Glory: Mortal Reward Worthy of Pursuit

Mortal rewards for the mortal actions of a mortal man makes sense; however, the idea that a mortal man may do mortal actions and yet receive eternal rewards is a fundamental belief of Anno Domini (AD) religions, e.g. Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, etc. However, glory has often been looked down upon as being inherently full of pride and corruption. Yet glory, as an eternal concern on this temporal world worthy to be striven for, can be used to influence others in a positive way, rendering all the more people eligible to receive eternal rewards for mortal actions.

Treating those things that are mortal with only mortal concern would be to live aesthetically, forgetting faith, and to live without bothering to concern one’s self with eternal things. This however is impossible; forgetting faith would render life unlivable. Faith is taken into account in every aspect of life: evolution takes faith, atheism takes faith, religion takes faith. Fundamentally, we trust that chairs will hold us and that mirrors reflect us accurately, yes; but this is on a day-to-day level, often seen as of lower significance in comparison to grander, broader ideas. Science is the study of fact—empirical, calculable, and quantifiable data—and is therefore devoid of faith in study. Yet the moment it is incorporated to practice, faith becomes the underlying (and yet, overseeing) principle that guides the entire study. Faith is not religion based; religion is faith based. Faith is on a higher categorization than religion, evolution, creationism, science, or atheism. To not concern one’s self with eternal concerns is to take faith out of the equation, and since faith cannot realistically be taken out, one must always concern one’s self with eternal concerns, for every mortal thing has eternal concerns attached to it through faith, at least, if not through other attachments as well. Glory is an example of such an eternal concern—a concern that supersedes this world, this time, and this life in that it will be remembered at least by God, if not by history.


Glory, according to a believing Christian, on this Earth is meaningless; it will not be carried on into the afterlife. But I, and as asserts the philosopher and historian, Petrarch, believe that it does have its place. To advise one to “live without glory” is not based on doctrine, nor is it based on tradition even. This type of belief comes from fear—misplaced fear that makes the heart and soul feel that grace is not sufficient. Searching for glory may have problems, but glory itself is of no harm directly. I will admit, as does Petrarch, that glory can be a poison to the soul of a Christian, but it is not inherently evil as many would have it be. The good in glory is that once glorified, influence is gained. If the glory was won through ethical and moral merit, then that influence can be used to an extreme level—to being able to carry more to God with less pride. To be stripped of glory is to be humbled, but to be given glory is not necessarily to be prideful. Was not King David glorified; was not Paul glorified; was not Peter glorified?

The difference between glory for personal acquirement, and glory for reflected vision from one’s self to a greater good (e.g. God, morals, freedom, etc.) is that the glory is used as a stepping-stone or as a soapbox, respectively. Whereas Augustinus implores Fransicus to “forget your own advantage in trying to bring advantage to others, and this in the vain hope of glory you waste unwitting this brief span of life,” I would rather say that remembering our advantages in trying to bring advantage to others, through a valid hope of glory, will unwittingly bring meaning and hope to, not only our own brief span of life, but to that of many, many others, too. Influencism requires influence to be able to bring about change in a larger group. This change may be good or it may be bad, but one should never forget the advantage of striving to gain it in order to give it back to the people once more—to be able to “give yourself back to yourself” truly, and not just keep one’s self private in the glory sense. In other words, if you have been given the gift (advantage) of attaining glory (and subsequently, influence), to keep one’s self only in one’s self would be burying the talent in the ground when the master leaves; on the other hand, using this gift to give back to yourself so that you can give back to the people (lead the people correctly through influence) is multiplying that talent and returning to the master’s hand more than what was first given.