The unique volcanic soil on which Rome was built remains soft and easy to dig until exposed to air, then it hardens into a solid structure. We keep finding new warrens under Rome, typically segregated by religious traditions so that Jews, pagans and Christians each had their own graves. Some were tiny and some quite elaborate.
Actually, early Christians didn’t spend all that much time in the Roman Catacombs hiding out from persecution. They used them the same as everyone else — as a place to bury their dead in a time and place when grave space was scarce. We have ample evidence that Christian beliefs and practices in that context included a lot of stuff directly contrary to Scripture, but we also have reason to believe their access to Scripture was at times limited. Persecution in those days was hardly what we are shown in films and other forms of fiction. It wasn’t so very hard to avoid official notice, and corruption could as easily favor as harm believers.
Christians under official persecution throughout history have been known to embrace various beliefs that were far from mainstream. If you read, for example, the works of Richard Wurmbrand, you find a broad sampling of heresies. But Wurmbrand sticks to his message: These people followed Christ as best they knew and it got them into trouble where Christianity in all forms was considered a threat to the government. His point is not struggling to maintain orthodoxy, but faith.
Regular readers know that I tend to discount orthodoxy. Yes, I have my own, but I’m frankly counting on you to disagree with some of it. I teach that what’s in your head matters little if your spirit is dead and you have no commitment to the moral character of our Creator. And if your spirit is alive, what’s in your head should be a moving target as you seek to keep alive your own adaptation to that spiritual drive that leads you ever onward. Your mind is just a faculty for organizing your human response to divine impression. Religion is meant to be alive, not locked in the stasis of some particular moment long past. Religion and theology cannot possibly be formulated perfectly once for all. In my religion it’s a heresy to think you should try formalizing such things. Always be ready to make adjustments, because you can’t possibly gain a perfect insight into what God requires in that sense.
For that reason, all formalized religion is tolerable in one sense. If it’s comfortable, use it. Don’t be surprised when something so logically compelling to you is repugnant to me; I return the favor. Invite me to join your celebrations, but don’t be upset if I show no interest. Our fellowship and association as human believers is always conditional and by degrees. I don’t take myself that seriously in the first place.
I take commitment (faith) seriously.
Like the Catacomb Christians, we are facing a difficult time when any kind of genuine faith in something beyond humanity will get you in some kind of trouble. That’s because, sooner or later, government officials who benefit from increased power will express various levels of impatience with those who don’t want to yield to their total control. If the government they run is not your de facto god, you’ll run into trouble. Things are complicated by the existence of a broad mainstream Christianity that tends to cooperate with, and participate in, that government oppression. There’s always been a varying degree of social persecution for our rejection of their mainstream positions, and at times a de facto official persecution from government to match it. I’m not sure if there is a breaking point between the two; I tend to doubt it.
My readers tend to be outside that mainstream in various ways. Whatever it is you might imagine we share, part of that is an awareness that we cannot carry out evangelism as the Apostles did. We also can’t pretend God has no interest in provoking awareness of His moral character, and we can’t ignore His command that we play our part in that. But we also can’t pretend we have to do exactly what they did back then. Their methods matched the mission in context. In the centuries that followed, you can bet precious few Christian preachers were hollering in the public markets scattered across the Roman Empire. And there is ample proof they also didn’t play door-to-door salesman even when things were easy; that’s a modern social invention that some Christians claim is a holy necessity. It comes in the same package with a host of other “professional standards” that characterize modern Western cultural Christianity. Those standards are not ours.
In the current context, ours is more like the Catacomb Christianity. We have few allies in society, and virtually none in government. Whatever means we use to point people back to God’s glory would necessarily require a balance over all between brashness and privacy. A few of us are appointed to a heedless headlong rush into martyrdom, but most of us are called to a life of quiet piety. This is a time to emphasize actions speaking louder than words.
It’s not so different from the catacomb diggers. We are preparing to leave this world and it takes a bit of work before the Father allows us to leave and join Him. Maybe some day people will marvel at what we have quietly carved out away from the blaring noise of nasty human traffic. Meanwhile, somebody is going to notice and want a piece of our action. Every fancy vault in the catacombs began as just a simple hole.
