Tea Drinking as a Spiritual Practice
This makes me long for a Christian account of the spiritual significance of tea, or Christian advice for drinking tea as a spiritual practice. Christianity certainly has the theological resources for this sort of thing, and I’m sure someone has written on it. But I don’t know where to find it, and it seemed easier to write something myself. So let’s start with the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:
Tea: God’s idea.
From this we learn that God invented tea, and that it is good. So here is my advice for drinking tea Christianly. Prepare your tea carefully and reflectively, remembering the doctrines that God created the world and that God is good. As you drink your tea, be grateful for your tea, and say a prayer of thanks to God for inventing it and letting you share in His good idea.
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About The Author
Dr. Mark J. Boone
Dr. Mark J. Boone is a teacher and researcher in philosophy, especially the history of philosophy, primarily the ancient and medieval eras, writing his dissertation on Saint Augustine. Dr. Boone is the Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Forman Christian College. Mark is an occasional book reviewer for the journal Augustinian Studies and has written articles dealing with Plato, William James, theology and the arts, and religious epistemology. In some of his precious little spare time Mark makes animated cartoons based on famous speeches and dialogues in the history of philosophy, available on YouTube and Vimeo under the username TeacherofPhilosophy.
Sorry to ruin your thought, but some might suggest that you could replace “tea” with “marijuana” and “drinking” with “smoking.”
Does this provide a counterexample to your use of Scripture and/or your hypothesis?
-MelancholyDane
It sure would be a counterexample if we took the passage out of its theological context!
But given Romans 12 on honoring God with one’s body, Romans 13 on the need to obey civil laws, and various passages against drunkenness which are easily applied to drug highs, I think the smoking of marijuana is excluded from this reasoning of 1 Timothy 4:4-5.
I like this post. I’m going to pretend that you said “latte” instead of “tea.”
Delightful post, Mark. I can’t help but think of the Commonwealth tradition of tea time in connection to communion: a shared experience and a fellowship.
Amen, Reneamac!