Learning from the Early Church: A Review of Stephen Presley's Cultural Sanctification
Many commentators in recent decades have noted the fact that the West is in the process of returning to paganism. Christendom is no more, and Christian views on many topics are increasingly marginalized and sometimes even proscribed. Christian observers often opine that the situation the church faces today is comparable, at least in some respects, to that of the early church as it lived and witnessed in the context of the Roman Empire. Then, as now, Christians faced a culture that was in many respects inimical to their beliefs, values, and practices. Believers were treated unfairly, misrepresented, and occasionally persecuted. Nonetheless, Christianity also flourished under these circumstances, and that success in the face of hostility has led more than a few voices to suggest that contemporary Christians would do well to learn lessons from our ancient forebears. The posture of the early church, they urge, can teach us how to address the world and understand our role in our present context.
Stephen Presley, a church historian at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has done us all a service by writing a book that takes up the task of showing how this can be done. The book, Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church, is both a compact history lesson and an engaging how-to manual. Presley distills much of the wisdom of the early church and lays out a plan for cultural engagement on the basis of that wisdom. Concise and clearly written, the book shows contemporary Christians a faithful and promising way forward. Many important insights for Christian living and public witness can be gathered from its pages.
In introducing his discussion, Presley observes that there are two tendencies in current Christian discussions of cultural engagement. Some people advocate a form of isolationism, in which Christians attempt to form enclaves in which their teachings and practices can be preserved apart from corrupting influences. This isolationism looks to monasticism as a model for how the church should generally operate. Other people strongly oppose this self-imposed exile from the centers of cultural power. They believe we should attempt to restore Christendom and establish a close relationship between church and state, even by the use of force if necessary. Presley asserts that the early church did not adopt either perspective. Instead, early Christians took up a practice of cultural engagement that he calls “cultural sanctification.”
Cultural sanctification requires believing that culture can be gradually transformed through the pursuit of individual and corporate virtue. It assumes that if enough people sincerely adhere to Christian principles and diligently exemplify Christian patterns of living, the culture around them will be changed over time for the better. The Christian mode of living will be shown to be superior relative to the popular modes in the surrounding culture, and this will attract people to Christianity. The result will be continuous growth of the church and a transformation of cultural norms and values.
This strategy might seem somewhat naive. Today, people both inside and outside the church are often skeptical that Christians can really be all that virtuous, and it is common to rehearse the many moral failures of Christians. Some voices warn that a focus on sanctification can lead to legalism. But the early church did not seem to harbor these doubts or concerns. Ancient Christians emphasized that the baptized were empowered by the Spirit to pursue godliness, and they believed this pursuit would enable the church to stand out from the surrounding culture. They had a moral seriousness and optimism that the church today often lacks. We may think that in some ways they misunderstood the true depth of human sinfulness, but it seems undeniable that their drive for godliness bore significant fruit. Given what transpired in Roman society between the reigns of Tiberius and Constantine, it is hard to argue that their outlook was misguided.
According to Presley, cultural sanctification requires “defending the faith, sharing the good news of salvation found in Christ, and visibly embodying all the virtues of the Christian spirituality in ways that persuade others.”[i] It necessitates both a refusal to retreat from pagan culture and a refusal to conform to it. Christians must be involved with the surrounding culture, seeking to elevate and ennoble it to whatever extent they can, while also maintaining a critical distance from it insofar as it promotes sin or lawlessness. They need to take their earthly duties seriously while also understanding that they are pilgrims who owe their greatest loyalty and obedience to God. Keeping up such a stance can be a difficult task, one that requires courage, discernment, and careful navigation. But the early church demonstrated that it can be done.
To spell out what cultural sanctification involves, Presley focuses on a selection of important themes that characterized Christian thought and ministry in the second and third centuries. The most foundational was identity formation through catechesis and liturgy. The early church knew that it was of the utmost importance that believers be thoroughly acquainted with the teachings of the Scriptures and enabled to apply these teachings in everyday life. To make this possible, an effective program of Christian education was needed. The church enacted this program through ongoing instruction in doctrine and ethics and reinforced it through the routines of worship. The result was that “the church’s patient discipleship program helped lay a solid foundation that could withstand pressure and hostility.”[ii]
The lesson for us today is that “a proper cultural sanctification begins with shoring up the theological and moral commitments that strengthen our communities.”[iii] Christian faithfulness is a result of being molded by the forms and patterns of Christian confession, worship, and service. Where continuous instruction in doctrine and habitual participation in the liturgy and life of the church are lacking, steadfast devotion will be too. Without these means of identity formation in place, effective cultural engagement will be impossible. Presley states that “we need discipleship and catechesis now more than ever, the kind of slow steady discipleship that builds a bulwark of faithful followers who do not live in fear or anger but in holiness.”[iv]
Presley also explores the early Christian understanding of citizenship. The church taught that “all imperial authority was bestowed by God for specific purposes, primarily to maintain peace and security, to promote justice, and allow religious liberty.”[v] To the extent that Roman officials fulfilled these God-given aims, they were deserving of respect and complete obedience, even though they were pagan. Christians saw themselves as obligated to do what they could to be productive and law-abiding members of society. They understood that their witness to Christ was tied up with their civic reputation. Presley affirms that “Christians were active citizens, which compelled them to honor civil authorities, pray for them fervently, pay all taxes, defend religious liberty, and promote virtue.”[vi] Christians at this time did not aspire to rule over others or subject the state to the revealed truths found in Scripture. They did, however, encourage government officials to be just and rule in accordance with natural law.
An important aspect of early Christian views on citizenship was the understanding that believers were also citizens of a heavenly kingdom to which they owed their highest loyalty. Membership in this kingdom made all other attachments and allegiances of secondary importance. “Again and again,” Presley remarks, “the early fathers cycled back to this fundamental assumption: there is one, true God who reigns over all things, and this one, true God is leading creation toward an appropriate end. Those faithful to him are citizens of the kingdom of God, and their ultimate hope lay not in the glory of Rome but in the glory of that kingdom.”[vii] It was this spiritual citizenship that provided the true motive for cultural sanctification in earthly contexts.
Christians were also greatly concerned with the intellectual life and making it clear to both friends and foes that Christianity was true, reasonable, and salutary. Apologetics had such an important place in the early church that the second century in particular is famous for its apologetic writers. Presley asserts that
When the church was living on the margins of the culture, they did not place all their hopes in political influence or social action; they valued intellectual engagement. They knew that when believers walked out of their worship services, they would enter into a culture set against them. They had to be prepared for casual conversations that raised questions about matters of ultimate concern. So they cultivated an environment that honored Christian thinking and encouraged an apologetic and evangelistic posture embedded in the culture.[viii]
Ancient Christians employed many apologetic strategies, and were unafraid to draw on pagan learning and philosophy when these things could be used to buttress Christian claims. “They defended the uniqueness of Christianity, argued that Christian doctrine and morality were more intellectually satisfying than the alternatives, appealed to the antiquity of Christianity, and showed how Christianity served the public good.”[ix] These Christians knew that the only way to gain a hearing for their message and distinct way of life was to meet intellectual challenges head on, and they succeeded in showing that Christianity has nothing to fear from pagan critics. Presley believes this outlook is one that must be regained. “Evangelicals,” he writes, “have been far too interested in pragmatic effectiveness and spiritual experience to value the intellectual life. But for life in a pagan world, this priority needs to change. Now more than ever, we need Christians who can defend the faith in the public square.”[x]
In the various areas of everyday life, Christians also pursued the agenda of cultural sanctification. Their ethos, rooted in Scripture, informed how they thought about work, entertainment, military service, marriage, and child rearing. Christians attempted to “ensure that each and every feature of their social lives was oriented toward the true God and reflected true Christian virtue.”[xi] Many occupations and activities considered normal or even praiseworthy among the pagans were deemed unacceptable in light of the ethical principles that guided the church. Presley notes that “Roman culture in general was sexually overheated and furiously violent.”[xii] It moreover was permeated with idolatry. In such an environment, to be a devoted Christian was to be a committed non-conformist. In stark contrast with many of the self-serving patterns of pagan life, the church portrayed a generous, humane, and benevolent mode of existence. Many pagans, through the grace of God, realized that Christianity was offering something their native culture lacked. As Presley puts it, “the church was a light in the midst of surrounding darkness, and its vision for human flourishing was ultimately more satisfying and successful than that of any other religious or philosophical system in the ancient world.”[xiii] We can hope that as our culture falls away from its Christian past, these contrasts will once again become apparent.
Perhaps the most inspiring section of the book is the discussion of hope in the early church. In the ancient world, pagans generally took a dim view of their prospects after death. Consequently, they were focused on this life and this world, and their aspirations centered on acquiring wealth, status, and pleasure. In many ways they saw the future in much the same terms as modern secularists. Christians took up a very different view of things. In everything they did, Christians were animated by the hope that Christ would return, the dead would be raised, and all of creation would be renewed. Shaped by their eschatological convictions, and looking forward to the coming of Christ’s kingdom, Christians renounced pagan ambitions, pursued holiness, and set their eyes on future beatitude. “The momentary persecutions and cultural rejection they experienced,” writes Presley, “paled in comparison to the beautiful hope of eternal life with God.”[xiv] This hope was extremely attractive to people in Roman society who had little chance of attaining success in worldly terms. It also appealed to those who were capable of worldly success but wise enough to see that all earthly achievements are ephemeral and ultimately futile. Today, this hope still offers encouragement, comfort, and meaning that modern forms of unbelief cannot match.
In sum, Cultural Sanctification is at once a lucid, accessible, and scholarly book about an important and timely topic. Presley’s prose is inviting, his chapters well organized, and his sources well chosen. He demonstrates that those who claim we can learn much from the ancient church about how to be the church today are speaking the truth. Upon finishing this book, any Christian should have an improved understanding of how pertinent ancient Christian thought is to present debates about cultural engagement. Given how significant and inescapable these debates currently are, the book is necessary reading.
[i] Stephen O. Presley, Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church (Eerdmans Publishing, 2024) 12.
[ii] Ibid., 30.
[iii] Ibid., 33.
[iv] Ibid., 54.
[v] Ibid., 58.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid., 62.
[viii] Ibid., 84.
[ix] Ibid., 85.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Ibid., 121.
[xii] Ibid., 125.
[xiii] Ibid., 138.
[xiv] Ibid., 153.
Nathan Greeley is the managing editor of The Conservative Reformer.