On Script Theory and Disgust Psychology

On Script Theory and Disgust Psychology: The Use of Psychological Models as it Pertains to the
Culture of Purity in the Donatist Movement
1
Introduction
Anyone who studies church history quickly notices how it is marked with much strife and
discord. Such actions are often found to be in conflict with the general teachings of Jesus Christ,
the leader and the head of the Church, who consistently called for peace and unity in the face of
extreme violence and persecution. Sadly, these notions have often been jettisoned and forgotten
by the Church. In its stead, violence and conflict reign. The Donatist Schism reflects this terrible
reality. During this time, the Roman Catholic Church and the Donatists engaged in both physical
and verbal aggression against one another. Previous scholarship highlighted the theological
nature of this event but failed to take into account the cultural nature of this theological situation.
The purpose of this paper is to use psychological models such as Script Theory and disgust
psychology to better understand the complex interaction between theology and culture as it
pertains to the culture of purity within the Donatist Movement.
The paper will be divided into three sections. The first section will give a brief overview
of Script Theory, disgust psychology, and the Donatist Schism. The second section will bring all
these various ideas into a cohesive whole as it bears upon the Donatist culture. Script Theory will
provide a framework to understand Donatist culture in general; disgust psychology will provide
the tools to explore this subject in a more specific manner. The third section will examine how
Script Theory and disgust psychology can inform us concerning issues that the church has faced
in the past and in the present. The emerging picture will lead to a better insight into the
formation of the culture of purity within the Donatist Movement.
2
Script Theory: A Brief Overview
Our life is one big script. From the moment we are born to the day we die, we are
constantly living out a script. Some of it is innate while some are socially constructed. There is a
script for everything that we do. For getting ready for school: one hits the alarm clock button,
blearily opens ones eyes, and gets up from ones bed. After showering, brushing teeth, fixing
hair, and putting on clothes, one walks out the door, locks it, and proceeds to find a means of
transportation. One might walk or bike, or drive. Each individual will have different ways to live
out their script. However, there are enough similarities in our basic human experiences to
acknowledge that though the sequence of actions may differ, the end goal is still the same.
Script Theory is based on Silvan Tompkins work. In script theory,
the scene, a happening with a perceived beginning and end, is the basic unit of analysis.
The whole connected set of scenes lived in sequence is called the plot of a life. The
script, in contrast, does not deal with all the scenes or the plot of a life, but rather with the
individuals rules for predicting, interpreting, responding to, and controlling a magnified
set of scenes.1
This particular model allows for the possibility of providing a way to understand the actions
committed by individuals, both in autonomous and group settings. Identifying the usage of a
particular script could potentially lead to better comprehension of that particular individual or
groups actions.
Framed this way, it is easy to misunderstand Script Theory and label it as fatalistic in its
outlook. Since everyone is following a script, then it seems that all of our actions are already predetermined. This, however, is not how Script Theory works. Script Theory is an
Sedgwick, Frank, and Alexander, Shame and Its Sisters : A Silvan Tomkins Reader, 180.
3
acknowledgement that scripts play a pervasive and ubiquitous role in our lives. It may help
explain ones actions but it does not necessarily control it. The individual is free to change their
particular script at any time. Script Theory allows for variability. By doing so, it allows for the
unpredictable. In life, nothing goes according to plans. Script Theory is but a reflection of this
same philosophy. Variables are built into the system to prevent an outlook that promotes harsh
fatalism. Our fate is not written in stone. We play an active role in our own script. Script Theory
gives enough parameters to provide predictive power yet enough flexibility to account for
variability.2
In the case of the Donatist Schism, learning more about the ideological script provides a
way forward in understanding the motivation and intent that has guided the Donatist
Movements actions against the Roman Catholics and the Roman government. Ideological
scripts address the full spectrum of good scenes and bad scenes, of heavens and hell.3 They
also speak of the dangers of losing ones way and of going to hell rather than to heaven.4 There
is also no guarantee that the world will be exactly as we would like it.5 Another script that is
helpful to consider is the limitation-remediation script. This script addresses those aspects of the
human condition perceived to be imperfect, or insufficiently satisfying, and to which some longterm response must be made.6 Some limitation script may elect to accept the limiting scenes
and try to profit as much as possible within these limitations.7 For example, the English
Victorian script of understanding their lowly position within the social hierarchy as my station
The general features of a script can be found in the Appendix.

4
5
6
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3
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and its duties fits this type of thinking.8 Another example of a limitation remediation script may
elect a resignation script like that which might occur in conditions of slavery, where
resistance would have been perceived as guaranteeing death.9 It is important to note that a
limitation script need not represent passivity or acceptance of ones situation.10 It may be
combined with hope, the great engine of the religions of the oppressed from the days of the
early Christians in Rome through the plantations in the American South.11 This particular
combination has proven to be effective in building resilience within the early church.
Another script that is important to consider concerning the Donatist Schism is the
decontamination script. Decontamination scripts deal with barriers, conflicts, ambivalences, and
plurivalences which arouse deep disgust.12 The success of decontamination lies in the ability to
either distance the self from the contaminated other or by accepting the contamination.13
This script can provide further insight into the behaviour of the Donatists, particularly in regards
to the way they viewed the traditores (traitors).
Disgust Psychology: A Brief Look on What is Disgusting and our Reaction
In his book Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality by Richard Beck,
the author gives an example of how disgust psychology works. He asks his readers to imagine
being offered a glass of juice. However, before handing over the glass, a cockroach is dropped in
the juice, stirred around, and then removed from the glass. Will you drink it? Most people will
refuse to drink it and rightly so! This reaction is not surprising since it has come into contact
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with the cockroach so the juice is judged as impure and unclean. The surprising thing happens in
the laboratory of Paul Rozin, who asked additional questions concerning this issue. It is
understandable that most will refuse to drink the contaminated juice, but what if the juice was
filtered through one of the filters that are used to purify tap water? What if the juice was filtered,
boiled, and filtered again? The study showed that most people continued to refuse to drink the
juice even though they rationally knew that the boiled and filtered juice was purer than most tap
water. They also rejected it knowing that what they were doing was irrational.14 Rozins research
helps us see that judgments of contamination play by their own rules. And these rules are very
often contrary and impervious to logic and reason.15 The juice is still seen as dirty despite all the
methods used to clean it from its initial contamination. This contamination-based reasoning
is often immune to reason and rationality.16 The irrational aspect of this type of reasoning is a
defining feature of disgust psychology.
Charles Darwin begins his exploration of disgust by centering it in the rejection of food
and the sense of taste. He states that the term disgust
in its simplest sense, means something offensive to the taste. It is curious how readily this
feeling is excited by anything unusual in the appearance, odour, or nature of our food. In
Tierra del Fuego a native touched with his finger some cold preserved meat which I was
eating at our bivouac, and plainly showed utter disgust at its softness; whilst I felt utter
disgust at my food being touched by a naked savage, though his hands did not appear
dirty. A smear of soup on a mans beard looks disgusting, though there is of course
nothing disgusting in the soup itself. I presume that this follows from the strong
association in our minds between the sight of food, however circumstanced, and the idea
of eating it.17
14
Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 22-23."

Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 23."
16
17
Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 256-57.
15
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It is true that the etymology of disgust means unpleasant to the taste. 18 However, it also
involves not just by extension but at its core smell, touch, even at times sight and hearing.
Above all, it is a moral and social sentiment.19 It also plays a motivating and confirming role in
moral judgment in a particular way that has little if any connection with ideas of oral
incorporation. It ranks people and things in a kind of cosmic ordering.20 At its core, disgust
reveals a strong sense of aversion to something perceived as dangerous because of its powers to
contaminate, infect, or pollute by proximity, contact, or ingestion.21 22Not only does this
aversion result in physical acts of avoidance, it also manifests itself in social acts of ostracism.
Avoiding the person contaminated by sin is analogous to avoiding the juice that was
contaminated by a cockroach. Both acts serve to eliminate the idea of being polluted through
having contact with something or someone impure.
The idea that contact with something impure can contaminate ones self is not limited to
oral actions such as ingesting polluted food. When presented with a sweater that was identified
as belonging to Hitler, most people refused to try to wear it. There were others who also refused
to lie down in the same bed that had been previously used by a homosexual.23 What studies like
this reveal is that people tend to think about evil as if it were a virus, a disease, or a contagion.
Evil is an object that can seep out of Hitler, into the sweater, and, by implication, into you if you
18
From the word dis (a negative prefix) + gustus (taste).

Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust, 2.
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21
22
Disgust can also be a deeply felt, direct, physical and mental response to a stimulus or it can be a calm act of
internal or interpersonal speech, a label used to identify properties of a situation that one is assessing. In either
instance, disgust serves to organize or divide experience in a number of important ways. In particular, it establishes
the idea that experience can be divided into good and bad, inside the self and outside the self, and it states, by way of
the spitting and vomiting actions intimately associated with it, that the boundary between inside and outside can be
crossed so that whatever is bad can be got rid of, thus leaving the self in a purified and undisturbed state. The disgust
experience and concept also can serve the individuals wishes to rid himself of psychologically noxious substances
in the way that the automatic vomiting of sickening food rids the body of noxious foodstuffs. Miller, "Disgust :
Conceptualization, Development and Dynamics " 300.
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try the sweater on. Evil is sticky and contagious. So we stay away.24 Contamination psychology
becomes a helpful paradigm to assess our theology of what is wrong and evil and our response to
it.
William Miller argues in his book Anatomy of Disgust for the importance of disgust in
structuring our world and our stance toward that world.25 He continues on to say that the ideas
of pollution, contagion, and contamination are not constrainable to the body; stenches begin to
arise from sinful deeds and also from lowly positions in the social hierarchy.26 His mission in
writing the book is to demonstrate that emotions, particularly ones like disgust and contempt,
make possible social orderings of particular stripes, and that it behooves social and political
theory to care about these emotions and how they structure various social, moral, and political
orderings.27 I cannot help but agree with him in his desire to incorporate the importance of
emotions in understanding social, moral, and political orderings. I would add to this list the area
of theology. The role of emotions in theology is often treated superficially within the popular
culture and is often silent in scholarship. While I do not disagree with the value placed on the
Scriptures when it comes to the ordering of the Christians life, emotions play a crucial and
important part in both the personal and communal theological narratives.
Donatist Schism: An overview
302 AD marked the beginning of the systematic persecution of Christians under the
emperor Diocletian. Under his reign, Christians were forced to recant their faith and give up their
Sacred Scriptures under pain of torture and/or death. While Christians have been persecuted in
24
Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 25-26."

26
27
25
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the past, this was the first instance of an empire-wide systematic persecution. Many Christians
capitulated to the Roman governments demands. 312 AD marked the end of the persecution,
culminating in the signing of the Edict of Milan in 313 AD that promoted religious tolerance.
The question that the Church needed to answer in face of this event was the treatment of
the Christians deemed to be traditores (traitors) or lapsis (lapsed).28 Should such people be
accepted into the Church after committing such an act against the faith? There was a sharp
division in the Church in its response. The Catholics argued that if the traitors were truly
repentant, forgiveness should be offered. The Donatists vehemently opposed the acceptance of
those who did not stand up for the faith when it truly mattered. These two disparate responses
within the Church eventually came to identify and define the Donatist Schism.
The following is a brief account of the events that led to the Donatist Schism. Caecilianus
was elected and proclaimed as Bishop of Carthage. However, his appointment was contested by
others who disputed the validity of his appointment based on the fact that Felix, the priest who
appointed him as bishop, was deemed a traitor. Since the words and acts of a traitor were invalid,
any appointments made were also forfeited. As an alternative, Majorinus was elected and
declared as the competing Bishop of Carthage. After his death, Donatus came to be their leader.29
It is from him that the term Donatist comes.
Upon further examination of this theological debate, one can lose sight of the cultural
aspect that undergirds this theological situation. The election of Caecilianus as Bishop of
Carthage was contested by the bishops of Numidia because they were not invited to participate in
the election that eventually proclaimed Caecilianus as bishop of Carthage. The election of a
28
29
Wright, Heretics: The Creation of Christianity, from the Gnostics to the Modern Church, 70.
Frend, Religion, Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries, 142.
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bishop involved the votes of both Carthaginian and Numidian bishops. In their haste to elect
Caecilianus, the Carthaginian bishops voted without waiting for the arrival of their Numidian
brothers. This act was seen as a perceived snub by the rural Numidians from the urban
Carthaginians. It provided the impetus for electing Caecilianus rival, Majorinus, as the Bishop
of Carthage in an attempt to show the Carthaginians that they were not to be easily dismissed in
theological matters.30 Furthermore, the appointment of Majorinus as the competing bishop also
had suspicious beginnings. Lucilla was a woman who possessed wealth and power, whose
influence extended to theological matters. Because of her extreme devotion, she kissed a holy
relic with such reverence that it offended Caecilianus upon seeing it. Caecilianus rebuked her,
and she was offended by his perceived meddling. As a result, she used her considerable wealth
and power to finance the campaign of Majorinus as the Bishop of Carthage. Prior to becoming
Bishop of Carthage, Majorinus was a slave in Lucillas household.31 It is impossible to view such
actions without acknowledging that the theological dissent between the Roman Catholics and
Donatists was influenced by cultural elements.
It is important to note that the question of which side deserved recognition as the
Christian Church in Africa also hinged, for example, on a clear demonstration that neither was
just some fringe sect, but had a numerous and widespread representation from all parts of
Africa.32 Both parties went to great lengths to prove their legitimacy through the number of
bishops they had and the extent to which Donatism had spread.33 The Donatists claimed that they
were the true North African Church by tracing their lineage back to Cyprian, a North African
Church Father while the Roman Catholics traced their lineage back to Rome. Nthamburi asserts
30
Wright, Heretics: The Creation of Christianity, from the Gnostics to the Modern Church, 71.
Greenshields and Robinson, "African Christianity : Disputes, Definitions and Donatists," 25-26.
32
Greenshields and Robinson, "African Christianity : Disputes, Definitions and Donatists," 26.
33
Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, 27.
31
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that the Donatist Church was the first Church in the ancient world that was ready to challenge
the social and economic order in the name of justice and religion. The peasant uprising of the
circumcellions could be compared with the peoples' revolt against imperialism and colonialism
in modern Africa. In both cases, religious and social aspirations cannot be separated.34 By
primarily viewing the Donatist Schism from a strictly theological lens, it prevents us from fully
understanding what the Donatist Schism stands for and signifies.35
The violence that erupted between the Donatists and the Roman Catholics was extremely
violent and protracted. Since the Roman Catholics had no qualms in using the state as the sword
to take away land and churches that belonged to the Donatists, the Donatists returned such
violence in kind. The state used its legal powers to seize property and reallocated it to Catholic
clergy. As a result, the Donatists committed grievous acts of violence as a form of retaliation.
Constantines interference into church affairs also created a new problem: in his desire to use
Christianity as a political tool to unite his kingdom, he forced the church to conform to a set of
rules that made it both heretical and illegal to disobey said rules. This form of orthodoxy was
then used as a standard that would define who was in and who was out. The Roman Catholic
vision of unity was one that had no place for diversity. The North African Church vision was
different: Their counter-vision ran something like this. Each region, each culture, had
developed its own Christianity. What is universal in the Christian message, its moral center, is
34
Nthamburi, "The Relevance of Donatism," 219.

It is rather interesting that the Donatist Schism was a uniquely African event. It never took root anywhere else
other than in Africa and was not recognized by either the Eastern or Western Church. Le schisme demeurait
toutefois une affaire exclusivement africaine: il ne prit jamais racine hors de lAfrique et ne fut reconnu par aucune
glise dOrient ou dOccident. Decret, Le Christianisme en Afrique Du Nord Ancienne, 142.
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to be found in each peculiar expression given to it.36 The Roman Catholic way of understanding
orthodoxy has led to a creation of an us vs. them mentality.
Script Theory, Disgust Psychology and Donatist Schism, oh my!
With the brief description of these terms delineated, this portion of the paper will now
describe how all of these ideas interact with one another in forming a culture of purity,
particularly among the Donatists. As noted previously, the Donatist Schism was not only a
response to an ecclesiological question it was also a response to political and social issues that
saw the Donatists as the target of oppression by the state and the church. With all these issues
swirling in the air, it was only a matter of time before the whirlwind would appear.
One of the important things to establish when creating a culture of purity is the erection
of barriers to properly define purity and impurity. Contagion is an important concept to examine
because it is intrinsically connected to questions of purity. How one can become impure is a
question of utmost importance. Rozin et al. talk about the four principles of contagion:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
Contact: Contamination is caused by contact or physical proximity.

Dose Insensitivity: Minimal, even micro, amounts of the pollutant confer harm.
Permanence: Once deemed contaminated, nothing can be done to rehabilitate or
purify the object.
Negativity Dominance: When a pollutant and a pure object come into contact the
pollutant is stronger and ruins the pure object. The pure object doesnt render
the pollutant acceptable or palatable.37 38
Rozins ideas concerning contagion provide a way forward in understanding how a culture of
purity is built by particular groups. The Donatists believed that associating with traitors could
potentially contaminate them. As a result, they avoided any physical or social contact with them.
36
Greenshields and Robinson, "African Christianity : Disputes, Definitions and Donatists," 34.
38
Rozin, Millman, and Nemeroff, "Operation of the Laws of Sympathetic Magic in Disgust and Other Domains."
37
12
A debate arose about how the word traitor should be defined. When threatened, some
Christians surrendered Greek works such as medical treatises to the government, instead of
handing over Sacred Scriptures. The Donatists went so far as to accuse them of being traitors
because they chose to capitulate to the governments demands. According to the Donatists, a true
Christian would not even give a hint of surrendering anything to government forces. As Rozin et
al. noted, even just a small amount of dirt is enough to pollute the object. No amount of
cleansing can make the object clean again. Dose insensitivity and permanence of impurity play a
crucial role in promoting and perpetuating the impure label.
One of the four things that make up disgust psychology is the fact that it is a boundary
psychology: Disgust is a system that monitors boundaries. Disgust regulates the act of
incorporation and inclusion.39 The appointment of Caecilianus by Felix, a traitor, meant that
Caecilianus appointment was null and void since a traitor conferred the position onto him. Any
action by Felix, or Caecilianus, is non-binding and functionally irrelevant since it held no weight.
The Donatists decided that the baseline for every Christians purity is the one that they have
created.40 Those who agreed with them were right. Any dissenters were viewed as traitors.41
Disgust psychology speaks of how disgust is a violently expulsive mechanism. In mild
forms disgust simply prompts withdrawal and avoidance. In stronger forms disgust involves
violent rejection, expulsion, or elimination.42 The verbal and physical violence committed by
the Donatists, especially by the circumcellions, demonstrate the extent to which disgust
39

They wanted everything in the church to be spiritually lined up, ordered, walled-in, and purified. They made
their way in a struggle of wills and became a self-appointed in-group which ruled out everyone else. Marty, The
Christian World : A Global History, 58.
41
Sundkler et al. notes that in modern terms one would characterize the Donatists as a holiness movement.
According to them the true Church consists of holy members. They are also responsible for creating the holiness
code of conduct that everyone must adhere to. Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, 26.
42
40
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psychology played into the Donatists cultural mindset. Circumcellions were known to hide
along the main roads and hit random people on the head while screaming Praise God! They
were accused of committing grave violence against Roman Catholics by violating the churches
and stealing prized possessions. All of these actions were done with a pure conscience. There
was no experience of inner conflict in the disparity between their actions and the righteousness
they espoused. Verbal and physical aggression against others was justified by their belief that
since they were righteous, even the violence they perpetrated was deemed righteous and
necessary.
Chen-bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist state that research on the correspondence between
physical and moral purity has speculated that people are predisposed to use categories that are
based on bodily experience (such as clean versus dirty) to construct complex social categories
(such as moral versus immoral). For example, in English, words such as clean and pure
describe both physical and moral states (e.g., he has a clean record).43 When someone commits
an impure act, the physical act of washing can substitute for the spiritual version of cleansing
that they are asking for and trying to achieve. Since there are psychological, physiological, and
neurological overlap(s) between physical and moral disgust, physical cleansing acts that mitigate
physical disgust might also reduce social or moral disgust, thereby alleviating moral
condemnation.44 Perhaps the baptism received by the Donatists and the physical act of washing
their hands and body allowed the Donatists to prevent cognitive dissonance between their actions
and the biblical tenets they were proclaiming to obey. This physical cleansing could be the
means they employed to retain their violent tendencies without being in conflict with scriptural
arguments that speak of showing love to others and being peace makers.
43
44
Zhong and Liljenquist, "Washing Away Your Sins : Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing," 1451.
Zhong and Liljenquist, "Washing Away Your Sins : Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing," 1451.
14
Optatus, in his book Against the Donatists, spoke of the barbaric treatment suffered under
the Donatists. Of the Donatists actions, he says
You came raging; you came full of wrath, rending the members of the Church; subtle in
your deceits; savage in your slaughters, provoking the children of Peace to war. A large
number you banished from their homes. Approaching with a hired band, you rushed upon
the Basilicas. Many of your party throughout numerous districts (which it would be too
long to mention by their names) worked massacres so bloody, that the judges of the time
sent a report to the Emperor concerning deeds of such atrocity.45
These are both egregious and grievous charges against the Donatists by the Roman Catholics.
The third feature of disgust psychology can speak to this situation. Disgust is by nature
promiscuous: disgust is often found regulating moral, social, and religious experiences.46 In
North Africa, Constantine consistently showed preference to Catholic Christians over the
Donatists. He distributed money and favors only to those bishops in communion with Caecilian,
the Catholic bishop of Carthage.47 48 Not only did he favour the Catholics with gifts, he also
gave civil and military authority to Caecilianus.49 This was not viewed in a positive light by the
Donatists. Traditionalist North Africans who would later form the Donatist movement scorned
those who opted for exterior conformity to the edicts of the State.50 They viewed the Catholics
as the Christians who left the true church and became members of the church affiliated with the
Empire.51 In light of such a perspective, the fact that Catholics were awarded all of these
favours by the State only reinforced the perception of corruption present in the Roman Catholic
Church. Since the Catholics wealth was ill-gotten and undeserved, the Donatists were justified
in seizing their wealth, even if it was done through violent force. Their disgust at the Roman
45
Optatus and Vassall-Phillips, The Work of St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, Against the Donatists, 96.
47
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, xxxi.
48
Eusebius and Maier, The Church History 10.6, 10.7.
49
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, xxxi.
50
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, ix.
51
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, ix.
46
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Catholic Churchs actions moulded and shaped their interactions with both the church and the
state.
Magical thinking is the last feature of disgust psychology:52 The contamination
appraisals involved in disgust are characterized by magical thinking, which overrides reason and
logic. Consequently, when disgust regulates moral, social, or religious experience magical
thinking is unwittingly imported into the life of the church.53 Beck argues that the logic of
contamination is called magical because it makes causal judgments that defy the laws of
physics.54 Food coming into contact with a pollutant will make it dirty. When we start applying
this mentality to people, it becomes problematic. With dose insensitivity, even a minute amount
of dirt is enough to contaminate an object. Permanence suggests that the object which has been
polluted cannot be made clean. Roughly translated, "a teaspoon of sewage will spoil a barrel of
wine, but a teaspoon of wine will do nothing for a barrel of sewage."55 Once this type of thinking
permeates a culture, it makes it difficult to view others in the image of God.56 Instead, the Other
is seen as unclean, impure, and will stay in that state of impurity forever.57
52
Rozin et al. states that the laws of sympathetic magic have two basic dimensions. First, the "magic" can be
positive or negative; thus, in contagion, contact of an object with a loved or respected person can enhance the value
of the object (positive contagion), whereas contact with a disliked or despised person (or an offensive substance
such as feces) can devalue the object (negative contagion). Second, transmitted essence can mediate effects either in
its source or in its recipient. Rozin, Millman, and Nemeroff, "Operation of the Laws of Sympathetic Magic in
Disgust and Other Domains," 703.
53
54
Beck, " Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 27."
55
Rozin, "A Perspective on Disgust," 32.
56
In an experiment conducted by Sherman et al., they discovered that disgust not only makes people want to avoid
impurities, but also makes people better able to see them. Based on their findings, it could be assumed that one of
the reasons why the Donatists had difficulty viewing Catholics as their brothers and sisters is due to their
hypersensitivity to the Catholics impurities. Sherman, Haidt, and Clore, "The Faintest Speck of Dirt : Disgust
Enhances the Detection of Impurity," 1512.
57
Hodson and Costellos experiment tried to address a gap in the literature, exploring mechanisms explaining the
relation between disgust and inter-group attitudes. Gordon and Costello, "Interpersonal Disgust, Ideological
Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes," 696. They tried to demonstrate that
interpersonal-disgust sensitivity in particular relates to ideological orientations and de-humanizing out-group
perceptions in ways that can effectively account for prejudicial attitudes. Gordon and Costello, "Interpersonal
Disgust, Ideological Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes," 691. It could be
16
Disgust psychology is a helpful tool in allowing us to understand the violent actions
committed by the Donatists against the Roman Catholic Church and the government. While
disgust psychology allows us to focus and zoom in on the Donatists actions, Script Theory can
show us the big picture. The Donatist culture is influenced by ideological scripts: scripts that
address the full spectrum of good scenes and bad scenes, of heavens and hell.58 The cult of
martyrs probably played a huge role in the way that the Donatists viewed the question of who
was going to heaven or hell. Tilley notes that from the days of the Scillitan martyrs and
Perpetua and Felicity to the era of Cyprian, fidelity under trying circumstances provided a point
of self-definition for North African Christians.59 She adds that the experience of group
solidarity in persecution helped to define them against their non-Christian neighbors.60 Due to
the fascination and elevated view of martyrdom in the Donatist movement, they were convinced
that martyrdom would ensure them a place in heaven. This type of mentality drove them to seek
out ways to become martyrs: they would intentionally provoke others to kill them or fling
themselves off of cliffs. While this type of behaviour was categorically condemned by Origen, it
was still prevalent among certain groups and individuals.
The limitation-remediation script also plays a role in the way that Donatists understood
their world. Their world imposed severe restrictions on their actions but instead of either
accepting the limitations inflicted upon them or resigning themselves to their fate, they chose to
fight. Nthamburi describes the Donatist movement as the first Church in the ancient world that
was ready to challenge the social and economic order in the name of justice and religion.61 He
argued that the de-humanizing (de-Christianizing) views of the Donatist Movement against the Catholics assured the
perpetuation of their hostile attitudes against them.
58
59
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, xiii.
60
Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories : The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, xiii.
61
17
further opines that the peasant uprising of the circumcellions could be compared with the
peoples' revolt against imperialism and colonialism in modem Africa. He concludes by stating
that in both cases, religious and social aspirations cannot be separated. They are inseparably
intertwined, and we are warned against the attempt to separate social, economic and religious
factors within Donatism.62 Their script enabled them to react in a way that vigorously resisted
the limitations they faced.
Decontamination script is one that deal[s] with barriers, conflicts, ambivalences, and
plurivalences which arouse deep disgust.63 The Donatists traced their lineage back to Cyprian.
In this way, they could claim that they were the true North African Church.64 By doing so, they
created a clear barrier between their indigenous movement and the foreign Catholics who traced
their lineage back to Rome. Thus, the Roman Catholics actions against them, especially since it
was done using the states resources, further alienated the Donatists from the Catholics. Such
actions effectively dismissed the Catholics from being treated as their brothers and sisters in
Christ. By labeling Roman Catholics as Other, Donatists were able to justify their aggressive
treatment of Catholics, as they neither belonged to the true church or the kingdom of God at
large.
Edward Saids Orientalism deals with the Wests creation of Orientalism. The problem
happens when an idea of reality is created, rather than defined. Orientalism reflected the
dominant cultures conception of the Orient instead of a true account of what Orientalism truly
meant. 65 This is an ongoing problem with the decontamination script the creation of an
62

64
The Donatists claimed that they constituted the traditional church of Africa, because they maintained the
principle that a contaminated bishop infected his whole congregation if he was allowed to remain in office. Botha,
"The Extinction of the Church in North Africa," 26.
65
Said, Orientalism.
63
18
Other enables one to commit grave injustices that are justified and rationalized by a culture of
purity that demands strict boundaries that seek to eliminate contamination at all costs.
Script Theory and Disgust Psychology as it applies to Theology: Answering the question of
so what?
As practical theologians, we are faced with the question of so what? How can using
Script Theory and disgust psychology affect our theology? Or should it even affect the way we
practice and think about theology? This is the question that I seek to answer in the next section.
What is pure? What is impure? These are questions that the early church all the way to
our current North American evangelical setting has tried to answer throughout the last two
thousand years. Diverse standards and ideas of what should be deemed as pure or impure have
been posited over time. This lack of uniformity should alert us to the notion that this question is
not a simple one; differing hermeneutics by different Bible-believing, Trinity-affirming
believers, reveal the complexity this question poses to us as Christians.
Circumcision: to be, or not to be, that is the question
Barriers play a very important role in creating a culture of purity.66 They help define who
is in and who is out. The early church, coming out of Judaism, understood the role of
circumcision within this paradigm. Those who were circumcised belonged to the Lord while
those who were not circumcised did not belong. To be a Christian a child of God it is only
right that those seeking to belong to the kingdom would also bear the mark of fidelity and
belonging ascribed to circumcision. Yet, the early church decided against this notion. They
66
Beck presents a way forward in the discussion of disgust psychology affecting our theology. He argues that
certain facets of love involve a suspension of disgust and contamination sensitivity. Further, it could be argued that
disgust is a prerequisite for certain types of physical or emotional intimacy. That is, disgust establishes boundaries
of contact and intimacy; and love, as a secondary mechanism, allows those boundaries to be blurred or dismantled.
He continues: The conclusion we arrive at is that disgust, fundamentally, is involved in a boundary-psychology.
That is, disgust psychology monitors physical and sociomoral spaces to protect purity and defend against
contamination. Certain aspects of love, by contrast, involve dismantling boundaries. Beck, "Spiritual Pollution: The
Dilemma of Sociomoral Disgust and the Ethic of Love," 55.
19
argued that a circumcision was needed but it was a circumcision of the heart, not the penis, that
was demanded by God. This idea was not necessarily a New Testament thought the Old
Testament foretold it. By arguing that circumcision was not a prerequisite to belong to
Christianity, the movement effectively removed another barrier that was once used to separate
people.67 Circumcised and uncircumcised people can now be a part of Gods kingdom.
If, as disgust psychology posits, impurity is permanent and even a minute amount of
pollutant is enough to contaminate an object, then barriers are important to ensure the purity of
objects. If such a statement were only applied to objects, there would be no problem. The
problem begins when this type of thinking leaks into our social environment. If circumcision is a
sign of purity, it is only right that our theology should also express itself in such a way that purity
is maintained and guarded at all costs. However, if we regard the circumcision of the heart as the
true sign of purity, then our views concerning circumcision are bound to change. Our theology is
not disembodied; it arises out of a particular social context. Often, it is a reaction to pressing
social needs. Too often theology can be framed as if it was composed of abstract concepts. My
desire is to remind us of the fact that our theology is culturally embedded.68 Our humanity will
seep into our conception of the divine.
Culture of Purity: The Case of World Vision
The case of World Vision provides a fantastic case study of how a dominant subcultures
culture of purity affects our expression of theology. On March 24, 2014, World Vision U.S.
announced that they were revising their employment policies concerning same-sex married
67
Rozin et al. mentions that there is evidence that violations of the ethics of divinity (especially violations of food
and sex taboos) engage the full disgust evaluation output. People feel disgust for divinity violations. Rozin, Haidt,
and Fincher, "From Oral to Moral," 1180. Thus, the early churchs dismissal of circumcision as a necessary action to
be included in the kingdom of God is both revolutionary and an example of doing theology contextually.
68
As Looy asserts: The triggers of disgust are learned in community and play a crucial role in cultural identity,
revealing our embeddedness and relationality Many disgust triggers are linked explicitly to divine expectations
and demands, reflecting human spirituality. Looy, "Embodied and Embedded Morality : Divinity, Identity, and
Disgust," 222.
20
couples. Previously, such groups were barred from employment; the new revisions would have
provided acceptance for this group to be employed by World Vision U.S. Richard Stearns, the
president of World Vision U.S., went on to declare that "this is not an endorsement of same-sex
marriage. We have decided we are not going to get into that debate. Nor is this a rejection of
traditional marriage, which we affirm and support."69 He goes on to say that they are not making
any theological statements. As a parachurch organization, they leave such matters to the local
church.
As news spread of this change in World Vision U.S.s hiring policies, conservative
evangelicals went on the offensive. The blogosphere lit up and there was a backlash against this
move. Many Christian denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, and individual donors
threatened to remove their support and even informed their congregations of different
organizations they could support in lieu of World Vision. The main narrative emerging out of the
evangelical world was this: World Vision U.S. has broken faith with true Christianity. By
employing same-sex married Christians, they have affirmed that homosexuality is not a sin.
According to conservative evangelicals, the call for Christian unity should not encompass unity
with those who are impure and unregenerate.
On March 26, 2014, World Vision U.S. issued a reversal of its stance. A mere forty-eight
hours was all it took for the organization who initially said they were neutral on the matter of
homosexuality to issue this statement:
In our boards effort to unite around the churchs shared mission to serve the poor in the
name of Christ, we failed to be consistent with World Vision U.S.s commitment to the
traditional understanding of Biblical marriage and our own Statement of Faith, which
says, We believe the Bible to the be inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of
God. And we also failed to seek enough counsel from our own Christian partners. As a
69
Gracey and Weber, "World Vision : Why We're Hiring Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages."
21
result, we made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our
Statement of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage.70
In the wake of conservative evangelicals backlash, and donor support attrition, it was only a
matter of time before World Vision U.S. would capitulate to the dominant Christian subcultures
demands. While some would argue that this is a theological issue and I agree that theology
does play a role in this situation the question of purity and impurity is clearly interwoven in
this narrative. The fact that conservative evangelical Christians have no qualms in withdrawing
support from orphans who are in deep need in order to maintain their theological purity is both
startlingly evident and problematic. Their desire for theological purity trumps the physical needs
of a starving child. It seems that the kingdom of God is seen to be more in danger when a
parachurch organization allows the possibility of employment for Christians in same-sex
marriages than the fact that these same Christians are more than willing to let the poor and needy
die of hunger. Decontamination scripts and disgust psychology allow us to understand why this
would be the case.71
As a foil to World Vision U.S., World Vision Canada issued a statement in regards to the
questions they were receiving due to World Vision U.S.s statement. In it, they clearly state the
difference between how the two organizations are being run. World Vision Canada stated:
70
Gracey and Weber, "World Vision Reverses Decision to Hire Christians in Same-Sex Marriages."
Hatemi and McDermott conducted an interesting study on the role of disgust and purity in democratic debate.
They mention that in providing an overview and integration of the work on disgust and its relationship with
political orientation, we emphasize the way in which moral judgments differ depending on ideology. Ideology, in
turn, informs our understanding of who constitutes a member of the in-group and who remains outside the fold. In
what is argued to be the foundational work on disgust with regard to democratic debate, Haidt and Graham show a
clear delineation in the type and number of moral dimensions along which people evaluate other individuals,
actions, and events. These differences are partly why liberals and conservatives appear to have such difficulty
achieving agreement on issues involving moral and cultural judgments in particular; they literally bring different
definitions and moral compasses to their evaluation and assessment of the meaning and value of objects, events, and
people. Their article provides further insight in the role of disgust and purity within a political context and how it
affects the way people interpret facts based on their political leanings. Hatemi and McDermott, "Policing the
Perimeter : Disgust and Purity in Democratic Debate," 680.
71
22
Despite the changes in the World Vision United States hiring policy this week, World
Vision Canadas approach has remained consistent. Canadas legal environment is quite
different from that of the United States. We comply with provincial laws on this matter
which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. For example, as part of
our hiring process, we do not ask questions about sexual orientation, marriage or related
issues.72
This response is another example of how a particular socio-political context can manifest itself in
a uniquely different theological expression.73
Conclusion
According to J.E. Merdinger, the North African church during the late fourth and early
fifth centuries was the second most powerful church in the West.74 Evidence suggests that by 200
AD, there were already established Christian communities in the land.75 This theologically vibrant
community gave birth to the Donatist movement. By the time the Donatist movement was formed,
Christianity had already managed to gain an incredible foothold in the land.
North Africa was the bread basket of the Roman Empire. She was the crown jewel of Rome.
Trade with North Africa and the importance of Carthage made it a place where people from different
cultures converged and traded not only merchandise, but ideas and philosophies, as well. It is within
this particular socio-political context that the ideological, limitation-remediation and
decontamination script of the Donatist movement was formed. Christianity had already enjoyed a
strong presence for at least a century by the time the Donatist movement emerged.
Script Theory is a methodological tool that can be used to explain how the Donatist
movement formed their culture of purity. In light of their heavy emphasis on the cult of martyrs, their
ideological script favoured martyrdom as a way of entering heaven. Thus, their violent actions were a
72
Canada, "Our Christian Identity : Responding to World Vision Us Hiring Policy Discussion."
I cannot help but agree with Curtis assessment that disgust is a powerful emotion that plays an underappreciated
part in all of our lives, not just in our everyday hygiene habits and in our manners, but in our response to disease, to
social hierarchy, to those who are different from ourselves and to immorality. Disgust is a double-edged sword that
is both the first line of defence against disease, but also a cause of much human suffering. Curtis, "Why Disgust
Matters," 3486.
74
Merdinger, Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine, ix.
75
Nickerson, A Short History of North Africa, 30.
73
23
way of courting martyrdom in their society. Limitation-remediation script can address why they
rebelled against the limitations that were enforced upon them instead of either accepting the
limitations or resigning themselves to oppression. Decontamination script helps us to understand
their preponderance for building barriers and treating the Roman Catholics as an Other.
Disgust Psychology gives us access to look at the Donatists culture of purity in greater
detail. The four features of disgust psychology provide a way to interpret the motivation and
rationalization behind the physical and verbal violence the Donatists employed against both the
Roman Catholic Church and the Roman government. It also addresses the issue of disgust
psychology leaking into the churchs theology.
Finally, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the cultural nature of our theological
expression. It is a reminder of the often forgotten fact that our socio-political context affects the way
we construct and live out our theology. The issue of the necessity of circumcision as a Christian
identity marker in the early church gives us an example of how divisive our cultural interpretations
can be. It also reveals how our cultural identity finds a way to weave itself into our theology. The
World Vision U.S. example affirms the fact that the dilemma surrounding purity is an issue that
continues to this day. The disparity between the reactions of the U.S. and Canadian counterparts also
acknowledges the role of our socio-political context in expressing our theology within our own
cultural context. It is a reminder that our theology has visible and tangible results. Hopefully, such a
recognition will lead us to greater epistemological and practical humility in our lives.
24
APPENDIX
These are the general features of all scripts
1. Scripts are sets of ordering rules for the interpretation, evaluation, prediction, production,
or control of scenes.
2. They are selective in the number and types of scenes which they order.
3. They are incomplete rules even within the scenes they attempt to order.
4. They are in varying degrees accurate and inaccurate in their interpretation, evaluation,
prediction, control, or production.
5. Because of their selectivity, incompleteness, and inaccuracy, they are continually
reordered and changing, at varying rates, depending on their type and the type and
magnitude of disconfirmation.
6. The coexistence of different competing scripts requires the formation of interscript
scripts.
7. Most scripts are more self-validating than self-fulfilling. Thus, a mourning script
validates the importance of the lost relationship, but in the end it frees the individual from
that relationship. A nuclear script which attempts to reduce shame validates the self as
appropriately shameworthy more than it succeeds in freeing the individual of his burden.
A commitment script validates the importance and necessity of the struggle, but the
achievement of the commitment may erode it or require its redefinition to continue. A
hoarding script validates the danger of insufficiency more than it guarantees against its
possibility. A power script validates the danger of powerlessness more than it guarantees
the adequacy and perpetuation of power. A purity script validates the impurity of the
individual more than it guarantees his purity.
8. The incompleteness of scripts necessarily requires auxiliary augmentation. This may be
gained via media mechanisms (eg vision) which provide relevant contemporary
information which cannot be entirely written into any script except in a general way.
Even the simplest habitual skilled script, such as shaving, requires a mirror; driving a car
requires constant monitoring no matter how skilled the driver. One cannot begin to use
any script without much information which cannot be scripted in advance. Further, one
normally requires auxiliary media information gained by use of the arms and legs, to
reach further information as well as to alter perspectives. Again, one requires speech
and/or written language as auxiliary sources of information, past as well as present.
Therese are also media mechanisms but culturally inherited media. Next one requires as
auxiliaries, compressed information in the form of theories, lay and professional, about
causal relationships, signs or omens, intentions and consequences. Next, one requires the
memorially supported plot, which is a sequentially organized series of scenes of the life
one has led and the lives others have led. Then one requires maps, which are
spatiotemporal schematics which enable the plots to be handled more economically. We
possess maps of varying degress of fineness of texture, normally generated by their
usefulness for different scripts. The difference between a duffer and a professional tennis
player is reflected not only in the differences between their families of tennis scripts but
also in the detail of the maps of their opponents past performances. Finally, one script
may use another script as auxiliary. Thus, Calvinism used the entrepreneurial activity of
25
the economic competition script to increase the probability of grace in warding off the
hell fires of their vivid version of the life hereafter.
9. Scripts contain variables as alternatives. Variables are those rules which as alternatives
depend on auxiliary information to further specify. A script thus may, for example,
differentiate strategy and tactics, conditional upon variable auxiliary information. Thus,
Hitler gave orders to his generals to march on the Ruhr but to retreat at any sign of
resistance from the French. A child may learn to script a relationship with a parent in
which he extorts as much as possible just within the limits of the patience and power of
the indulgent but irascible other. The auxiliary information need, however, not be limited
to external information. An otherwise deeply committed individual may nonetheless
exempt himself from his major concern should he become ill or seriously disturbed or
depressed. Very few scripts are conceived as completely unconditional, since they are
designed to deal with variable selected features of selected scenes. When unanticipated
conditions are encountered, the individual has the option of further adding to the script
not when Im sick or no matter what, I must keep at it. Indeed, as we shall presently
see, it is just such encounters and their absorption which are critical in the deepening of a
commitment script.
10. Scripts have the property of modularity. They are variously combinable, recombinable,
and decomposable. The separate scripts may be aggregated and fused, as when a career
choice combines scripts which enable an individual to explore nature, to be alone, and to
express himself through writings, as in the case of Eugene ONeill, who chose to live at
the oceans edge in solitude as he wrote his plays. Compare such a set of component
subscripts with that of a lumberjack who enjoys nature but in the company of others and
also exercising his large muscles. Contrast both with an archeologist who is enchanted
with the rediscovery of the past, with others, in very special remote nature sites. Not only
is each component of a single script endlessly combinable and recombinable, but so are
scripts themselves, as when addictive scripts for smoking, eating, and drinking are
combined in a bottoming out-nuclear script.
Scripts may also be partitioned, as in the classic neurotic split libido and in the characteristically
French separation of family and mistress one cherished for enjoyment and continuity, the other
for novelty and excitement.76
76
Sedgwick, Frank, and Alexander, Shame and Its Sisters : A Silvan Tomkins Reader, 181-183.
26
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On Script Theory and Disgust Psychology: The Use of Psychological Models as it Pertains to the

Culture of Purity in the Donatist Movement

The general features of a script can be found in the Appendix.

Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 22-23."

From the word dis (a negative prefix) + gustus (taste).

Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 25-26."

Nthamburi, "The Relevance of Donatism," 219.

Contact: Contamination is caused by contact or physical proximity.

Beck, "Unclean : Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Morality, 26."

Nthamburi, "The Relevance of Donatism," 219.

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