‘Humpty!’ I called. He was dozing but – thankfully – not on or near the wall. ‘Would you describe yourself as a zealot?’
‘Not likely!’
‘Enthusiast?’
‘Can’t say I like that much.’
In general, we don’t like zealots. Like Humpty we are wary. We think they have come to deserve a label meaning fanatical, over the top, without a sense of proportion. But the word ‘zeal’ is one of those words that have a wide spread of meaning. Ben Jonson had a puritan in one of his plays called ‘Zeal of the land busy’. Not an easy name to call out in a hurry and not a name that anybody would wish for. To be a zealot is rarely a term of commendation.
But the word has other connotations. Not that we should in our day use it in a favourable sense. But in I Peter 3.13 we find the Greek word being used as a glowing description. It might be translated as an eagerness to do good things. Such a person is an enthusiast for goodness. It’s a long time since I read Ronald Knox’s ‘Enthusiasm’ but I seem to remember he found it everywhere but it was not always approved by him. If enthusiasm is equated with mindless exuberance and undue preoccupation with one’s own religious experience it is hardly admirable. Of course, the opposite of enthusiasm – indifference, torpor, inertia – is even worse. So are other options – spite, grudge, malice.
To be an enthusiast for goodness is difficult to fault, as the writer of 1 Peter 3.13 observes. And if we Christians all had a claim on such a label, the world would be a somewhat happier place. Being a good Samaritan consumes one’s energy. One has less time to fight over niceties of doctrine. Imagination is constantly at work devising new ways of being helpful. Indeed. the Sermon on the Mount can be seen as a guide for any enthusiast for goodness to order his behaviour.
But not too much enthusiasm, please. I remember Boswell’s reference to a man who had tried to be a philosopher but cheerfulness was always breaking in.
‘I tell you what, Humpty. You can’t have zest on any empty stomach. Let’s get along to that new sandwich bar.’
‘You’re forgetting,’ said Humpty. ‘The lockdown. I’ll go.’
CONVERSATIONS
An unusual feature to find on a church website is a series of conversations with notable people about the Christian faith. Christ Church, Durham has organised this punchy series with Baroness Cox and Lt-Col William Wells being interviewed on camera.
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