Sunday, August 14, 2011

Old Practices Should Be Jettisoned When Found Invalid

Worship practices tend to take on a life of their own and therefore should be reviewed for authenticity.  Arnobius points out that even the pagans revised their customs when mistakes were evident.  That being the case, a move to Christianity should be understood as one toward the truth.

Since, then, yourselves also have followed at one time [age-old] customs, at another different laws, and have repudiated and rejected many things on either perceiving your mistakes or seeing something better, what have we done contrary to common sense and the discretion all men have, if we have chosen what is greater and more certain, and have not suffered ourselves to be held back by unreasoning respect regarding frauds?

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book II, cap. 68

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