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1) "When Christianity gained control of the Roman Empire it suppressed the writings of its critics and even cast them into flames. Yet the number of fragments that survive- ironically, in the works of Christians written to refute them- is considerable, and they offer a vivid and uncommon portrait of Christianity." page xii
2) "The earliest Christian writings, highly theological and directed at Christian readers, present the life of Jesus and the beginning of the church as the turning point in history, whereas non-Christians see the Christian community as a tiny, peculiar, antisocial irreligious sect, drawing its adherents from the lower strata of society." page xv
3) "The book also has a theological purpose. I originally began to study pagan criticism of Christianity because I was interested in the early Christian apologists, those Christian thinkers who sought to present an intelligible and reasonable case for Christian claims within the language and the ways of thinking of the Greco-Roman world. The more I read the apologists, however, the more I realized that they could not be understood without first studying the attitudes of outsiders to Christianity, the ideas the apologists were trying to combat as well as the beliefs they thought compatible with Christianity and in whose framework they presented the Christian message. Most of the early apologists were brought up as pagans and only converted to Christianity later in life. The spiritual and intellectual world in which they were nurtured remained a part of their thinking after they became Christians." page xv
1) "His [Pliny's] world was that of the privileged upper class of Rome, his values those of the political and moral traditions of his ancestors, and his intellectual horizon that of Latin rhetorical education." page 4
2) Pliny referred to Christianity as a hetaeria, a club, like a firemen's club.
"Trajan had good reasons for prohibiting the organization of a firemen's organization. Associations of this sort organized by members of the same trade or occupation did not restrict their actives to matters of "professional" interest. The clubs were also social organizations, and the members met together regularly for food and drink, fun and relaxation, and support in times of trouble. As a consequence, they were a natural breeding ground for grumbling about the conduct of civic affairs and they often became involved in politics. Clubs would support candidates for local office, sponsor campaigns, and post campaign slogans on the walls of local buildings." page 13
3) "...the accusations of promiscuity and ritual murder appear only in Christian authors. They are not present in the writings of pagan critics of Christianity." page 21
4) Christianity as a Burial Society
"In his letter to the emperor Trajan, Pliny used two terms to characterize the Christians, "superstition" (superstition) and "political club" (hetaeria)." page 32
"The associations can be divided into three main types: (1) professional corporations, as for example, a guild of shipowners, fruit merchants, or plasterers; (2) funerary societies whose chief purpose was to provide burial expenses for deceased members and to insure that each member received a decent burial; (3) religious societies composed of the worshipers of a particular deity, such as the devotees of Bacchus or Isis. Seldom, however, were the activities of an association limited to one of these functions. Most combined several, if not all, of them. All types included some form of religious worship. . . . An association of fullers might, for example, serve as a burial society for its members and be dedicated to Minerva." page 36
"To the casual observer, the Christian communities in the cities of the Roman Empire appeared remarkably similar to religious associations such as the one described above or to a burial society such as the one at Lanuvium." page 44
"One of the chief points of Celsus's book against Christianity is that Christians formed "associations contrary to the laws" (c. Cels 1.1)" page 45
1) "Originally the word piety was used to designate the honor and respect one showed to members of one's family, children to parents, children and parents to grandparents, and everyone to one's ancestors. But the term came to be used in a wider sense, designating loyalty and obedience to the customs and traditions of Rome, to inherited laws, to those who lived in previous generations- in short to the "fatherland." As time went on, the term acquired a more specifically religious sense, meaning reverence and devotion to the gods and to the ritual or cultic acts by which the gods were honored, as for example the offering of sacrifices. But the older sense of the word was never lost. Piety embraced both the sense of reverence for the traditions of the family and the city and the more specifically cultic sense." page 56
2) "Roman religion was not, however, confined to the public realm. It also played a part in the life of the family, in associations and clubs, and as we saw in the previous chapter, and in the personal lives of individuals." page 57
3) "Not only were the Romans religious, they also considered themselves religious. They thought that religious devotion set them apart from other people." page 57
4) "In the cities of the ancient world, religion was inextricably linked with social and political life. One did not speak of "believing in the gods" but of "having gods," just as a city might "have laws or customs." Piety toward the gods was thought to insure the well-being of the city, to promote a spirit of kinship and mutual responsibility, indeed, to bind together the citizenry." page 58
5) " "Religion has been distinguished from superstition not only by philosophers but by our ancestors," says Cicero. For superstition implied "groundless fear of the gods" whereas religion consisted in "pious worship of the gods" (Nat. D. 1.117; 2.72). The superstitious person engaged in religious practices that neither honored the gods nor benefited men and women." page 60
6) "According to Plutarch, superstition set people off from the rest of society because the superstitious person does not use his intelligence in thinking about the gods. Instead he creates fearful images and horrible apparitions that lead to bizarre and extreme behavior. The superstitious man is also fanatical. His feelings toward the gods are exaggerated; he worships them with excessive awe; and he believes that one's lot in life is dependent not on what one does-namely, on human responsibility- but on the decrees of fate and fortune over which one has no control. The superstitious man "enjoys no world in common with the rest of mankind" (166c). To him the gods are "rash, faithless, fickle, cruel and easily offended," for they deal capriciously and arbitrarily with men and women (170e).
Because superstition leads to irrational ideas about the gods, the inevitable consequence is atheism. "Atheists do not see the gods at all," but the superstitious man "thinks they exist" and conjures up false ideas about them. He imagines fickle and willful gods who deal with men as playthings and shuns the ideas of the philosophers and statesmen who try to show that "the majesty of God is associated with goodness, magnanimity, kindliness and solicitude." For this reason, says Plutarch, "it occurs to me to wonder at those who say that atheism is impiety and do not say the same of superstition." The atheist "thinks there are no gods" but the superstitious person "believes in them against his will, for he is afraid not to believe." Hence superstition must be driven out, for it is the "seed from which atheism springs (167 d-e). There is "no infirmity comprehending such a multitude of errors and emotions, and involving opinions so contradictory, or rather antagonistic, as that of superstition." It is a worse evil than atheism, because instead of producing genuine religion it eventually leads men and women to have doubts about the very existence of the gods. For in trying to "escape superstition," people "rush into a rough and hardened atheism, thus overlapping piety (eusebeia) which lies between them (171f)." " pages 61-62
7) "Given this attitude that religion is a patrimony from the past which sustains the life of the state, it was inevitable that the piety of the persecutors would conflict with the new movement that had begun in Palestine. The Christians were seen as religious fanatics, self-righteous outsiders, arrogant innovators, who thought that only their beliefs were true. However, the Roman belief in divine providence, in the necessity of the religious observances for the well-being of society, and in the efficacy of traditional rites and practices, was no less sincere than the beliefs of the Christians." page 63
8) "To say, then, that Christianity is a superstition is not a matter of simple bias or the result of ignorance; it expresses a distinct religious sensibility. When Tacitus wrote that Christianity was the "enemy of mankind," he did not simply mean he did not like Christians and found them a nuisance (though this was surely true), but that they were an affront to his social and religious world. When later critics faulted Christians for not participating in civic affairs or in the military, the point of such criticism was as religious as it was social, although the specific acts mentioned do not appear to us to be religious. "You do not go to our shows, you take no part in our processions, you are not present at our public banquets, you shrink in horror from our sacred games" (Minucius Felix, Octavius 12). Roman games were religious events as well as shows for gladiators or gymnastic contests. As one early Christian put it, thus reflecting the world in which he lived, "What is a stage show without a god, a game without a sacrifice?" (Pseudo-Cyprian, De spectaculis 4). " page 66
Galen: The Curiosity of a Philosopher
1) "Galen, in contrast to earlier observers, did not view Christianity as a superstitious sect of a foreign cult. Instead he dignified Christianity (and Judaism) with the term "school," by which he meant a philosophical school , and he offered philosophical criticism of Christian and Jewish beliefs." page 73
2) "Galen's notion that Christianity was a philosophical school appears to have been a minority view." page 97
3) "From another of Galen's works it is clear that what lead him to call it a philosophy was the success Christians had in leading men and women to a life of virtue." page 79
4) "Viewed from the perspective of Plato's Timaeus, the Mosaic cosmogony appears to be the work of a capricious and unbridled deity who brought the world into being by an act of will without reference to the consequences of his actions." page 86
5) Referring to Plato's cosmology: "Certain things are impossible by nature and God does not - indeed cannot- do such things. . . . The world of nature cannot be understood unless it is recognized that all things, including the creator, are governed by unalterable laws according to reason. . . . God is part of nature." page 87
6) Referring to Celsus: "What is at issue, then, in this criticism of Christian teaching is not simply the idea of creation out of nothing but the Christian view that God is beyond the laws of nature and has sovereign power to deal with the world at will." page 90
7) " . . . the Christian view of God's will in creation offended Roman and Greek sensibilities. God, in the Greek view, dwelt in a realm above the earth, but he did not stand outside of the world, the kosmos. . . . The cosmos has its own laws, and all that exists- the physical world, animals, man, and the gods- are subject to nature's laws." page 91
Celsus: A Conservative Intellectual
1) "Celsus . . . complained that Christians sought out uneducated and gullible people because they were unable to give reason or arguments for their beliefs." page 77
2) "Celsus knew that Christian scriptures provided justification for eschewing appeals to reason and argumentation. "Some [Christians] ," says Celsus, "do no even want to give or to receive a reason for what they believe, and use such expressions as "do not ask questions; just believe,' and "Your faith will save you.' Others quote the apostle Paul. 'The wisdom in the world is evil and foolishness a good thing.' " (1 Cor 1: 25-26; c. Cels. 1.9)"
3) "Just because many in the churches were uneducated and illiterate, Christians had the reputation of being gullible and credulous. . . Christians were an easy target for the racketeers of the Roman Empire." page 98
4) "Celsus is the first critic to call Jesus a magician and charge the Christians with practicing magic. . . The practice of magic was a criminal offense in the Roman Empire and the word magician a term of opprobrium and abuse." pages 98 -99
5) "Celsus's charge that Jesus was a magician was not separate from his overall criticism of the Christian movement. He wished to show that Christians had no basis for claiming that Jesus was the son of God. He was not the only one to work wonders; others had similar power." pages 100-101
6) "Celsus, however, has a point, and it is central to his case against Christianity. Christians threatened the hard-won view that there was only one God, a conviction shared by many pagan intellectuals in the early empire, and which was thought to be distinctly superior to the polytheism and anthropomorphism of popular religion." page 106
7) "Belief in the one god of many names did not mean that the one god was the only god. . . . When a person worshipped these lesser gods, it was assumed that he or she was also worshipping the one high god." pages 106 -107
8) "The Jews were a significant minority within the Roman Empire, numbering four to six million people out of a population of approximately sixty million. In the provinces where Christianity first established itself- Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor- the Jews comprised a larger percentage of the populace." page 113
9) "In this milieu, where Christianity was a tiny unknown movement that had only recently originated and was only beginning to come to the attention of people, it perplexed pagans that Christians claimed to be inheritors of the Jewish tradition while at the same time rejecting the Jewish community and its customs and laws. . . . By continuing to observe the Jewish Law- circumcision, the food laws, celebration of Jewish festivals- the Jews preserved continuity with earlier Jewish tradition and showed they were faithful to the laws of Moses. The Christians, on the other hand, who claimed to be inheritors of this tradition, observed none of the Jewish laws." page 114
10) "Had there not been visible Jewish communities in the cities of the empire, the contention that Christianity had apostatized from Judaism would have been unpersuasive, even unintelligible." page 115
11) "One of Celsus's chief arguments, then, was that the Christian repudiation of its origin proved the illegitimacy of the new movement. . . . Celsus criticized Christians because they apostatized from Judaism." page 116, 118
12) "Celsus sensed that Christians had severed the traditional bond between religion and a "nation" or people. The ancients took for granted that religion was indissolubly linked to a particular city or people. Indeed, there was no term for religion in the sense we now use it to refer to the beliefs and practices of a specific group of people or of a voluntary association divorced from ethnic or national identity." page 124
13) "Celsus opposed the "sectarian" tendencies at work in the Christian movement because he saw in Christianity a "privitizing" of religion, the transferal of religious values from the public sphere to a private association." page 125
Porphyry: The Most Learned Critic of All
1) "Celsus wrote at a time when little was known about the Christian movement, when Christianity was a small sect gaining public attention for the first time. By the time Porphyry wrote, in the second half of the third century, Christianity had become a significant force within the Roman Empire." page 127
2) see notes on the book: Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains
Julian the Apostate: Jewish Law and Christian Truth
1) Julian's philosophy: "The true God is a spiritual being who is Lord of all and is known by all. "All humankind, without being taught, have come to believe in some sort of divinity" (52b). This God who is far superior to the national or sectional gods of the various nations does not revel himself at particular times and places. He is known to all men and women of good will who have trained their minds and spirits to contemplate God, and it is insolent for Christians to think that they have received a special revelation unknown to others." page 181
2) More of Julian's philosophy: "He singles out the story of the serpent in the garden of Eden. What kind of God is it, he asks, who would create men and women without the knowledge of good and evil? How can a good God create human beings without giving them wisdom, the capacity to be able to discriminate good and evil? If one takes the story at its face value, it is the serpent who should be praised, for it was the serpent who taught men and women moral responsibility." page 182
3) ". . . the God of the Bible is jealous. The Scriptures explicitly record God as saying, "I am a jealous God." What kind of God can this be? "If a man is jealous and envious you think him blameworthy, whereas if God is called jealous do you think it a divine quality?" (155c)." pages 182-183
4) More of Julian's philosophy: Julian repeats Celsus's charge of Christian apostasy from Judaism and wonders how Christians can claim to be inheritors of Judaism when they reject all of the laws of the Jews. He concludes that Christianity has nothing to do with Judaism. page 193
5) "Julian's dream [to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem] lived on, and the bitterness of Christian response to him shows that he had touched a sensitive nerve. The Achilles' heel of the Christian tradition was its relation to Judaism. The truth of Christianity seemed to require the demise of Judaism. For if Judaism was still a living religion, an alternative to Christianity, and the ancient Jewish traditions was still observed by Jews, and the Jewish Scriptures were still read and studied in Jewish communities, Christians could not claim to be the rightful inheritors of the patrimony of Israel and Jesus was not the Messiah who the Jews had awaited." page 195
"During the Enlightenment it became fashionable to set Christianity in opposition to classical antiquity. . . . To [Edward] Gibbon the Christians had "debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind" and "extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science." To [Gilbert] Murray they had substituted authority for reason." page 200
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