Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 8 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
The Life of the Early Christians  /  Modest Dress & Cosmetics  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 8
Bercot argues cosmetics are different from clothing because they add to God’s workmanship and often aim at being attractive to strangers; in what ways does that critique expose contradictions in modern Christian talk about “freedom,” and how would you answer the claim that cosmetics communicate dissatisfaction with God’s creation?
Another way to ask: Bercot says makeup is different from clothing because it adds something to what God made and often aims to attract strangers. How does that challenge the way Christians talk about “freedom,” and how would you answer the claim that makeup can show unhappiness with how God made you?

Direct Answer According to Bercot, “freedom” talk can become a way to excuse what is plainly aimed at pleasing strangers and enhancing attractiveness, which is hard to call neutral. He argues cosmetics often communicate, “I’m not satisfied with the beauty that God has given me,” and early Christians viewed this as an affront to God’s workmanship and connected it to falsehood.

Support from Transcript:

  • He contrasts clothing vs cosmetics: modest dress covers what God made “very good,” but cosmetics “add on things to what God created.”
  • He puts words to the cosmetic motive: “I’m not satisfied with the beauty that God has given me… I will look beautiful to strangers.”
  • He notes a pattern: women often go without makeup at home (with husband) but would “never do that” around others, making innocence claims “pretty hard.”
  • Tertullian: women “sin against God” with rouge/antimony because God’s “artistic skill… is displeasing.”
  • Cyprian: altering appearance “adulterate[s]” God’s “image and likeness… Does anyone dare to alter and change what God has made?”
  • Apostolic Constitutions: “Do not paint your face… the want and extra adorning… is an affront to the creator’s work.”
  • Clement/Tertullian/Cyprian also connect cosmetics to “falsehood” and a “fictitious face.”
Discussion Follow-ups How would you distinguish basic grooming from “extra adorning” meant to attract? If cosmetics are framed as dissatisfaction with God’s work, what heart posture would repentance look like—gratitude, contentment, simplicity?

Jumpstarter 8 of 10
Back Questions Next