THE CITY

The City
pagans) are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God”
(1 Apol. 6.1). “What sober-minded man,” Justin further argues, “will
not acknowledge that we are not atheists [atheoi], worshipping as we
do the Maker of this universe . . . ” (ibid. 13.1). He adds further that
“those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though they have
been thought atheists [atheoi]” (ibid. 46.2). In his Second Apology (c.
161) Justin complains that Crescens the pagan philosopher unfairly
describes Christians as “atheistic and impious [atheōn kai asebōn]” (2
Apol. 3; the story is retold in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4.16.3). Tatian (c.
160) complains too that the Greeks exclude Christians “from civic
rights as if we were the most godless [atheōtatoi] of men” (Address to
the Greeks 27.1). Athenagoras (c. 177) devotes several chapters of his
apology, in order to counter the charge that Christians are atheists
(Concerning the Christians 4–30).
The accusations and counter-accusations of atheism in late antiquity
rarely had anything to do with what we moderns understand as
atheism. Jews, Christians, and pagans all believed in the existence of
God or gods. A few pagans may well have entertained philosophical
atheism, but they were very few and their atheism seems largely to
have been a reaction to the crude and contradictory nature of much
of the polytheism of their day.
The real atheism of late antiquity was practical atheism, the belief
that God or the gods were indifferent to human affairs or that God
or the gods simply did not or could not observe human behavior.
The practical atheism of late antiquity is not unlike the atheism
that is reflected, as we have seen, in a few of the ancient Hebrew
scriptures. Although people believe in God, they often live as if God
is not present. The person who thinks and lives like that, says the
Psalter, is a fool.
By way of conclusion, what is worth noting is that the practical
atheism of the biblical period and late antiquity is much like the
atheism of today. Most of humanity believes that God exists, but
much of humanity lives as though God does not exist or, if he does,
he takes little interest in human affairs. The atheism of today is much
more than what we see in writings and pronouncements of atheist
celebrities, such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Atheism is
much more than an explicit denial of the existence of God. The
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