What Is Required to Be a Good Christian?

What is required to be a good Christian?

Such strong language seems to indicate a rejection of the body, of human relationships, of human reason, or any good which is not God. Is such a rejection required if one is to be a true Christian?

Human relationships, the body, and human reason are presupposed to be good in Ms. Kreis’s statement. Although Saint Augustine, the author of Confessions, would not consider those to be of the highest good (God), he would be hard-pressed to deny that each does not maintain some degree of good. Sin is defined as a lack of good by Augustine; when someone abandons the highest good for a lower good, he/she is sinning. A lower good is any good that is not God (i.e. consumerism, science, astronomy, sex, fashion, societal recognition, pride and prestige, etc.). An inordinate fixation on or passion for a lower good quickly develops into a distraction from the highest good when left unchecked. If one does not control the proclivity to indulge in lower goods, they become habits or dispositions, which then become a way of life. Religion is a way of life. Christianity is dedicated to the praise and worship of God. The true, consummate Christian recognizes man is weak, hence, lives a life separate from human relationships, the body, and human reason. One cannot live a life for God alone when sidetracked by other lesser goods. Living one lifestyle fully and correctly is difficult, if not impossible; therefore, convoluting one lifestyle with another whilst trying to live out each fully is quixotic.

According to Augustine, the potential to be a true Christian is present in everyone; however, succumbing to the highest good is very challenging. Being a true Christian is chimerical for most people because man is prone to three types of wickedness: lust for flesh, lust of the eyes, and lust for domination. Lust of flesh is an obsession with sensuality and the erotic (the lowest part of the soul); the solution is to regulate one’s libidinal urges. The thymotic part of the soul, which represents a burning desire to be respected and honored, is called a lust for domination; one should not desire to be in the right relationship with man but rather with God. Lust of the eyes is an inordinate fixation on intellectual and rational thought; God cannot be described via human reason so the solution is one must understand Him through the eyes of one’s soul. All of these disorders require order so as to thrust one forward on the path to the right relationship with God. Augustine explains doxologically in his thesis, “To praise you (God) is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” He believes the plight of humanity is a constant state of restlessness. Until one finds God, one’s soul will not be at ease. By the end of the book he purges his soul of sin, thereby effacing his former restlessness. His life was a tiresome marathon to overcome three ever-pervasive disorders. For Augustine, lust for flesh was the most difficult of the disorders to order.

Augustine lacked the self-control necessary to repress his high sex drive. This was evident in Book II where he revealed that his erotic temptation “obscured him.” Led entirely by his senses, he felt marriage was the only solution. Marriage would normally be commended in Christianity; but Augustine chose to get married for the wrong reason. Instead of marriage being a sacred bond between two lovers, he simply saw it as mechanism for satisfying his sexual desires. He was totally enraptured by the corporal part of himself, he “bubbled with desire.” The maxim that best describes him is being in love with being in love. This constant cultivation of the erotic part of himself caused his “soul” to be “in rotten health.”

Experiencing joy (transient pleasures) with no rest or completion made him feel like a “runaway slave”, free but always hiding. In order to be in the right relationship with God and at rest he would have to excoriate his sexual self and seek the highest good.

One of the desert fathers’ sayings was “The body kills me, so I will kill the body!” They, too, suffered from the same disorder as Augustine and believed the body was an impediment on the path to God. The desert fathers strived to be free of the body because they believed in the dualistic form of the body, which defines humans as being partially of the body and partially of the soul. The desert fathers wanted the soul to take precedence over the erotic and thymotic (the lower) parts of themselves. Similarly, Augustine believed striving for the highest good as opposed to lower goods like erotic (disorder of lust), thymotic (disorder of pride/honor), and reasonable (disorder