Last night in The Pub we were talking about living as Christians in an increasingly un-christian world, and I was making my usual comparisons between the Church in the world today and the early Church in an empire in which it was persecuted. We got around to the question of social and moral values, and one of the guys made the point that even Christians who agree on the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed (which I always say is the very definition of Christianity itself) - they can disagree on what Christian morality is.

It occurred to me later that in the earliest centuries of Christianity, before the ecumenical councils, the apologists often did define Christianity in terms of morality. In fact, in the early Church, catechesis (preparation for baptism) was often more about Christian morality (how to live as a Christian) than about theology. Of course a person would have learned the prayers, and basic doctrine of God stuff, etc. but what seems equally important at the time was that a person learn what he or she was committing to in terms of lifestyle expectations, in order to be baptized.

So while it is true that the Church eventually defined Christianity according to the doctrine of the Trinity - in opposition to the heresies - in the apologetic documents that had to clarify what Christianity was to the non-christian pagans, there the apologists DID define Christianity in terms of morality, because in the eyes of the world outside the Church, that's what was different about Christians. So when you read the apologists, you often get statements like "Christians are the people who don't abort or expose their children," or "We share our food but not our wives," and stuff like that.

So for what it's worth the early Christians certainly did think of themselves as having a distinctive morality, and one that was counter-cultural, and they did think of that as an important part of the Christianity identity. And I think this is a good barometer for us when thinking about what Christian morality is (or is not) - to what extent has any given group of Christians given in to the culture by conforming to cultural norms (moving away from earlier "traditional" Christian morality) versus to what extent does a group of Christians remain counter-cultural? Not that this is a perfect test, but it's a start. I think we should be skeptical of any who would argue for the Church to change simply on the basis of "keeping up with the times."