This post probably won’t get read by many – usually, the more the theological they are, the less read they are. But I would appreciate your input on this one, so bear with me. I want to return to the issue of idolatry and the state – first touched upon in this blog when I discussed David Cameron’s Happiness Index.

Let me begin by going back in history to the fifth century and a certain theologian called Augustine. He was in his time – and remains so still – a major figure in the church. Some refer to him as ‘Christendom’s theologian’ – for he provided some of the theological rationale behind accepting the marriage of church and state first begun so successfully by Emperor Constantine. (For more on this issue check out my Post-Christendom stuff on here.) For example, Augustine was the first to draw up a Christian justification for war – referred to as the ‘Just War’ theory. Up to that point the church had been mostly – though not exclusively – pacifist. In this and many other ways Augustine gave theological legitimacy to the close ties between church and empire and the way church was empowered by this relationship.

Now Augustine wrote and preached on many weighty subjects which are still in vogue today among some. But one of his lesser known actions was to change how the 10 commandments were read. As you know the first biblical record of the Decalogue is to be found in Exodus 20:1-17, but you will not find the 10 numbered there. In fact it is possible to divide that paragraph into 19 separate commands so in order to get at 10, one has to divide those seventeen verses a certain way.

Key point coming up: prior to Augustine, the command about not having other gods was separated from the command about not making idols, thus making two separate commands (nos. 1 and 2 of the 10). (Since the Reformation this division has been reinstated within all Protestant traditions apart from the Lutherans.) But Augustine changed this division and decided that these first two should become one – thus making ‘having no other gods and not making idols’ into one commandment. This division was accepted by the church throughout the middle ages and remains the favoured division of the Roman Catholic Church today plus some other denominations.

Are you still with me? Good. So far all I’ve done is outline historical fact – now for some speculation. In bringing both these commands together did Augustine weaken the directive regarding idolatry? My suggestion is this: that by consolidating two separate instructions into one, the emphasis was put on ‘making idols’ rather than ‘having other gods’. At a time when there were so many pagan religions and gods – represented in each town and city by numerous temples filled with statues of these gods, i.e. idols – it is quite understandable that the church, with the authority of the state behind it, emphasised the need to get rid of these idols at the expense of the idea that we can make anything our false god. Under this emphasis, idolatry came to be seen as idols and graven images, and the additional Hebrew emphasis of ‘no other gods’ was downgraded to the extent that it was lost.

At the same time the church was getting more and more tied up with the state – the empire – and was now beginning to rely on the state to help it in its cause against pagan idolatry. Up to this point the church had to carry out its mission without the state’s help. Indeed the state could at times be extremely hostile towards the church and persecuted it mercilessly. But with Constantine’s conversion things began to change and church and state gradually became one and the same.

In becoming reliant and dependant on the state, of course, the church was making for itself ‘another god’. Rather than relying on God through the Holy Spirit in the conduct of its mission, the church relied on the state. This, surely, is idolatry. But because – in my assertion – that idolatry was being defined in terms of idols and graven images, the church failed to see what it was doing as having another god.

Ok. There’s a lot of speculation there. So, please, test my theory and let’s see whether we can take this debate forward.