The Motives of charitable activity in the ancient Church

Abstract

The article gives a systematic justifi cation of charitable activity following the teaching of many Church Fathers on this issue – from Cyprian of Carthage onward – contained in their orations and writings on almsgiving and works of charity. The ancient Church used numerous biblical texts to justify charity, and in many of them we can fi nd a direcThe article gives a systematic justifi cation of charitable activity following the teaching of many Church Fathers on this issue – from Cyprian of Carthage onward – contained in their orations and writings on almsgiving and works of charity. The ancient Church used numerous biblical texts to justify charity, and in many of them we can fi nd a direct appeal for individual commitment to charitable acts. Albeit such a motivation makes diakonia a form of righteousness by works, which is unacceptable to Protestants, in the teaching of the Church Fathers one also discovers lines of argumentation focused on the addressees of charity and based on Christian anthropology. Apart from arguments of this type there are also modes of justifi cation of charity connected to institutional diakonia which was likely to be driven by the pressure of interreligious competition, pursuit of prestige by Church dignitaries and their desire to exert a personal infl uence over the life of the Church and society.