Godliness is a topic that brings about different reactions from different people. Some have a very negative view—stories like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter come to mind, where people interested in moral purity relentlessly persecute a woman and her illegitimate child. For others, godliness is greatly desired because people feel burdened and weighed down by guilt, shame and sin. They desperately want to be freed from the sins that beset and hound them. So then, what is godliness?