Alcohol in Christian history and tradition

For over 1,800 years, the regular use of wine in the celebration of the Eucharist and in daily life was the virtually universal and undisputed practice in Christianity. During the 19th and early 20th century, as a general sense of prohibitionism arose, many Christians, particularly some Protestants in the United States, came to believe that the Bible prohibited alcohol or that the wisest choice in modern circumstances was for the Christian to abstain from alcohol willingly. 
===Before Christ===
The Hebraic opinion of wine in the time before Christ was decidedly positive: wine is part of the world God created and is thus "necessarily inherently good,"Raymond, p. 48. though excessive use is soundly condemned. The Jews emphasized joy in the goodness of creation rather than the virtue of temperance, which the Greek philosophers advocated.Raymond, p. 49.
As the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile (starting in 537 BC) and the events of the Old Testament draw to a close, wine was "a common beverage for all classes and ages, including the very young; an important source of nourishment; a prominent part in the festivities of the people; a widely appreciated medicine; an essential provision for any fortress; and an important commodity," and it served as "a necessary element in the life of the Hebrews."Raymond, p. 23: "[Wine] was a common beverage for all classes and ages, even for the very young. Wine might be part of the simpelest meal as well as a necessary article in the households of the rich." Wine was also used ritualistically to close the Sabbath and to celebrate weddings, and circumcisions, and Passover.Wigoder, p. 799.
Although some abstentionists argue that wine in the Bible was almost always cut with water greatly decreasing its potency for inebriation, there is general agreement that, while Old Testament wine was sometimes mixed with various spices to enhance its flavor and stimulating properties, it was not usually diluted with water,Gentry, God Gave Wine, pp. 143-146: "[R]ecognized biblical scholars of every stripe are in virtual agreement on the nondiluted nature of wine in the Old Testament."Clarke, commentary on Is 1:22: "It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one- half of the quantity,) myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs." and wine mixed with water is used as an Old Testament metaphor for corruption.Is 1:22 Among the Greeks, however, the cutting of wine with water was a common practice used to reduce potency and improve taste. By the time of the writing of 2 Maccabees (first or second century BC), the Greeks had conquered Palestine under Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic custom had apparently found acceptance with the JewsDommershausen, p. 61: "The custom of drinking wine mixed with water — probably in the ratio of two or three to one — seems to have made its first appearance in the Hellenistic era."Raymond, p.47: "The regulations of the Jewish banquets in Hellenistic times follow the rules of Greek etiquette and custom."Compare 2 Mac 15:39 (Vulgate numbering: 2 Mac 15:40) and was carried into Jewish rituals in New Testament times.Compare the later Jewish views described in 
Under the rule of Rome, which had conquered Palestine under Pompey (see Iudaea Province), the average adult male who was a citizen drank an estimated liter (about a quarter of a gallon, or a modern-day bottle and a half) of wine per day,Broshi, p. 33. though beer was more common in some parts of the world.Broshi, p. 22.
===Early Church===
The Apostolic Fathers make very little reference to wine,Raymond, p. 88. but the earliest references from the Church Fathers make it clear that the early church used wine in their celebration of the Eucharist, often mixing it with water according to the prevailing custom.Justin Martyr, First Apology, "Chapter LXV. Administration of the sacraments" and "Chapter LXVII. Weekly worship of the Christians".Hippolytus of Rome (died 235) says, "By thanksgiving the bishop shall make the bread into an image of the body of Christ, and the cup of wine mingled with water according to the likeness of the blood." Quoted in The Didache, an early Christian treatise which is generally accepted to be from the late 1st century, instructs Christians to give a portion of their wine in support of a true prophet or, if they have no prophet resident with them, to the poor.
Clement of Alexandria (died circa 215) wrote in a chapter about drinking that he admires those who adopt an austere life and abstain from wine, and he suggests the young abstain from wine so as not to inflame their "wild impulses." But he says taking a little wine as medicine or for pleasure after the day's work is acceptable for those who are "moored by reason and time" such that they aren't tempted by drunkenness, and he encourages mixing water in with the wine to inhibit inebriation. He also says wine is an appropriate symbol of Jesus' blood.Compare the summary in Raymond, pp. 97-104.
Cyprian (died 258) rejects as "contrary to evangelical and apostolical discipline" the practice of some Gnostics, who used water instead of wine in the Eucharist. While still rejecting drunkenness, on the content of the cup he says, "The Holy Spirit also ... makes mention of the Lord’s cup, and says, 'Thy inebriating cup, how excellent it is!' [quoting a variation of Ps 23:5 (in the Hebrew numbering)] Now the cup which inebriates is assuredly mingled with wine, for water cannot inebriate anybody."
Basil the Great (died 379) likewise repudiated the views of some dualistic heretics who abhorred marriage, rejected wine, and called God's creation "polluted" and who substituted water for wine in the Eucharist. 
John Chrysostom (died 407) in a homily on 1 Timothy 5:23 stresses moderation and adds that the biblical passage in question is useful for refuting heretics and immature Christians who say there should be no wine. He emphasizes the goodness of God's creation and adjures: "Let there be no drunkenness; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine makes not drunkenness; but intemperance produces it. Do not accuse that which is the workmanship of God, but accuse the madness of a fellow mortal."
The virtue of temperance passed from Greek philosophy into Christian ethics and became one of the four cardinal virtues under St. Ambrose and St. Augustine.Raymond, p. 78. Drunkenness, on the other hand, is considered a manifestation of gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins as compiled by Gregory the Great in the 6th century.Gregory the Great. Moralia in Job, book 31, chapter 45.
===Middle Ages===
 
The decline of the Roman Empire brought with it a significant drop in the production and consumption of wine in western and central Europe, but the Eastern and Western Church (particularly the Byzantines) preserved the practices of viticulture and winemaking.
The medieval monks were renowned as the finest creators of beer and wine, were allotted about five liters of beer per day, and were allowed to drink beer (but not wine) during fasts.Will Durant describes the customs of England in the late Middle Ages: "a gallon of beer per day was the usual allowance per person, even for nuns" () Benedict of Nursia (died c. 547), who formulated the monastic rules governing the Benedictines, seems to prefer that monks should do without wine as a daily staple, but he indicates that the monks of his day found such a regulation too burdensome. Thus he offers the concession of a quarter liter (or perhaps, a half liter)That is, either about half a pint or a full pint. See Ancient Roman units of measurement - Liquid_measures and of wine per day as sufficient for nourishment, with allowance for more in special circumstances and for none as a punishment for repeated tardiness. Even so, he believes that abstinence is the best path for those who are gifted by God to restrain the bodily appetites.Holy Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter XL.
Thomas Aquinas (died 1274), a Dominican monk and the "Doctor Angelicus" of the Catholic Church, says that moderation in wine is sufficient for salvation but that for certain persons perfection requires abstinence, and this was dependent upon their circumstance. With regard to the Eucharist, he says that wine must be used and that must, unlike juice from unripe grapes, qualifies as wine because its sweetness will naturally turn it into wine, though freshly pressed must is ordinarily forbidden.
Drinking among monks was not universal, however, and in 1319 Bernardo Tolomei founded the Olivetan Order, initially following a much more ascetic Rule than Benedict's. The Olivetans uprooted all their vineyards, destroyed their wine-presses, and were "fanatical total abstainers," but the rule was soon relaxed. 
Because the Catholic Church requires properly fermented wine in the Eucharist — with a modern exception for alcoholic or allergic priests — wherever Catholicism spread, the missionaries also brought grapevines so they could make wine and celebrate the Mass. The Catholic Church continues to celebrate a number of early and medieval saints related to alcohol — for instance, St. Adrian, patron saint of beer; St. Amand, patron saint of brewers, barkeepers, and wine merchants; St. Martin, the so-called patron saint of wine; St. Vincent, patron saint of vintners. The Orthodox celebrate St. Tryphon as the guardian saint of vines and vineyard workers.
===Reformation===
As the Protestant Reformation began, the Reformers from Luther and Calvin to Zwingli and Knox strongly supported the enjoyment of wine as a biblical blessing,See West, Drinking and Mathison, "Protestant Transubstantiation" parts 2 and 3 for many examples. and indeed Calvin's annual salary in Geneva included seven barrels of wine. The Lutheran Formula of Concord (1576)Article 7 and the Reformed Christian confessions of faithBelgic Confession (1561), article 35Heidelberg Catechism (1563), questions 78-80Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), article 28Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), chapter 29, paragraph 3 also make explicit mention of and assume the use of wine, as does the 1689 Baptist Confession of FaithChapter 30, paragraph 3 and the Methodist Articles of Religion (1784).Article 18 In the Dordrecht Confession of Faith (1632), even the radical Anabaptists, who sought to expunge every trace of Catholicism and to rely only on the Bible, also assumed wine was to be used,Article 10 and despite their reputation as killjoys, the English Puritans were temperate partakers of "God's good gifts," including wine and ale.West, Drinking, pp. 68ff.
===Colonial America===
As the Pilgrims set out for America, they brought a considerable amount of alcohol with them for the voyage (more than 28,617 liters = 7,560 gallons),West, Drinking, pp. 79ff. and once settled, they served alcohol at "virtually all functions, including ordinations, funerals, and regular Sabbath meals."West, Drinking, p. 86. M. E. Lender summarizes the "colonists had assimilated alcohol use, based on Old World patterns, into their community lifestyles" and that "[l]ocal brewing began almost as soon as the colonists were safely ashore." Increase Mather a prominent colonial clergyman and president of Harvard, expressed the common view in a sermon against drunkenness: "Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil."Increase Mather (1673)."Wo to Drunkards." This Old World attitude is likewise found among the early Methodists (John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Adam Clarke, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury) and Baptists (John Gill and John Bunyan).
===Methodism===
John Wesley deplored distilled beverages such as brandy and whisky when they were used non-medicinally, and he said the many distillers who sold indiscriminantly to anyone were nothing more than poisoners and murderers accursed by God. In 1744, the directions the Wesleys gave to the Methodist band societies (small groups of Methodists intended to support living a Christian life) required them "to taste no spirituous [i.e., distilled] liquor ... unless prescribed by a physician." At the 1780 Methodist Conference in Baltimore, the churchmen opposed distilled liquors and determined to "disown those who would not renounce the practice" of producing it. In opposing spirituous liquor, but not beer or wine, the American Methodists anticipated the first wave of the temperance movement that would follow, and though they expanded their membership rule regarding alcohol to include other alcoholic beverages over the next century, they afterwards reverted to Wesley's—namely, to avoid "[d]runkenness, buying or selling spirituous [i.e., distilled] liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity". 
Wesley's Articles of Religion, adopted by the Methodist Episcopal Church in America in 1784, assume in Articles XVIII that wine is to be used in the Lord's supper and in Article XIX that it should given to all the people, not ministers only as in the contemporary Catholic practice. Coke and Asbury comment on the latter article saying, "St. Paul does not complain of [the lay Corinthians'] drinking the wine at the Lord's supper ... but of their both eating and drinking most intemperately" (emphasis in original).Coke and Asbury, notes on Article XIX, p. 24. Likewise, the listed duties for Methodist preachers indicate that they should choose water as their common drink and use wine only in medicinal or sacramental contexts,Methodist Episcopal Church, "Section XIII: Of the Duty of Preachers", p. 91. with Coke and Asbury commenting that frequent fasting and abstinence are "highly necessary for the divine life."Coke and Asbury, Note 6 on Section XIII, p. 93.
===Temperance movement===
In the midst of the social upheaval accompanying the American Revolution and urbanization induced by the Industrial Revolution, drunkenness was on the rise and was blamed as a major contributor to the increasing poverty, unemployment, and crime. Yet the temperate sentiments of the Methodists were shared only by a few others, until the publication of a tract by eminent physician and patriot Benjamin Rush, who argued against the use of "ardent spirits" (i.e., distilled alcohol), introduced the notion of addiction, and prescribed abstinence as the only cure. Some prominent preachers like Lyman Beecher picked up on Rush's theme and galvanized the temperance movement to action. Though losing influence during the American Civil War, afterward the movement experienced its second wave, spearheaded by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and it was so successful in achieving its goals that Catherine Booth could observe in 1879 that in America "almost every [Protestant] Christian minister has become an abstainer." The movement saw the passage of anti-drinking laws in several states and peaked in its political power in 1919 with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established prohibition as the law of the entire country but which was repealed in 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment.
Initially the vast majority of the temperance movement had opposed only distilled alcohol, which they saw as making drunkenness inexpensive and easy, and espoused moderation and temperance in the use of other alcoholic beverages. Fueled in part by the Second Great Awakening, which emphasized personal holiness and sometimes perfectionism, the temperance message changed to the outright elimination of alcohol.See Temperance movement#United States.Pierard, p. 28. Consequently alcohol itself became an evil in the eyes of many (but not all) abstainers and so had to be expunged from Christian practice — especially from the holy rite of the Lord's Supper. The use of unfermented wine for the Lord's Supper would take a strong hold in many churches (including American Protestantism). Some churches had detractors who thought unfermented wine to be unacceptable for the Lord's Supper. In 1864, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church expressly recommended that "in all cases the pure juice of the grape be used in the celebration of the Lord's Supper." Five years later (1869), Thomas Bramwell Welch discovered a way to pasteurize grape juice, adding to the traditional methods that have been used to prepare unfermented juice for use at any time during the year, e.g. to reconstitute concentrated grape juice, or to boil raisins, or to add preservatives that prevent juice from fermenting and souring. Welch used his particular preservation method to prepare juice for the Lord's Supper at a Methodist Episcopal church. Denominational statements (some long before Welch's pasteurized juice was widely available) required unfermented juice for the Lord's Supper. The Wesleyan Methodists (founded 1843), in the first edition of their Discipline, had expressly required for the Lord's Supper that "unfermented wine only should be used at the sacrament." (Thomas Welch himself had been ordained a Wesleyan Methodist minister in 1843.)
From 1838 to 1845 Father Mathew, the Irish apostle of temperance, administered an abstinence pledge to some three to four million of his countrymen, though his efforts had little permanent effect there, and then starting in 1849 to more than 500,000 Americans, chiefly his fellow Irish Catholics, who formed local temperance societies but whose influence was limited. In 1872 the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America united these societies and by 1913 reached some 90,000 members including the juvenile, women's, and priestly contingents. The Union pursued a platform of "moral suasion" rather than legislative prohibition and received two papal commendations. In 1878 Pope Leo XIII praised the Union's determination to abolish drunkenness and "all incentive to it," and in 1906 Pope Pius X lauded its efforts in "persuading men to practise one of the principal Christian virtues — temperance." By the time the 18th Amendment was up for consideration, however, Archbishop Messmer of Milwaukee denounced the prohibition movement as being founded on an "absolutely false principle" and as trying to undermine the Church's "most sacred mystery," the Eucharist, and he forbade pastors in his archdiocese from assisting the movement but suggested they preach on moderation. In the end, Catholicism was largely unaffected in doctrine and practice by the movements to eliminate alcohol from church life,McClintock and Strong, "Temperance Reform", p. 248: "[T]he [temperance] cause received a new impulse from the presence and labors of father Mathew, the Irish apostle of temperance, who came to America in June and spent sixteen months of hard work chiefly among the Irish Catholics. Crowds greeted him everywhere, and large numbers took the pledge at his hands. It is not surprising that a reaction followed this swift success. Many pledged themselves by a sudden impulse, moved thereto by the enthusiasm of assembled multitudes, with little, clear, intelligent, fixed conviction of the evils inseparable from the habits which they were renouncing. The pope, their infallible teacher both in regard to faith and morals, had never pronounced moderate drinking a sin, either mortal or venial; and even occasional drunkenness had been treated in the confessional as a trivial offence.... [T]he Catholic clergy, as a body, seem to have made no vigorous effort to hold the ground which the venerable father Matthew won; and the laity, of course, have felt no obligation be wiser than their teachers." Adapted from and it retained its emphasis on the virtue of temperance in all things.
Similarly, while the Lutheran and Anglican churches felt some pressure, they did not alter their moderationist position. Even the English denominational temperance societies refused to make abstention a requirement for membership, and their position remained moderationist in character. It was Protestantism from which the Temperance movement drew its greatest strength.Engs: "Levine has noted that 'in Western societies, only Nordic and English-speaking cultures developed large, ongoing, extremely popular temperance movements in the nineteenth century and the first third or so of the twentieth century.' He also observed that temperance – anti alcohol – cultures have been, and still are, Protestant societies." Many Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and other Protestants signed on to the prohibitionist platform. "The moderate use of intoxicants as a beverage," said an 1881 assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America is "the source of all these evils."Quoted in Williamson, p. 9.
The legislative and social effects resulting from the temperance movement peaked in the early twentieth century and began to decline afterward. The effects on church practice were primarily a phenomenon in American Protestantism and to a lesser extent in the British Isles, the Nordic countries, and a few other places.McClintock and Strong, p. 249, lists Sweden, Australia, Madagascar, India, and China. The practice of the Protestant churches were slower to revert, and some bodies, though now rejecting their formerly prohibitionist platform, still retain vestiges of it such as using only grape juice in the Lord's supper.
==References==
Category:Christianity