The Tragic Legacy, Christian Soldiers

God Against the Gods
by Jonathan Kirsch

(Page 5 of 6)

The Tragic Legacy

The strict and uncompromising attitude of monotheism, approvingly described in the Bible itself as "zeal" for the True God,24 sometimes manifests itself in a strange phenomenon that historians of religion call rigorism - that is, "extreme strictness" in religious belief and practice.25 The Jewish men and women who were the custodians of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example, disciplined themselves to refrain from bowel movements on the Sabbath lest they defile the "Lord's holy day of rest." Among the hermit-monks of early Christianity were men who banished themselves to the desert wilderness, spending years atop stone pillars and feeding themselves only on crushed greens. But paganism, too, produced its own rigorists - some of the Romans who worshipped Isis, a deity who was borrowed from the pantheon of ancient Egypt and embraced throughout the Greco-Roman world, were inspired to show the same kind of devotion to their goddess. "Three times, in the depths of winter, the devotee of Isis will dive into the chilly waters of the Tiber, and shivering with cold, will drag herself around the temple upon her bleeding knees," observes the Roman satirist Juvenal (c. 60-40). "[I]f the goddess commands, she will go to the outskirts of Egypt to take water from the Nile and empty it within the sanctuary."

But, tragically, rigorism is not always or only expressed through acts of self-discipline and self-affliction. Extreme strictness in religious observance is possible only when a man or woman is so convinced of the truth of a certain religious teaching that it becomes quite literally a matter of life or death. Turned inward, rigorism may inspire a true believer to punish himself by holding back a bowel movement or feeding himself on raw vegetables. Turned outward, however, rigorism may inspire the same man or woman to punish others who fail to embrace the religious beliefs that he or she finds so compelling. The history of religion reveals that rigorism in one's beliefs and practices can readily turn into the kind of zealotry that expresses itself in unambiguous acts of terrorism. Indeed, the very first use of the word "zeal" in the Bible is used to describe God's approval of an act of murder, one Israelite murdering another Israelite and his Midianite lover.

Examples can be found in every faith, in every place and in every age, including our own. A Jewish man in Israel, for example, was recently moved by his own religious passions to open fire with a machine gun on Muslims at prayer in a mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. A Christian man in America was inspired by his religious passions to pick up a sniper's rifle and shoot down a doctor who performed abortions. Neither of these true believers would be quick to recognize a kindred spirit in the other, but they both share the same tragic legacy of rigorism, a legacy that is deeply rooted in monotheism.

Nowadays, of course, religious terrorism is carried out by true believers in one or another variety of monotheism against their fellow monotheists, and the same has been true ever since the final victory of monotheism over polytheism in the war of God against the gods. Ironically, the worst excesses of the Crusades and the Inquisition were inflicted by Christians on Jews and Muslims, all of whom claimed to believe in the same god. But the first casualties in the war of God against the gods were found among those tolerant polytheists whom we are taught to call "pagans."

Christian Soldiers

"Pagan" is a word invented by early Christians to describe anyone who refused to recognize the Only True God, and no self-respecting pagan ever described himself as one. Paganism, in fact, has been so thoroughly defamed that our language lacks the words and phrases to describe it in value-neutral terms. "A pagan," according to one of the dictionary definitions of the word, is "an irreligious or hedonistic person."28 All of the synonyms and variants - "heathen" or "idolater" or "infidel" or "barbarian" - are equally dismissive or derogatory. We are left with the dry and highly technical terms that distinguish between someone who worships only a single god, a "monotheist," and someone who worships more than one god, a "polytheist."

One explanation for the root meaning of "pagan" allows us to see what was at stake in the encounter between monotheism and polytheism in ancient Rome. The word derives from the Latin "paganus," which originally referred to a "village-dweller" and carried the sense of a "country bumpkin." But the word was also used in Roman military circles to mean "civilian" and to distinguish one who is ready to fight in war from someone who stays behind. According to some scholars, that's precisely the meaning of "pagan" that inspired its first use by Christians - the Christian rigorists regarded themselves as soldiers, ready to march forth as crusaders in a holy war, and they characterized anyone who refused to take up arms in the service of the Only True God as a civilian, a slacker, a "paganus."

"Pagan" eventually came to mean anyone who worshipped any god or goddess other than the deity who was recognized as the Only True God in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. For that reason, the term encompasses a multitude of supposed sins, ranging from the elegant rituals of the Roman senator who represented the highest expression of classical civilization in the ancient world to the cruder rituals of the Celtic tribesman who painted himself blue and fought naked against the Roman legions. And Christianity would ultimately carry the holy war in the name of the Only True God to every corner of the Roman empire and far beyond - no distinction was made between the patrician and the barbarian, and the religious practices of each were regarded as equally "abominable" and equally worthy of persecution.

© 2005 Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, used by permission.

About the Author

Jonathan Kirsch is a book columnist for the Los Angeles Times and author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed King David, Moses, The Harlot by the Side of the Road, and The Woman Who Laughed at God. He lectures and consults widely on biblical, literary, and legal topics and is a past president of PEN Center USA West.