Reading Augustine.

I've started reading Augustine's City of God.   Two things have struck me.  One, what he says is pertinent for our attitudes even today.  In his day, the pagan citizens of Rome were blaming Christianity for the fall of Roman prosperity and security.   Today, "sophisticated" society blames religion for the world's ills.  Augustine's reply was, in sum, "What have your gods ever given you but a bad example and the demand that you follow it?"  Perhaps our reply should be, "What would you rather have direct men instead?"

Secondly, Augustine really hated the theatre.  Of course, the theatres in Ancient Rome were instruments of adoration and emulation for the pagan gods, but Augustine places them above the games in a list of degradations.  He seriously thought that the games (and people died in teh arenas) were less corrupting than the theatre.  He spoke disparagingly of tragedies and comedies because they were only human stories, but he abominated the stories of the gods and approved of banishing poets, who took creative liberties with serious matters and perpetuated licentiousness in the population by telling the shameful stories of the gods, as suggested by Plato. 

He really takes my breath away sometimes.  He's not very reformed, if I may say it, at least not in the modern sense.  He doesn't seem to believe in coopting something of this world to use if for Christ.  Of course, he might have felt differently about mystery and morality plays if they had existed at that point.