Virtues and vices.
474. In the treatment of the virtues and vices we miss the familiar series of the four virtues, though three of them find a place here or there in some more elaborate list[98]. The vices are treated with much more fulness. Those connected with the sexual relations and functions are invariably the first to be condemned; incest, adultery, harlotry, foul conversation, are named in almost every list[99]. Next in importance are ill-feeling and quarrelsomeness; heavy drinking comes after these. More upon Stoic lines is the reproof of ‘excessive grief[100].’ The necessity of steady progress is strongly pressed, and the term used (προκοπή) is that with which we are familiar in Greek philosophy[101]. In all the Paulist writers there is also incessant insistence upon the importance of the regular performance of daily duties[102]. Experience not only of the disasters which befel the church at Jerusalem, but also of similar tendencies nearer at hand, had impressed deeply on Paul the insufficiency of moral teaching which relied on general principles and emotional feeling only, especially if such teaching (as in the Sermon on the mount) was mainly negative. The Paulists at any rate set forth, almost in a fixed form, a body of instructions to serve the community as a whole, and social[103] rather than ethical in nature. This teaching follows closely the Stoic teaching of the same period, and is based upon the relationships (σχέσεις), such as those of king and subject, master and slave, husband and wife, parent and child[104]. It is conservative in character, advocating kindness, contentment, and zeal in social relations as they exist. Thus whilst we recognise the spirit of Zeno in the Sermon on the mount, we find that of Panaetius in the Pauiist discourses.
Sage and saint.
475. As against the Stoic sage the Paulists set up as their ideal the saint, and used all the resources of eloquence in his commendation. He is the true king and priest[105]; even if he is a beggar, he is surpassingly rich[106]; he alone, though a slave, is free[107]. On the other hand the sinner is always a slave[108]; even his good acts are without real value[109]. All such phrases would be familiar to our Stoic inquirer; but perhaps he might be specially impressed by finding once more the doctrine of the ‘sufficiency of virtue’ amongst the Christians. The term is indeed altered[110], but it bears the same meaning as regards independence of wealth, health and liberty, though with more emphasis upon support from a divine source.
St Paul and sin.
476. It is generally agreed that in the writings of St Paul there is displayed a special sense of shame and horror in speaking of sin[111], which entirely differentiates his teaching from that of the Stoics. This difference, however, cannot be due to St Paul treating sin as ‘defiance towards a loving Father[112],’ for this view was also that of Cleanthes and the Stoics generally; and Paul’s horror of sin depends on no reasoning, but is felt by him as instinctive. It remains to add that our Stoic inquirer would find an apparent conflict between this instinct and Paul’s reasoning. The sin of which St Paul finds it ‘a shame even to speak[113]’ is sexual; and so far as it consists in abnormal social habits, such as those relations between persons of the same sex which had found excuse in the classical world, the Stoic would at once agree that these practices were ‘against nature[114]’ and were unseemly. Again, the marriage of near relations, though not against nature in the sense in which nature is illustrated by the animal world, is still opposed to so deep-seated a social tradition as to merit instinctive condemnation[115]. But the instincts of St Paul go far deeper; the marriage relation is to him at the best a concession to human frailty, and falls short of the ideal[116]. Nor is this merely a personal view of Paul; it is deeply impressed upon the consciousness of the whole Christian church. How, it would be asked, can this be reconciled with the abolition of the tabu, with the principle that ‘all things are pure,’ or even with the obvious purpose of the Creator when he created mankind male and female?
The sex tabus.
477. It would seem that here we have touched a fundamental point in the historical development of the moral sentiments. The sexual tabus are the most primitive and deeply-seated in human history. From this point of view woman is by nature impure, the sex-functions which play so large a part in her mature life being to the savage both dangerous and abhorrent. Hence the view, so strongly held by St Paul, that woman as a part of the creation is inferior to man. But man too becomes by his sex-functions impure, though for shorter periods; and by union with woman lowers himself to her level. Hence the unconquerable repugnance of St Paul to the sexual relation under any conditions whatever[117]; a repugnance which reason and religion keep within limits[118], but which yet always breaks out afresh in his writings. Hence also he assumes as unquestionable the natural unseemliness of the sexual parts of the body; in all these points not going beyond feelings which are to-day as keen as ever, though no philosopher has found it easy to justify them. But in certain points St Paul outpaces the general feeling, and shows himself an extreme reactionary against the philosophic doctrines which he shared with the Stoic. He extends his dislike, in accordance with a most primitive tabu, to woman’s hair[119]; he desires the subordination of woman to man to be marked in her outward appearance[120]; and he forbids women to speak in the general meetings of church members[121].
Hebrew feeling.