The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (1984 Wilken), book

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The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (1984) is a book by Robert Louis Wilken.

Abstract

Editions and translations

Published in New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.

Table of 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

External links

  • [ Google Books]