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Yesterday's lead article at ChristianityToday.com answers the question "Is occasional social drinking OK for Christians?" As the author, J. Lawrence Burkholder notes, "One's attitudes toward alcohol are seldom objective, even if one tries to be tolerant. One can be sure that a refined, cultured gentleman from Burgundy is not likely to be an abstainer. And a wife of an alcoholic is not likely to be convinced that any policy of moderation is wise."

Still, for thousands of years, Christians writing on the subject have generally attempted to be moderate. A few deny that the Bible has anything positive to say about alcohol. But generally speaking, Christians have, like Burkholder, made the case for abstinence or very little drinking while acknowledging that biblical injunctions are against drunkenness, not necessarily fermented beverages as a whole. But as Burkholder says, the debate is still contentious. And from the lips of early church bishops to today's local pastors and televangelists, the differing viewpoints are available in abundance online.

After Jesus and Paul (who both had several things to say about wine), one of the earliest Christians to write about alcohol was first-century Clement of Rome, whose "On Drinking" (from Book Two of The Instructor or Paedagogus) is available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Clement was very quick to point out the dangers of alcohol: it kindles "wild impulses and burning lusts and fiery habits" in youth (Clement's descriptions make for, um, fascinating reading), it is easy to become drunk, and there are many other potential side effects, including "constant spitting and wiping off perspiration, and hastening to evacuations." But he also encouraged a little wine to keep warm during evening studies, noted that Jesus set an example by drinking wine, and noted the pleasant physical effects:

It is fitting, then, that some apply wine by way of physic, for the sake of health alone, and others for purposes of relaxation and enjoyment. For first wine makes the man who has drunk it more benignant than before, more agreeable to his boon companions, kinder to his domestics, and more pleasant to his friends. But when intoxicated, he becomes violent instead.

A few centuries later, John Chrysostom (c.347-407) echoed Clement's moderate teachings. But by his day, more radical prohibitionists and ascetics were preaching against the use of wine, so Chrysostom's preaching on the subject is more aggressive than Clement's clement pontificating. Many of his writings on Biblical references to alcohol are also at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (see his commentaries on Ephesians 5:18 and 1 Timothy 5:23). His lengthiest sermon on the subject, however, he delivered early in his career while preaching on 1 Timothy 5:23:

For wine was given us of God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober; that we might be glad, not that we get ourselves pain. … The passage before us is useful also against heretics, who speak evil of God's creatures; for if it had been among the number of things forbidden, Paul would not have permitted it, nor would have said it was to be used. And not only against the heretics, but against the simple ones among our brethren, who when they see any persons disgracing themselves from drunkenness, instead of reproving such, blame the fruit given them by God, and say, "Let there be no wine." We should say then in answer to such, "Let there be no drunkenness; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine maketh not drunkenness; but intemperance produceth it. Do not accuse that which is the workmanship of God, but accuse the madness of a fellow mortal. But thou, while omitting to reprove and correct the sinner, treatest thy Benefactor with contempt!"

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44