Eritis Sicut Deus: You Will Be Like God

Faust in his arrogance, as Mephistopheles patiently waits.
An etching from page 4 by Harry Clarke in
Faust - by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (translated by Bayard Taylor)

I'm stuck on and struck by many nuanced messages that fell out of the tragedy of Faust, which I just finished reading (here for quick a summary of the story). For example, in what seems to be an unimportant filler scene from Act IV, Faust leaves Mephistopheles (the devil) alone in his study. A young student comes to Faust seeking direction in what to study. Mephistopheles, pretending to be Faust, immediately seizes the opportunity to ensnare the young man. The devil deceives the student with his feigned wisdom and great knowledge. He directs him away from the study of theology and directs him to study words. Convincing the student that he was sharing a great secret of wisdom, Mephistopheles writes the following in the young man's notebook: 

“Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum"

(You will be like God, knowing good and evil). 

The trap of Mephistopheles was hauntingly familiar, and it certainly was one that had worked before.* As the young man leaves awestruck, Mephistopholes says under his breath: 

Follow the ancient text, and the snake thou wast ordered to trample!  

With all thy likeness to God, thou'lt yet be a sorry example!

The student naively believed that words from his renowned teacher could save him. In reality Satan exulted in knowing that by using a catchy phrase, he had persuaded the student to follow the same serpent that was climbing the trees in the Garden of Eden. This old, but simple formula worked: this young student was now less like God that ever before. 

Fundamentally, Faust made the very same mistake. Supremely arrogant, he trusted solely in his own intellect, his knowledge and his power with words.  He no longer feared the devil and considered God unnecessary. He just needed one favor, and that's where Mephistopheles factored in. It was the perfect storm. 

When I first met Faust in Act I, I was struck by his Abrahamic ambitions for knowledge.** Tragically, in his hour of desperation, he summoned a devil to help him. Contrast this with Abraham who called on the Lord in his hour of desperation. Where Faust was enslaved, Abraham and was delivered and enlightened.*** 

Seeking knowledge is an essential part of becoming more like our Savior. But in this quest we must ever remember that knowledge of good and evil is not enough to make us like God.**** And it is certainly not our intellect or our clever aphorisms that will save us in our moment of terror.

_________

* Genesis Chapter 3
** Abraham 1:2 describes Abraham's desires for happiness, peace, rest and great knowledge in a way that resembles the inner yearnings expressed by Faust in his study.
*** Abraham 1:15
**** Even knowledge of the divinity of Jesus Christ is not enough to make us like God: Mark 5:1-14; Acts 19:13-16

Addiction: Alypius & The Gladiators (Part 2)

The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, 1863
by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Walter Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

The story of Alypius' addiction to gladiatorial games in the waning years of the Roman Empire has me thinking about human susceptibility to addiction in general (here for part 1 of this story).

When I lived in Boston, I was the Home Teacher of a man that became addicted to crack cocaine.  Eddie was not the kind of guy you think of when you say 'crackhead'.  He was smart, sophisticated and wealthy. He lived in a luxury high-rise apartment downtown.  He had worked for years as an auditor for multinational accounting firm. When he found the church he was all in; he was totally passionate about the gospel. On one visit I could tell there had been a significant change in Eddie.  Over the next few months he opened up to me about his problems with drugs. He told me that he tried crack cocaine once, and knew immediately that he was hopelessly addicted (I remember feeling the same way the first time I caught a trout on a dry fly). His love for God and the gospel took a back seat. I watched on rather helplessly as he gradually withered. Though I tried to keep in touch after I moved to Nevada, he wasn't interested. Ultimately he died angry and bitter. 

You cannot become addicted to cocaine without trying it first; you can't become a slave of the Colosseum without going to watch the games. Alypius' problems didn't begin with a decision to go see Christians be covered in pitch, crucified and then set ablaze, or sewn into animal hides and left to be torn to pieces by starving lions. Eddie's fight to the death with cocaine began when he threw caution to the wind and allowed another addict to talk him into buying the drugs they could then share. What Eddie and Alypius had in common on day one of their individual battles with addiction was an arrogance that made them feel invulnerable to something they knew was wrong. 


Augustine said that Alipius' soul "was more audacious than truly valiant--also it was weaker because it presumed on its own strength when it ought to have depended on Thee." The line that separates being valiant from being audacious is sometimes pretty thin.  To be valiant is to show courage, determination and excellence.  Audaciousness is a willingness to take bold risks, usually while showing impudent lack of respect to custom or prevailing wisdom. Alypius confidently proclaimed: “Though you drag my body to that place and set me down there, you cannot force me to give my mind or lend my eyes to these shows. Thus I will be absent while present, and so overcome both you and them.”  But this valiant exterior was just the facade of an audacious young man that had too much confidence in himself, and too little respect for Satan.

If audaciousness and excessive self-confidence sets the stage for our addictions, then it is supplemented by forgetting the we aren't supposed to face these challenges alone:

[The Lord] knows the mistakes we can so easily make: to underestimate the forces working for us and to rely too much on our human powers. And so He offers us the covenant to "always remember Him" and the warning to "pray always" so that we will place our reliance on Him, our only safety. Elder Henry B. Eyring, Always, CES Fireside (Oct Ensign 1999)

In Augstine's account of the addiction of Alypius, he also highlighted the way of out the nightmare in which Alypius was trapped. It seems that Augustine scooped every 12-step program ever published by pointing out that the Lord rescued Alypius and taught him "not to rest his confidence in himself but in thee". As he did so, Alypius walked away from one master into the arms of Another.