TexasScientist said:
Oldbear83 said:
quash said:
Oldbear83 said:
TS: "Ultimate authority rests with people, and people ultimately decide what is moral based upon cultural norms."
So the mob drives morality?
I disagree.
Just from what I have read, moral thought starts with individuals who disagree with the crowd and think through the moral issues, then state concepts which lead in new directions. Historically, such individuals have been philosophers and religious leaders. Socrates and MLK Jr are examples of such individuals who stood against the common practice of their time.
Cultural norms are often at odds with moral values, which causes problems in its own right.
Moral values do change, thus the "moral arc".
But it's not an arc, if you pay attention to history. Human behavior changes according to location, culture, and leaders of the day.
For example, Jon of Arc was a female leader who could have opened a new era in social consciousness, but instead she was an outlier because the establishment killed her. For another, Slavery was opposed by Christians early in their history, but Rome corrupted social practices so that it was more than a thousand years before people actively worked to end Slavery,
What we see in history is individuals who start moral debates, which are opposed by the mob and so some movements falter and fail for a time. There simply is no "moral arc" in actual practice.
Quote:
Human behavior changes according to location, culture, and leaders of the day.
As do morals. What's moral in one culture is immoral in another culture.
When and how was slavery opposed in early Christian history?
What he is saying is that, innate human desire is for moral justice, fairness, and equity, and given time, morality trends in that direction.
There are multiple references in Scripture, including Paul's command to Philemon to treat Onesimus as "a brother beloved," a status obviously incompatible with being a slave, and the special condemnation given to slave traders in 1 Timothy.
With regard to the early Church, this might interest you:
In the second and third centuries after Christ, tens of thousands of slaves were freed by people who converted the Christ, and then understood the inherent wrongness of the slave condition. Melania is said to have freed 8,000 slaves, Ovidus 5,000, Chromatius 1400, and Hermes 1200.[10] One popular Christian book of the early church said that Christians should not attend heathen gatherings "unless to purchase a slave and save a soul" (by teaching the slave of Christ and then freeing him or her).[11]
Church law in the early fifth century allowed for liberation (called manumission) of slaves during church services.[12] This happened because many Christian converts at that time were people of considerable wealth. Converted out of a decadent, totally self-centered society, many Christians sold their goods and lands and used the proceeds to help the poor, support hospitals, take in orphans, free prisoners, and liberate slaves. Liberation was frequent, and freedmen soon became a prominent feature of society.[13]
Augustine led many clergy under his authority at Hippo to free their slaves "as an act of piety." [14] He boldly wrote a letter urging the emperor to set up a new law against slave traders and was very much concerned about the sale of children. Christian emperors of his time for 25 years had permitted sale of children, not because they approved of it, but as a way of preventing infanticide when parents were unable to care for a child (The Saints, Pauline Books, 1998 p. 72). In his famous book, "The City of God," the development of slavery is seen as a product of sin and contrary to God's divine plan".[15]
Freeing slaves in those days took great conviction and courage, since the Roman emperors issued edicts unfavorable to it, and keeping on the good side of the emperor was essential to survival. Not until Justinian (527-565 A.D.) did Christians find an emperor who was sympathetic to what they had been doing [16]
The practice of freeing slaves began quite early, for Clement of Alexandria, who was probably a contemporary of the Apostle Paul, said in his Epistle to the Corinthians no. 55, "Some Christians surrendered their own freedom to liberate others or even money to provide food for others." He talks as if it is common knowledge of which he is reminding them. He also says it was a church custom in his time to redeem prisoners of war from servitude. He wrote that Christians should not have too many domestic slaves. He said men did this because they disliked working with their own hands and serving themselves.[17]
Ignatius, in his epistle to Herodustus, urges believers to "despise not servants, for we possess the same nature in common with them." [18] Basil (330-379) wrote of slaves and masters as all being fellow slaves of our Creator and spoke of "our mutual equality of rank." [19] Lactantius in the fourth century wrote that in God's eyes there were no slaves.[20]
In the fourth century, Chrysostom wrote that Christ annulled slavery and admonished Christian to buy slaves, teach them a marketable skill, and set them free. The freeing of slaves by Christians was so common in his time that some people complained Christianity had been introduced just for that purpose.[21] In the fifth century, Patrick, Celtic Christian missionary to Ireland, actually condemned slavery.[22]
https://www.conservapedia.com/Slavery_in_the_early_church
