On the Shows

Contents

1. 1Tertullian writes to catechumens and baptized Christians to show that the faith forbids attending the public shows, rejecting the pagan claim that such pleasures do God no harm.
2. 2It is argued that the materials of the shows are God's good creation, but everything God made can be perverted by the devil, who corrupted man and his use of creation from the beginning.
3. 3Though Scripture does not forbid the shows by name, the first psalm's blessing on the man who does not sit in the council of the ungodly applies to the crowds of the theatre and circus.
4. 4At baptism Christians renounce the devil, his pomp, and his angels, and since the shows are bound up with idolatry, that vow covers them too.
5. 5Pagan writers trace the games to Lydian religious rites in Etruria and to festivals of Liber, Neptune-Consus, Mars, and Jupiter, so the games were idolatrous from their origin.
6. 6The names of the games still show that they are held for gods or for the dead, and both are idolatry, which Christians have renounced.
7. 7The circus procession, with its images, sacred wagons, and priests, is itself idolatry, and even a modest provincial procession shares the guilt of Rome's.
8. 8Every part of the circus is dedicated to some god, yet places defile no one of themselves; what defiles is taking part in what is done there, as a spectator or worshipper.
9. 9Chariot racing, once simple horsemanship, became idolatrous when dedicated to the gods, and even the racing colors are consecrated to gods and the seasons.
10. 10The theatre is a shrine of Venus and Liber, gods of lust and drunkenness, and the stage arts were inspired by demons who hide behind the names of their supposed inventors.
11. 11The athletic contests share the idolatrous origin, titles, rites, and patrons of the other games.
12. 12Gladiatorial shows began as human sacrifices to the dead, and so remain idolatry, even when given in honor of magistrates; the amphitheatre is a temple of demons.
13. 13Since the shows are idolatrous, Christians must abstain from them, keeping their eyes and ears as clean as they keep their mouths from food offered to idols.
14. 14Scripture's condemnation of worldly lusts covers the lust for pleasure, and the shows are a form of pleasure.
15. 15The Holy Spirit is to be kept in peace, but every show stirs up eagerness, rivalry, anger, and grief, and Christians must not keep company with those who do such things.
16. 16The circus breeds frenzy, partisan passion, curses, and hatred, all of which contradict Christ's commands to love enemies and bless those who curse.
17. 17The theatre is a school of unchastity; what is shameful to say or do is also shameful to hear and watch, for what enters through the eyes and ears defiles the spirit.
18. 18Though Paul mentions the stadium, the violence and vanity of athletics disfigure God's image, and wrestling mimics the devil who threw the first humans.
19. 19The amphitheatre delights in human blood; even when the guilty die, the innocent should grieve, and innocent men too are killed there.
20. 20Some argue that God watches the shows without being defiled, but God watches as judge; what he condemns is never lawful anywhere.
21. 21Pagans judge good and evil inconsistently: modest and gentle in daily life, they applaud nakedness, filth, violence, and killing at the shows.
22. 22Pagans adore charioteers, actors, and gladiators yet strip them of civil rights, which confesses that their trade is shameful.
23. 23God cannot be pleased by charioteers, masked actors, cross-dressing pantomimes, boxers, or beast-fighters, who deface his image and counterfeit what he made.
24. 24The shows belong to the devil's pomp renounced at baptism, and even pagans recognize a Christian by his refusal to attend them; to go back is to desert to the enemy.
25. 25No one can think of God at the shows, which stir lust and passion; the hands and mouth used in worship should not applaud actors and gladiators.
26. 26Tertullian tells of a woman possessed by a demon at the theatre and another who died after dreaming of a shroud, as warnings that no one can serve two masters.
27. 27Christians should shun the shows, where God is blasphemed and persecution is demanded, and should see their pleasant parts as honey on poison.
28. 28The Christian's feast is still to come; for now believers mourn while the world rejoices, and their true pleasure is to depart and be with the Lord.
29. 29Christians have their own better shows: forgiveness, freedom, victory over demons, the race toward the end, and the contests of virtue, in which they are crowned.
30. 30The greatest show is still to come: Christ's return, the new Jerusalem, and the judgment, when persecutors, philosophers, and performers will burn and those who mocked Christ will see him.