St. John Chrysostom on Preachers

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St. John Chrysostom (347-407) was an Archbishop of Constantinople who became one of the most famous preachers in the early centuries of the church. Chrysostom means “golden mouth” – an indication of his rhetoric prowess.
 
(This is part two of my focus on St. John Chrysostom. For Part One, see here.)

Like many in his era he started his quest to serve Jesus by becoming a monk. And, like many in his era, those who served as monks were often selected by the church to lead it (sometimes even against the will of the monk!).
 
Chrysostom was not much liked by the powerful, for his incessant attacks on their opulence and love of rule made for few allies in high places. He was perhaps unwise and too harsh at times towards the wealthy and powerful. He also said unkind things toward the Jewish community. His jeremiad’s against the civil and religious authorities eventually led to his arrest, exile, and relatively quick death.
 
Perhaps his greatest legacy is the church liturgy he developed, a liturgy still widely used by millions over sixteen hundred years later.
 
Chrysostom was a prolific author. One of my favorite early church writings is his Six Books of the Priesthood, a relatively small collection of reflections on the church and its leadership. I discovered it in my first year of doctorial work and have been drawn back to it a number of times. I recently read it again and thought I would share some of his commentary on certain issues that relate in some way to our current context.
 
Six Books of the Priesthood is mostly structured as a discourse between himself and someone named Basil. And in much of the conversation it is Chrysostom providing reasons why he did not seek after being a priest. Along with that apology it contains a host of wisdom on the dynamics of church life, leadership, and so on. 
 
Rather than me describe his thoughts, I think it is best to provide some of his pithy quotes so that people see Chrysostom without a Gord-filter.
 
Since there are so many quotes, I have divided this blog into two parts. This is the section set of quotes.
 

• Danger of Love of or Contempt for Praise

 
“If a preacher despise praise, yet do not produce doctrine which is ‘with grace, seasoned with salt,’ he is despised by the people, and profits nothing by his nobleness of mind. If again he succeed as a preacher and be overcome by the glory of applause, equal injury is done to him and to the people, because through his passion for praise he essays to please and not to profit his hearers.” (455)
 
“The Bishop should be in the same relation towards those whom he rules as a father towards very young children; and as we are not disturbed by their insults or blows or tears, and do not think much of their laughter and approval, so with these, we should not be much uplifted by their praise nor much dejected by their censure, when these are uttered out of season.” (463)
 

• Unfair Expectations on a Great Preacher (“sitting in judgement over an angel”)

 
“Hence the gifted need to take greater pains than the unskilful. The penalty for neglect is not the same for both, but varies in extent according to their natural abilities. No one would blame the unskilful for producing nothing worthy of esteem; but the gifted are pursued by numerous complaints from all, unless they are always exceeding the expectation which all have of them. Beside this the former can win great praise for a slight success; but as for the latter, unless their efforts be especially startling and marvellous, they not only lose all applause but meet many faultfinders. For the congregation do not sit in judgment on the sermon so much as on the reputation of the preacher, so that when there be one who excels all others in power of speech, then especially he needs careful application. He is not allowed the excuse which avails the rest of humanity, that it is impossible to succeed always; on the contrary, unless his sermons always correspond to the greatness of the expectation formed of him, he will be the victim of countless jeers and complaints. No one ever takes this into consideration, that a fit of depression, pain, anxiety, or often anger, may bedim the clearness of; his vision, and prevent his productions from coming forth unsullied; and that, in short, being a man, he cannot always reach the same standard, and cannot under all circumstances attain success, but that he will naturally make mistakes and fail to rise to the standard of his usual ability. They will make none of these allowances, as I remarked, but bring charges against him as if they were sitting in judgment over an angel. (469-472)
 
“Then he, too, who has undertaken the task of teaching should not give heed to the reports of strangers, nor be cast down in spirit by reason of them; he should rather  compose his discourses so as to please God, and let this desire be his sole rule and plan for their best execution, and not applause or praise. Should he, after this, receive approval from men, let him not reject their praise; but if his hearers do not render this, let him neither seek it nor sorrow for it. It will be a sufficient consolation for his toil, far exceeding all else, if his conscience tells him that he is modelling and ordering his teaching with a view to please God.” (482-483)
 

• Bondage of Popular Opinion (or the ancient many-headed Hydra)

 
“For he will be forced to commit many errors if he subject himself to the bondage of popular opinion. Being unable to rival famous preachers, he will not disdain to plot against them, to envy them, to bring idle criticism against them, and to be guilty of much other such unseemly conduct; he will dare to do anything, if it cost him his very soul, to bring their reputation down to the level of his own insignificance. Beside this he will abandon the labour of study, feeling a kind of numbness that has stolen over his spirit; for it is enough to dispirit a man who is not indifferent to praise, and to lull him into deep lethargy,” (486-487) 
 
“Do you not know what a passion for preaching has recently invaded Christians, and that the preachers who cultivate the art most are highly respected not only by outsiders but by those of the household of the faith? How then can anyone endure such a disgrace when his sermon is received with blank silence and feelings of annoyance, and his listeners wait for the end of the discourse as if it were a rest after fatigue, whereas they listen to the long sermon of another with eagerness, and are annoyed when he is about to finish, and are angry when he wishes to be silent? This may perhaps seem to you now a trifling and unimportant matter because you have not tried it. Yet it is enough to quench zeal, to paralyze the powers of the mind, unless a man dispossess himself of all human passions and study to live like disembodied spirits which are not pursued by envy, or vainglory, or any other such plague. If then there is any man able to subdue this elusive and invincible and savage monster—I mean popular praise—and to cut off its many heads, or rather to prevent their growth altogether, he will be able easily to repel these numerous attacks and enjoy a quiet haven of rest; but if he be not freed from this enemy, he is suffering his soul to be overspread by manifold struggles, perpetual confusion, deep dejection, and a host of other passions. Why need I collect the rest of the difficulties? No one can describe or realize them without personal experience.” (491-495)