Bad Theology

Text for today: Ephesians 1 iv-vi, 5 iv-xii

Someone writing in the name of Paul the Apostle proclaims that God has predestined the faithful since before the Creation, according to no purpose but to gain praise for the working of His own arbitrary will. Later, the same writer warns against listening to those who hold differing points of view, and orders that such people should be made outcasts and denounced.

Although the authorship of the Epistle to the Ephesians is in some doubt, as theologians we can only admire the writer's realism and candour. He begins by reasoning with ruthless logic from God's omniscience: if God knows everything throughout eternity, then He knows who will be saved and who will be damned, and He has known since before the Creation and will never lift a finger to change the outcome. In the fifth and sixth verses of the first chapter, the author brazenly lays bare the tyrant's motives in selecting certain persons for adoption: not according to their virtues, but according to His rigid and unalterable will and His eternal lust for sycophantic adulation.

With coolly calculated self-interest, the writer orders that anyone who disagrees with the church should be ostracised and publicly accused of carrying out secret and immoral rituals. With allegiance to an all-knowing, all-powerful tyrant, no enemy can be too bad, no denunciation can be too far-fetched and no purge can be too harsh. The writer also warns against displays of broad or bawdy humour, and recommends that his subordinates at the church of Ephesus sublimate their baser urges by giving thanks to God rather than amusing one another. It is one of the misfortunes of history that no reliable record has come down to us concerning the general effectiveness of this measure.