| Description |
xix, 214 pages ; 22 cm |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 207-209. |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Contents |
I. Pliny: a Roman gentleman. The making of a Roman official ; Travels of a provincial governor ; A Christian association ; Offerings of wine and incense. -- II. Christianity as a burial society. Church or political club? ; A sense of belonging ; A Bacchic society ; An obscure and secret association. -- III. The piety of the persecutors. Roman religion and Christian prejudice ; The practice of religion ; "We too are a religious people" -- IV. Galen: the curiosity of a philosopher. Philosophy and medicine ; Christianity as a philosophical school ; The practice of philosophy ; The arbitrary god of the Christians. -- V. Celsus: a conservative intellectual. Begging priests of Cybele and soothsayers ; The deficiencies of Christian doctrine ; Demythologizing the story of Jesus ; An apostasy from Judaism ; Religion and the social order. -- VI. Porphyry: the most learned critic of all. In defense of Plato ; The Jewish scriptures ; The Christian New Testament ; Philosophy from oracles ; The religion of the emperor ; Jesus not a magician ; An unreasoning faith. -- VII. Julian the Apostate: Jewish law and Christian truth. The emperor's piety ; Greek education and Christian values ; Against the Galilaeans ; The tribal god of Jews and Christians ; An apostasy from Judaism. |
| Subject |
Christianity -- Controversial literature -- History and criticism.
|
| Indexed Term |
Christian church Attitudes of Ancient Romans, to ca 360 |
| ISBN |
0300030665 |
|
