Fundamentals of Catholicism, Vol. 1: Creed, Commandments by Kenneth Baker

Author:Kenneth Baker [Baker, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781681497310
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00

11

MODERN IDOLATORS

“I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me” (Ex 20:2-3). We have been considering some of the implications of this First Commandment—both what it commands and what it prohibits. We have considered superstition and saw that it means giving false worship to God or divine honors to a creature. This latter notion is called “idolatry”.

Idolatry in the strict sense means the worship of some image or “idol”. Such idols are usually artistic representations of creatures which are believed to have superhuman powers. The idols can be representations of outstanding men, such as the Caesars of the Roman Empire, or images of various animals, birds, reptiles. Before the advent of Christ, such idol worship was common in the ancient world. Christianity was quite successful in rooting out idolatry, so much so that it has been of rare occurrence in the Western world for many centuries.

The purpose of idolatry is to show divine honors to a creature which is thought to be a supreme being of some kind. As such it is an act of religion—though false religion. Idolatry can proceed from ignorance, as when the idolators do not know the true God and so select some powerful creature, such as the sun or the moon, as the object of their reverence. As in all worship, the purpose is to appease the god, to ward off dangers and to ask for blessings of various kinds. Idolatry was an abomination to the Israelites of the Old Testament. The sacred authors delighted in heaping scorn on the idols of the pagans among whom they lived. Thus we read in Psalm 115: “their idols, in silver and gold, products of human skill, have mouths, but never speak, eyes, but never see, ears, but never hear. . . and not a sound from their throats.”

Since idolatry involves a denial of the sovereignty of God over his creation, it is a direct violation of the First Commandment and is an offense against the virtue of religion. It is also opposed to the theological virtues of charity and faith, because it does not render to God the adoration which is his due and it involves a denial of the truth that faith professes.

Are modern, technological Americans prone to idol worship? The answer to that question, it seems to me, depends on how you understand the word “idol”. Idol worship in the strict sense of setting up images of bulls or snakes for divine worship is almost non-existent in this country. However, there are many other forms of idolatry that men and women can fall into. If we understand by “idol” any creature that is regarded by a human being as the supreme being or absolute of his whole existence, then we immediately move into the area of idolatry, though now in a figurative sense.

Modern, secularized, technical man is attempting to create a world without God. In the thinking of millions of people, science, evolution and progress provide a sufficient explanation for the origin of life and man.

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