Celsus in his World: Philosophy, Polemic and Religion in the Second Century

Cover
Half-title
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction
	1 Introductory Issues
		1.1 Celsus\' Title
		1.2 The Purpose of the Alethes Logos
		1.3 Celsus\' Text
		1.4 The Date of the Alethes Logos
		1.5 The Provenance of the Alethes Logos
		1.6 Celsus\' Sources
	2 Celsus\' Intellectual World
		2.1 Celsus and Philosophy
		2.2 Christianity in the World of Celsus
		2.3 Jews and Judaism
	3 Conclusion
1 Of Scholarship, Piety and Community: Origen\'s Purpose(s) in Contra Celsum
	1 On Reading Well
	2 On Reading the Scriptures
	3 On Christian Scholarship
	4 On the Christian Scholar
	5 Conclusion
Apologetic and Internal Christian Argument in the Contra Celsum: A Response
2 Annotations on the Literary Structure of Celsus\' Alethes Logos: with special reference to the Second Speech of the Jew
	1 Celsus\' Examination of Christian Doctrine As Such: On a Particularly Far-Reaching Intervention by Origen in the Alethes Logos
	2 Criteria for Establishing the Order of the Fragments of the Alethes Logos
	3 On the Original Structure of the Second Speech of the Jew
		The Division of the Speech into Two Halves
		3.1 On the First Half of the Speech
		3.2 On the Second Half of the Speech
			3.2.1 A Second Partitio and New Themes
			3.2.2 On the Sequential Order of the Fragments in the Second Half of the argumentatio
			3.2.3 On Celsus\' Polemic against the Christian Interpretation of Jesus\' Punishment
		3.3 On the Overall Structure of the Second Speech of the Jew
		3.4 The Beginning and the End of the Speech As a Framework
			3.4.1 Correspondences between the Beginning and the End
			3.4.2 Undiscovered Traces of Celsus\' Words at the End of the Second Speech of the Jew?
	4 Conclusion
The Problem of the Structure of Celsus\' Alethes Logos: A Response
	1 The \'particularly far-reaching intervention by Origen\': Cels. 5 and 6
	2 The Structure of the Second Speech of Celsus\' Jew
	3 The Global Structure of the Alethes Logos
3 Celsus As Platonist Philosopher
	1 The alethes logos and Heraclitean Logos
	2 Anti-anthropocentrism
		2.1 Metaphysical Grounds
		2.2 Humans Are Not Privileged over Other Living Things
			2.2.1 Weather. Even If Storms and the Like Were God\'s Handiwork at All, They Are No More for Our Benefit Than for That of Plants
			2.2.2 The Diurnal Cycle: Day and Night Benefit Ants and Flies As Much As They Do Us
			2.2.3 Social Living: Not Unique to Humans
		2.3 Animals Are More Favoured Than Humans
			2.3.1 Farming Is a Constant Struggle for Humans; Other Animals Get By with Easy Foraging
			2.3.2 Hunters or Hunted?
			2.3.3 Animals Are Dearer to God
			2.3.4 Animals\' Knowledge of the Protective and Curative Powers of Certain Stones etc. Is Superior to Human Sorcery
			2.3.5 Prescience: It Is Thanks to Divine Favour That Animals, Especially Birds, Have Prophetic Powers
			2.3.6 Elephants and Storks Show a Superhuman Degree of Loyalty
	3 Animal and Human Souls
	4 The Phaedo
	5 Celsus and the New Academy
	6 Some Findings
4 Celsus\' Theology: Ineffable Logos and Impersonal Providence
	1 Introduction
	2 The Search for a Personal Creator
		2.1 The World Soul?
		2.2 A \'Second\' God?
	3 God As Logos
	4 Overview of Celsus\' Theology
	5 Envoi: Even \'Impersonal\' Gods Can Be Provident
5 Origen\'s Celsus and Imperial Greek Religiosity
	1 Celsus and Cult
	2 Celsus and Reason
	3 Celsus and
πίστις
	4 Celsus, Religious Authority and the Uneducated
	5 Further Theological Fragments
	6 Conclusion
Celsus on Texts and Practices of Ritual Power: A Response
6 Celsus, or Philosophy and the Second Sophistic
	1 Framing the Question
	2 Discursive Strategies and Sociocultural Capital
	3 The Political Reality of Rome
	4 Celsus As a Philosopher
Shaping the Religious Debate from within Second Sophistic Culture: A Response
7 Homer in Origen, Against Celsus
Homer in the Polemics between Celsus and Origen: A Response
8 The Gospel according to Celsus: Celsus\' Representation of Christianity
	1 Celsus and the Social Description of Early Christianity
		1.1 Celsus Sees Christianity As an Illegal Secret Society, Subverting Households and Destabilizing Society
		1.2 Celsus Sees Christianity As a Deviant Jewish Sect
		1.3 Celsus Sees Christianity As a Defective Philosophical School
		1.4 Celsus Sees Christianity As a Degenerate and Superstitious Thaumaturgical Cult
		1.5 Celsus Sees Christianity As a Multiplicity of Sects Derived from a Single Origin
	2 How Does Celsus Represent the Teachings of Early Christianity?
		2.1 Celsus\' Image of Christian Teaching Is Apologetic in Shape
		2.2 Incarnation and Crucifixion: A Gospel-Shaped Narrative
		2.3 From Creation to Judgement: A Theological Meta-narrative
	3 In Conclusion: Celsus As a Witness to Second-Century Christianity
Celsus on Christianity - A Detractor with a Constructive Agenda: A Response
9 The Reception of the Alethes Logos
	1 Pagan Literature
		1.1 Anti-Christian Treatises
		1.2 Other Pagan Literature
	2 Christian Literature
		2.1 Christian Apologetic Literature
			2.1.1 After Origen
		2.2 Allusions to Celsus in Non-apologetic Works
	3 Conclusions
Literary Influence and Polemical Tradition: A Response
10 Celsus\' Judaism
	Introduction
	1 Celsus\' Sources for Judaism
		1.1 Jewish Sources (i). The Septuagint to the Pentateuch
		1.2 Jewish Sources (ii). Non-septuagintal
		1.3 Jewish Sources (iii). A Jewish Anti-Christian Treatise?
		1.4 Pagan Sources for Judaism
	2 The Jews in Alexandria in the Late Second Century
	3 Celsus\' Philosophy of Religion
	4 Celsus and Second-Century Alexandrian Judaism
Celsus\' Judaism As Celsus\' Christian Construct? A Response
11 The Multiple Personalities of Celsus\' Jew
	1 \'The Jew\' within Origen\'s Contra Celsum
	2 \'The Jew\' within Celsus\' True Word
	3 \'The Jew\' within Celsus\' Homework
	4 \'The Jew\' (of Celsus) in his Own Voice
	5 The Jew between Jews and Christians
The Distinctiveness of Celsus\' Jew: A Response
12 Afterword
	1 The Greek Milieu
	2 Celsus As Sophist?
	3 Apologetic As Ethnography
	4 Celsus against Christianity
	5 Apologetic and Theology in Origen
	6 Origen and Philosophy
	7 Origen on the Practice of Reading
	8 Concluding Observations
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index