A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

68 A Source Book for Ancient Church History§ 18. Heathen Religious Feeling and Culture in Relation toChristianity[056]The Christian religion in the course of the latter part of thesecond century began to attract the attention of heathen writers;it became an object of literary attack. The principal literary opponentof Christianity was Celsus, who subjected the Christiantraditions and customs to a searching criticism to prove that theywere absurd, unscientific, and false. Lucian of Samosata, doesnot seem to have attacked Christianity from any philosophical orreligious interest, but treated it as an object of derision, makingsport of it. There were also in circulation innumerable heathencalumnies, many of the most abominable character. These havebeen preserved only by Christian writers. It was chiefly inreference to these calumnies that the Christian apologists wrote.The answer to Celsus made by Origen belongs to a later period,though Celsus represents the best philosophical criticism ofChristianity of the latter part of the second century.(a) Celsus, The True Word, in Origen, Contra Celsum. (MSG,11:651 ff.)The work of Celsus against Christianity, or The True Word,written about 178, is lost, but it has been so incorporated in theelaborate reply of Origen that it can be reconstructed withoutmuch difficulty. This Theodor Keim has done. The followingextracts from Origen's Contra Celsum are quotations fromCelsus or references to his criticism of Christianity. ForOrigen, v. infra, § 43, b.I, 1. (MSG, 11:651.) Wishing to throw discredit upon Christianity,the first point Celsus brings forward is that the Christianshave entered secretly into associations with each other whichare forbidden by the laws; saying that “of associations some are