At the Christian college where I earned my Bachelor’s degree there is a dress code for all regular classes and chapel. For men, this entails a shirt and tie, with dress slacks; for women, a knee-length skirt with a modest blouse or a knee-length dress. Upon arrival, freshmen often question the reasons for a dress code, considering it either stodgy or arbitrarily constricting. However, if one takes the time to honestly inquire about the dress code, the faculty’s response is very compelling: Such a dress code prepares students for the world of their particular discipline, teaching them to dress and behave in a professional manner. More importantly, it teaches students to treat their academics, teachers, and fellow classmates with the respect they properly deserve. In a word, it teaches the concept of propriety.
Propriety is defined as behaving in a manner appropriate for, or in accordance to a given situation or social construct. In the present day, our generation increasingly views propriety as an antique from an earlier period. Nevertheless, it is still a contemporary concern. In this essay, we will consider Plato, Oscar Wilde, and the Bible. Plato gives us strong logical reasons for considering propriety. Wilde illustrates our generation’s mockery of it. And the Bible forms the foundation of our understanding of propriety.
Plato and the Greeks: The Importance of Being Proper
Plato was not a follower of the living God. However, he spent his life searching for the essential universals of life, and was successful in gleaning from natural revelation certain truths concerning God and His character that we find in special revelation—the Bible. Particularly pertinent, he realized that man is given to triviality [1].
In the Apology of Socrates, Plato states that many of the Athenians of his time were given to triviality. They claimed to value wisdom, truth, and the eternal things of the soul, for example, but their lives did not confirm it. Rather, the average person was consumed with the desire for money, fame, and power. In fact, they undervalued the greater and overvalued the lesser [2]. Plato believed such men were guilty of impropriety.
Plato’s concern was not whether people should value these differing things, but that they should be valued properly. He saw that what people think upon, spend their time upon, and treat with importance is truly what they believe to be valuable. And while the Athenians claimed that they valued wisdom, truth, and matters of the soul above all else, their actions betrayed that such notions were actually a secondary interest. In other words, those things that we treat with the utmost respect and honor are what we truly value as important. The remaining question is, “Do we regard things in their proper value?” While Plato extolled propriety and morality, Oscar Wilde mocked them, being one of the progenitors of modern moral relativism.
Oscar Wilde and Propriety: The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde was a London playwright and author of the late nineteenth century. He lived his life for the pursuit of pleasure. He believed that Art (which he viewed as a deity evidenced by the capital ‘A’) [3] was life’s only answer—that it alone was able to fill life’s moments with the greatest pleasure. He was known as a confirmed dandy throughout much of his public life, and spent the last ten years of his life as a homosexual. Of all his works, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) best illustrates his philosophy and morality.
One of the best ways to flaunt morality and convention is to treat them as if they are of little value, but in a deeply serious and grave manner—in other words, to treat things improperly [4]. This is exactly what Wilde did. Rather than propriety, which Plato emphasized, Wilde extolled impropriety and “sin” as the foundation upon which to build philosophy and Art [5]. He treated the trivial as greater and the serious as lesser [6].
Wilde’s philosophy and art is important because it is one of the earliest products of Kierkegaard’s existentialism. Kierkegaard wrote that belief in God requires a leap of faith beyond the scope of reason. When Kierkegaard proposed this irrational leap of faith concerning the metaphysical, the gold rush was on for objects on which man could place his irrational faith. The consequence of this was that immorality was given the same value as morality. Wilde simply applied Kierkegaard’s principle to Art, beauty, and pleasure, rather than God, wisdom, truth, and morality. To be sure, art, beauty, and pleasure are not evil, if they are properly valued. However, to give them the preeminence in life is to make them one’s god is idolatry.
The manner in which Wilde chose to state his case was to treat anything of importance with utter disregard in his play. Thus when characters were caught in a lie, they were praised and exhorted onto greater heights of deception. Objects concerning morality—such as marriage, baptism, chastity, and honesty—were passed over for objects of triviality. He felt that the way to strike the deepest blow to the morality of society was to treat it as frivolous. Wilde’s final product diametrically opposed the morality of society, but more importantly, it opposed the Bible.
Our consideration of Wilde’s emphasis upon impropriety is important because it better helps us to diagnose our own culture. And though Plato’s thoughts on the principle of propriety are important, as Christians, we must look to Scripture.
The Bible: The Importance of Being Proper
The Bible is replete with admonishments to propriety. For example, in the beginning, God set down the proper relationships mankind should have with God, his fellow man, creation, and himself [7]. Similarly, God tells Moses to approach the burning bush barefoot because the ground was holy. God is very much concerned about the manner in which we approach Him. Consider also the specifics concerning entering the Holy of Holies (Lev. 16). Or consider the Lord consuming with fire Nadab and Abihu for their improper use of incense when worshiping Him (Lev. 10:1-11) [8]. Also, Paul instructs the Corinthians to conduct their worship services with order and propriety (I Cor. 14:40). Or if we look to the book of Titus we find Paul explaining that the older leaders in the church are to exemplify sobriety, reverence, patience, and temperance for the younger Christians (Titus 2:1-10).
From the Pentateuch to the Pauline epistles, the Bible is filled with exhortations toward proper conduct in the Christian life, especially in corporate worship. We are left with no excuse concerning the knowledge of propriety as a scriptural category. The challenge then becomes determining what is proper in the different aspects of life. We must take the principles of the Scriptures and apply them to our lives through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Application
Propriety should be seen in all aspects of our lives, particularly in our relationships with God and man. For example, how we interact with others must be shaped by God’s love. As Christians we must treat all men and women with love and respect—for humans are the pinnacle of God’s created order. Some very practical ways in which this can affect our daily lives are:
- Telling others how valuable they are
- Providing meals or shelter for those who are in need
- Defending the defenseless and the weak
- Showing care and concern for the marginalized and hated
In other words, we must treat one-another with the proper value modeled in Scripture.
Also, how we approach corporate worship should be shaped by Scripture’s principles of propriety. All too often, we minimize this category as demonstrated in the following examples:
- Dressing down rather than dressing up
- Using banal song lyrics rather than theologically-rich ones
- Emphasizing the sensual aspects of worship over the spoken and heard word
These examples often arise out of a right and commendable desire for outreach. However, we should be careful to exercise propriety. May we, like Moses, recognize the holy ground upon which we stand.
We are instructed to worship the one true God of whom seraphim continually chant, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8). Reverence and respect should pervade our worship services with the recognition that we are sinful creatures before a holy God (cf. Isa. 6:5). Yes, we have been redeemed by Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we must, like Isaiah and Peter, recognize the reverence with which we should approach the throne of God (cf. Isa. 6:5; Lk. 5:8). And yes, He is very much immanent and approachable through Christ, but He is also holy and transcendent [9]. When we realize the holiness and majesty of God, it forces us to consider carefully the way in which our attitude, actions, attire, and aesthetics relate to Him.
Conclusion
When we consider the thought of Plato and Wilde we are forced to conclude that propriety is of vital importance. Overvalued trivialities and undervalued essentials either show a disregard for, or utter opposition to, morality and propriety. Most importantly, the Scriptures demand that we properly approach God, man, and creation. Earnestness is not important in-and-of itself. Rather, the importance lies in that about which we are being earnest.
_______________________________________
[1] Though his methods for reaching these conclusions are at times faulty, he does strike on something of the truth, much as a stone touches water while skipping across a deep lake.
[2] Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Benjamin Jowett (trans.) (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988), 40-41.
[3]. “Don’t let us go to life for our fulfillment of our experience… It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection; through Art, and through Art only, that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.” Quoted from his essay, “The Critic as Artist” in Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (New York, NY: Avon Books An Imprint Of Harper Collins Publishers, 1965), 13.
[4] Wilde interpreted this play to his friend Robert Ross as follows: “It is exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy…that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality” (Ibid. 18).
[5] Ibid. 14.
[6] For a more in-depth treatment of Wilde’s philosophy of life and art, I highly recommend the introduction by Henry Popkin contained in the 1965 Avon Books publication of The Importance of Being Earnest.
[7] For further study concerning the four relationships of man see: F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth: Theology for a Postmodern World (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publishers, 2001), 140-142.
[8] “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all people I will be honored” (Lev. 10:1-11).
[9] David Wells writes about the effects of this overemphasis on God’s immanence: “The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common.” David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 30.
Recent Comments