Christianity 006: On whether Christianity is rocket science

I recently heard a very instructive story. In a certain parish, a certain woman often brought the “wrong” dishes for parish potlucks. She seemed to have no concern for fasting rules, which irritated the other ladies. And so, the other ladies approached the priest and asked him to speak with the woman about this problem, and he promised to do so.

When the priest gently inquired of the woman why she brought non-fasting dishes during fasting times, the woman answered that she was so thoroughly confused by all the fasting rules - when to have oil, when not to have oil, which saint is great enough for fish, and which is not so great - it was all so confusing that she decided to simply not eat at all for the first week of every month, and then to eat whatever foods God sent to her the rest of the time. Upon hearing this, the priest was humbled and blessed the woman to continue her practice.

To be sure, I do not believe the story is true in the same way that a historical event is true, but it is true in the sense that it perfectly describes how many people feel, including myself. It is certainly much easier not to eat at all for a week than to be bogged down with the various rules about the various foodstuffs that have to be aligned with the ever-changing liturgical celebrations of varying degrees, as well as with living in northern latitudes as opposed to the Mediterranean. All of this complexity may sometimes feel like rocket science. And this is just the fasting aspect of the practice!

Can Christianity be likened to rocket science or brain surgery? Does it rely on acquiring tremendous amounts of knowledge and meticulous calculations in order to be practiced? I find these analogies very imperfect, despite the fact that I have used them in the past. Equating Christianity to brain surgery is simply indefensible on any level. (I myself have used this analogy in reference to the Church as an institution, which is somewhat more appropriate, perhaps, since the institution is so Byzantine.)

There are far better analogies that could describe Christianity - for example, sport. The Apostle Paul used this image. Think of the sport of running. It is a rather simple thing - certainly not brain surgery - people have been doing it spontaneously for thousands of years; children do it; there is not much of a book that one can write about it, even though many do for various reasons. But no matter how many books you read, nothing replaces going out and actually running - not even a little bit. If you do not run but read many books and scholarly articles, you will not advance as a runner even an inch. On the other hand, if you go running every day, you will become a half-decent runner, even if you have not read any books at all. To be sure, advanced knowledge about pacing, nutrition, recovery, injury-prevention and alike can improve one’s running, especially at the highest levels, but the core of the sport is still the act of running, rather than the act of reading.