somethings never change | more Russell on Augustine

Here is the concluding comment by Bertrand Russell (from A History of Western Philosophy) on St. Augustine and St. Ambrose & St. Jerome.

It is strange that the last men of intellectual eminence before the dark ages were concerned, not with saving civilization or expellig the barbarians or reforming the abuses of the administration, but with preaching the merit of virginity and the damnation of unbaptized infants. Seeing that these were the preoccupations that the Church handed on to the converted barbarians, it is no wonder the succeeding age surpassed almost all other fully historical periods in cruelty and superstition.

Has the Church changed in the last 1500+ years? Are there not large sects of American Christianity who are concerned with virginity & unbaptized infants? We have modernized haven’t we? We now aren’t so fearful of sex, we even embrace erotic readings of Song of Solomon in certain settings. Though we are still holding to abstinence until marriage. And though we Protestants aren’t so concerned with infant baptism we are still very concerned with their damnation, though we turned the damnation from the hand of God to that of the abortion doctor.

Interestingly such proponents of this ideological focus say that it is a result of the lack of morality in these areas that will bring the demise of society. While Bertrand Russell seems to be implying that it was because of this focus while excluding or not wholly focusing on such things as systemic injustice, the poor & the weak, that the demise occurred.

I would say this passage should give us all pause as to where our priorities lie and as to what emphasis we place with each. Cautionarily, we must remember our priorities are rarely ever fully in sync with God’s—even if or despite the fact that God may work through the impure motives & actions.