Christian views on slavery

aspect of history
Subclass of	religious view
Religion anaa worldview	Christianity
Main subject	Slavery

Christian views on slavery be varied regionally, historically den spiritually. Na slavery insyd various forms be a part of de social environment for much of Christianity ein history, wey dey span well over eighteen centuries. Na Saint Augustine describe slavery as e be against God ein intention wey dey result from sin.^[1] De earliest elaboration of abolition wey dey survive from antiquity be Gregory of Nyssa ein sermon on owning slaves den pride (380 AD), wey dey anticipate de moral groundwork of de abolitionist movement by nearly 1,500 years.^[2] Insyd de eighteenth century na de abolition movement take shape among Christians across de globe.

Insyd de eighteenth den nineteenth century debates wey dey concern abolition, na dem use passages insyd de Bible by both pro-slavery advocates den abolitionists to support dema respective views. Na e be Christian groups wey take a hard stand against slavery as an institution wey na dem push for abolition secof na secular government protect slavery.^[3]

Insyd modern times, chaw Christian organizations reject de permissibility of slavery.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

References

↑ Augustine of Hippo. ""Chapter 15 - Of the Liberty Proper to Man's Nature, and the Servitude Introduced by Sin—A Servitude in Which the Man Whose Will is Wicked is the Slave of His Own Lust, Though He is Free So Far as Regards Other Men." in City of God (Book 19 )". Retrieved 11 February 2016. God ... did not intend that His rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation - not man over man, but man over the beasts ... the condition of slavery is the result of sin ... It [slave] is a name .. introduced by sin and not by nature ... circumstances [under which men could become slaves] could never have arisen save [i.e. except] through sin ... The prime cause, then, of slavery is sin, which brings man under the dominion of his fellow [sinful man] ... But by nature, as God first created us, no one is the slave either of man or of sin.
↑ Harper, Kyle (2015). Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425. Cambridge University Press. pp. 345–346. ISBN 9781107640818. From all of antiquity, we know of only a handful of critics of slavery. The opponents of Aristotle held that slavery was unnatural (but not necessarily unjust); myths of a Golden Age imagined a time of peace and equality; Philo reported that the Essenes refused to own slaves because it was unjust. By far the most remarkable and categorical statement of opposition to slavery survives in an exegetical sermon of Gregory of Nyssa. The sermon centered on the verse of Ecclesiastes in which the author confessed that "I got me servants and maidens." The king's great wealth, including his slaves, inflated his pride. There was, Gregory claimed, an especially insidious connection between the ownership of slaves and the experience of pride...Gregory's sermon was a remarkable document, in some ways anticipating the moral groundwork and poetry of the abolitionist movement by nearly a millennium-and-a-half. He would tell masters that they and their slaves shared the same origin, the same life, the same sufferings. Master and slave breathed the same air, saw the same sun, ate the same food, and their two bodies became one dust after death.
↑ Moore, Joseph S. (2016). "Slavery and the Sin of Secular America". Founding Sins: How a Group of Antislavery Radicals fought to put Christ into the Constitution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780190269241. In making that case, Covenanters mounted a witness against the sin of slavery unlike any other in both North and South. First, their antislavery ideals antedated even the Quaker abolitionist movement; Covenanters were some of the first people in Britain or America to take a public stand against the institution. Second, they created a unique biblical interpretation that did what neither abolitionists in the North nor pro-slavery Christians in the South were able to accomplish: they reconciled biblical literalism, with its clear sanction of slavery, and abolitionism, with its emphasis on human liberty in a state of nature.
↑ "Mennonite Church USA". Retrieved 2016-02-11. Preamble: To join with other Christian denominations in a united voice against the evil of human trafficking, we present this statement of our opposition to all forms of human slavery.
↑ "Pope Francis". Archived from the original on 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-11. Inspired by our confessions of faith, today we are gathered for an historic initiative and concrete action: to declare that we will work together to eradicate the terrible scourge of modern slavery in all its forms.
↑ "Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury". Archived from the original on 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-11. At a time when faiths are seen wrongly as a cause of conflict is a sign of real hope that today global faith leaders have together committed themselves publicly to the battle to end modern slavery.
↑ "Southern Baptist Convention". Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-11. ...Be it further resolved, that we lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest...

Read further

Jacobus Diaconus (1628), "22: The Life of Saint Pelagia the Harlot [Celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on October 8] by Jacobus Diaconus, translated into Latin from the Greek by Eustochius", Vitae Patrum: De Vita et Verbis Seniorum sive Historiae Eremiticae, Vol. I, Antwerp.
Lossing, Benson J., LL.D. Matthew Brady's Illustrated History of the Civil War 1861–65 and the Causes That Led Up To the Great Conflict. Random House. ISBN 0-517-20974-8.
Lewis, Bernard (1992). Race and Slavery in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505326-5.
Nevins, Allan. The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859–1861. ©1950, Charles Scribner's Sons. SBN 684-10416-4.
E. Wyn James, 'Welsh Ballads and American Slavery', The Welsh Journal of Religious History, 2 (2007), pp. 59–86. ISSN 0967-3938.

External links

Does the Bible condone, condemn, or remain neutral on the issue of slavery?, WELS Topical Q&A (Confessional Lutheran perspective)
Louis W. Cable - SLAVERY and the BIBLE
DeBow's Review (September 1850): "Slavery and the Bible"
St. John Crysostom's Homilies on the Epistle to Philemon (Circa 400 CE)
Roberts, Christo: Christianity’s Supposed Role in Ending Slavery. Free Inquiry 2/2025.

[AugustineOnSlavery1-1] Augustine of Hippo. ""Chapter 15 - Of the Liberty Proper to Man's Nature, and the Servitude Introduced by Sin—A Servitude in Which the Man Whose Will is Wicked is the Slave of His Own Lust, Though He is Free So Far as Regards Other Men." in City of God (Book 19 )". Retrieved 11 February 2016. God ... did not intend that His rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation - not man over man, but man over the beasts ... the condition of slavery is the result of sin ... It [slave] is a name .. introduced by sin and not by nature ... circumstances [under which men could become slaves] could never have arisen save [i.e. except] through sin ... The prime cause, then, of slavery is sin, which brings man under the dominion of his fellow [sinful man] ... But by nature, as God first created us, no one is the slave either of man or of sin.

[harper-2] Harper, Kyle (2015). Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425. Cambridge University Press. pp. 345–346. ISBN 9781107640818. From all of antiquity, we know of only a handful of critics of slavery. The opponents of Aristotle held that slavery was unnatural (but not necessarily unjust); myths of a Golden Age imagined a time of peace and equality; Philo reported that the Essenes refused to own slaves because it was unjust. By far the most remarkable and categorical statement of opposition to slavery survives in an exegetical sermon of Gregory of Nyssa. The sermon centered on the verse of Ecclesiastes in which the author confessed that "I got me servants and maidens." The king's great wealth, including his slaves, inflated his pride. There was, Gregory claimed, an especially insidious connection between the ownership of slaves and the experience of pride...Gregory's sermon was a remarkable document, in some ways anticipating the moral groundwork and poetry of the abolitionist movement by nearly a millennium-and-a-half. He would tell masters that they and their slaves shared the same origin, the same life, the same sufferings. Master and slave breathed the same air, saw the same sun, ate the same food, and their two bodies became one dust after death.

[moore2-3] Moore, Joseph S. (2016). "Slavery and the Sin of Secular America". Founding Sins: How a Group of Antislavery Radicals fought to put Christ into the Constitution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780190269241. In making that case, Covenanters mounted a witness against the sin of slavery unlike any other in both North and South. First, their antislavery ideals antedated even the Quaker abolitionist movement; Covenanters were some of the first people in Britain or America to take a public stand against the institution. Second, they created a unique biblical interpretation that did what neither abolitionists in the North nor pro-slavery Christians in the South were able to accomplish: they reconciled biblical literalism, with its clear sanction of slavery, and abolitionism, with its emphasis on human liberty in a state of nature.

[4] "Mennonite Church USA". Retrieved 2016-02-11. Preamble: To join with other Christian denominations in a united voice against the evil of human trafficking, we present this statement of our opposition to all forms of human slavery.

[5] "Pope Francis". Archived from the original on 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-11. Inspired by our confessions of faith, today we are gathered for an historic initiative and concrete action: to declare that we will work together to eradicate the terrible scourge of modern slavery in all its forms.

[6] "Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury". Archived from the original on 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-11. At a time when faiths are seen wrongly as a cause of conflict is a sign of real hope that today global faith leaders have together committed themselves publicly to the battle to end modern slavery.

[7] "Southern Baptist Convention". Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-11. ...Be it further resolved, that we lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest...

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