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Reading Acts of Thomas:
with
special consideration of its sexual ethic
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| Intro | Who Wrote Acts of Thomas? | What is the context of the author? | What is the context of Acts of Thomas? | What is the genre of AofT | Things not discussed in AofT | What is the purpose of AofT? | Conclusion |
What is the context of AofT?
AofT reports only particular stories of St. Thomas at work. From AofT’s point of view the life and times of the saint seems to be divided into five sections –1) before arriving in Takshashila, 2) converting the king of Takshashila, 3) working around Takshashila, 4) ministry to India, Tibet, and Nepal 4) ministry to the court of king Misdeas. In the case of 4) above AofT provides us with only one half of a sentence. In AofT 6:1 we read, “Now, while the apostle Thomas was proclaiming throughout all India the word of God, a certain captain of the king Misdeas came to him and said to him…” In the first half of the sentence AofT covers about fifteen years of work. During this time many things happens: king Gondophares dies; the neighbouring Kushan Empire conquers the area; Gad becomes a vassal king in the Arachosia province (St. Thomas went along to assist); St. Thomas meets with the new king--who would later mint coins with the Wayist seal, honouring the Great Saviour as well as assist to reform local Buddhism to include all people (Mahayana); and St. Thomas spends time in the Deccan (India proper), and ministers along the west coast.
On the social scene - the India that St. Thomas walked into was one of extremes – extreme sensual gratification as only the largest university city in the world would provide; extreme scholarly interests removed from the average person’s life; and extremes in religious, sensual and philosophical approaches. In a certain sense, Takshashila resembled a cosmopolitan Los Angeles in the 60’s, but these hippies were rich kids. Gurus, monks and seers of any conceivable (and inconceivable) religion and philosophy abounded; more languages were spoken and more exotic dishes were served than anywhere else in the world; average people worked in the service industry as cleaners, servants, prostitutes, masseurs, gymnophysicists, manicurists and other fascinating services to the hippies and academics. Add to this environment a measure of a war, a new king taking the throne, a new national identity, and new ‘barbarians’ coming across the borders to seek a living. A boiling pot of commercial, spiritual, moral, emotional, ideological, and sensual energies exploded in the world of Acts of Thomas. Yet, the author spares us the details but rather takes us on an intimate journey with the saint and his interaction with two opposing forces – our Lord, the Avalokitesvara who helps and saves, and the negative spiritual elements that bother and drown the children of God.
The negative aspects of the world
of AofT can be summarised as licentious, misogynistic, and snobbish, and the
great devouring greed of that world was sensual lust. Not that there
is anything intrinsically evil about sex, lust, or assigning safe social
stations to people of different gender and class – but this world keeled
over to the extreme and it caused most of the hardship in that otherwise
affluent society. Women were expendable and children even more so.
Parents sold their own children into slavery. Rather than take a
second or third wife, men would abandon wives and children, rendering them
destitute for as little as the company of a new spicy girl from Turkey or
Budapest.
Buddhist monasteries bought the cheap slaves to serve the monks and drive
their craft industries. Slaves in monasteries outnumbered monks five
to one (at least) –bringing their number close to a hundred thousand in the
province alone. The market for prostitution was lucrative and large
numbers of children met their demise in such slavery. Unwanted
children were sold and unwanted babies were ‘exposed’ –literally placed on
the city dump, for someone else to take (and raise as a servant) or else it
would die within a few days. The city streets proliferated with
destitute children and dishonoured women who lived on alms, at the mercy of
drunken men –and if disease and abuse did not kill them during summer, the
winter was sure to clean the streets of their presence. Trying to get
a good night’s sleep in a poor area was difficult for the cries of exposed
babies, the whimpers of dying children in the streets and the delirious rant
of diseased widows and dishonoured women mingled with the racket of amorous
cats, alarmed dogs and the drunken festival of the rich in the background.
Many destitute women and children made their way south to warmer climates,
only to run into opportunistic slave traders who would capture and sell them
to ships, caravans, monks, temples or pornographers and pimps.
The problem was, as the saint figured out, that people engaged in sex for
the sake of sex –to put it bluntly, sex was only a fuck and the more the
better because its pleasure lasted but briefly. St. Thomas figured the
insane quest for sensual gratification was the scourge of their society.
In this vein we see AofT starting
off when the Lord teaches the newlyweds in Andrapolis (AofT 1:19ff) as if
asking, “Hey, what are you about to do now? You hardly know one
another but you are about to have sex - to get some blood on a cloth to show
the people - and you will call that a consummation of your marriage!
This is how you lay the foundation of your marriage? This is what your
culture teaches you –and you follow like sheep? Moreover, on this
foundation – what will you build? Is there not more to relationship
and being soul mates than this? What about something new--what about
‘making love’. What about engaging in sexual congress for the sake of
all your senses, for love and spiritual beauty--rather than duty or
animalism? Sexual communion can be beautiful, it can be an expression
of your love, which you do with your whole being--it can be a spiritual
vehicle to join you to the Energies of God. Nevertheless, should you
perform this duty now, tomorrow you have to act again as if you are ashamed
of your body--what have you then done besides acting like an animal and
conceiving a child? Does the world need another child? Do we not
have enough destitute children on the streets desperately in need of care
and love? And does your culture not say: ‘children amount to nothing,
most are thieves, robbers, morons or cripples and bring only hardship…?’”
This is the foundation of AofT, staging the theme – the beginning of the
teaching of sacred sensuality – which at its most basic form is the start of
a human rights ethic and understanding that the passions are powerful forces
which can be used for creating very beautiful positive environments, or it
can be used to enslave, abuse and addict.
What is the Genre or style of AofT?
Xenophon writes AofT not as an historical work, not as an evangelical work, but indulges in the genre of the historical novel. Perhaps he always wanted to write a novel and therefore picked the style when he set out to write AofT, or, on the other hand, perhaps he chose the genre because it best suited the purpose of the book.
The reading public during the 1st century was less than one percent--in fact, few languages were written languages at the time (even today some Indian languages are not written). Books served mainly to educate the educated and less than one percent of people ever read a book.
Under these conditions, we find that successful teachers and scripture were those that could cast the great truths in brief lines of prose, in songs, or in stories.
Touching on the question of the purpose of AofT we must note that devotees of the 1st century needed to receive the Truth cast in mnemonic devices such as the above examples because they did not read (is it different now, 2000 years later?). The novel is a good mnemonic device because it tells a long story in so many scenes or short stories which are easily remembered and retold in an oral tradition. Xenophon creates a new genre, we thinks, that of the Spiritual Novel based on a true story.
The discerning reader will discover in AofT fair splashes of humour, suspense, and intrigue –yet, befitting the purpose of the work, not too much. We see characters develop in the story and we become witness to the development of an institution that would last at least another two millennia. Xenophon provides us with privileged insight to the interpersonal relationship between the celestial Saviour and the (very human) man Thomas. We are allowed an intimate view of the interpersonal relationship between Thomas and the third main ‘character’ of the novel –the evil disembodied spirits intent on living their desires through unsuspecting people.
| Intro | Who Wrote Acts of Thomas? | What is the context of the author? | What is the context of Acts of Thomas? | What is the genre of AofT | Things not discussed in AofT | What is the purpose of AofT? | Conclusion |
