 7: The Art of Praise
• Chapter 8: Toward a Patristic Theology of Music
• Chapter 9: The Active and Contemplative Lives
• Chapter 10: Athanasius’ Epistola ad Marcellinum in Interpretationem Psalmorum, Part I
• Chapter 11: Athanasius, Epistola ad Marcellinum in Interpretationem Psalmorum, Part II
• Chapter 12: Words from the Ψαλ- Root in Gregory of Nyssa
• Chapter 13: Progress in Perfection
• Chapter 14: God’s Infinity and Man’s Mutability
• Chapter 15: Some Aspects of Gregory of Nyssa’s Moral Theology in the Homilies on Ecclesiastes
• Chapter 16: Some Aspects of Gregory of Nyssa’s Interpretation of Scripture
• Chapter 17: Images of the Incarnation in Gregory of Nyssa’s Vita Moysis
• Bibliography