Early Christianity and Pagan Thought: Confluences and Conflicts

Marcel Simon

doi:10.1017/S003441250000706X

Early Christianity and Pagan Thought: Confluences and Conflicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Marcel Simon

Show author details

Marcel Simon: Affiliation:
Professor of the History of Religions, the University of Strasbourg

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

‘What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What accord is there between the Academy and the Church? Our instruction comes from the porch of Solomon, who has himself taught that the Lord must be sought in simplicity of heart. Away with those who have brought forward a Stoic, or Platonic or dialectic Christianity. As for us, we need not be concerned to know anything but Jesus Christ, in quest of anything but the Gospel. Inasmuch as we have faith, we need not believe anything else.’ Such are the thoroughly uncompromising terms in which, about the year 200, Tertullian defined an entirely negative relationship—what he at least considered the utter incompatibility—of Christianity and pagan philosophy.

Type: Research Article
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 385 - 399

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S003441250000706X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 385 note 1} De Praeser. Haeret., 7, 9–13; cf. Apol., 46, 18.

^{page 385 note 2} I Apol. 5, 4.

^{page 385 note 3} Gal. 3, 24.

^{page 386 note 1} , Suetonius, Domitian, 10.Google Scholar

^{page 387 note 1} I Apol. 12, 6.

^{page 387 note 2} , Origen, Contra Cels., 5, 27.Google Scholar

^{page 387 note 3} Julian, , Contra Galil., ed. Neumann, , pp. 207 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 387 note 4} I Apol., 5, 3.

^{page 388 note 1} De Legibus, 1, 15, 42.

^{page 388 note 2} Homilies, 4, 7–8.

^{page 388 note 3} Homilies, 4, 11.

^{page 388 note 4} Hist. Aug., Severus Alexander, 29.

^{page 389 note 1} , Origen, Contra Cels., 4, 10.Google Scholar

^{page 389 note 2} Contra Cels., 4, 3–5; cf. de Labriolle, P., La Réaction païenne, Paris, 1934, pp. 119 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 390 note 1} Contra Cels., 5, 2.

^{page 390 note 2} Contra Cels., 8, 63 and 49; Labriolle, de, op. cit., pp. 132–133.Google Scholar

^{page 392 note 1} Les Religions orientales dans le Paganisme romain, 3rd. ed., Paris, 1929, p. 327.Google Scholar

^{page 392 note 2} I Apol., 21, 1.

^{page 392 note 3} Cf. I Apol., 10, 2 and 59, 1.

^{page 393 note 1} Cf. in particular Cullmann, O., Immortalité de I' âme ou Résurrection des morts?, Neuchâtel, Paris, 1956Google Scholar, whose conclusions, however, are questionable.

^{page 394 note 1} De Is. et Osir., 67, quoted by Reville, J., La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères, Paris, 1886, p. 114.Google Scholar

^{page 395 note 1} Metam, 11, 5.

^{page 395 note 2} Simon, M., Hercule et le Christianisme, Paris, 1955.Google Scholar Since my book was published, the discovery of the Roman catacomb of Via Latina, where a certain number of episodes of the myth of Hercules, amongst others that of Hercules bringing Alcestis back from the underworld, are represented among biblical themes, has corroborated the views I had developed about Hercules as a rival of Christ. Cf. the publication of Ferrua, A., Le Pitture della nuova Catacomba di Via Latina, Città del Vaticano, 1960Google Scholar, which minimises the significance of these Heraclean frescoes; also my contribution, ‘Remarques sur la catacombe de la Via Latina’, to Mullus, Festschrift Theodor Klauser, Münster, 1964, pp. 327–335.Google Scholar

^{page 396 note 1} Theol. Graec. Compend., 31.

^{page 396 note 2} De Beneficiis, 4, 7, 1.

^{page 397 note 1} Herc. Oet., 794 ff.

^{page 397 note 4} Herc. Oet., 889 ff.

^{page 397 note 3} Herc. Oet., 1947.

^{page 397 note 4} Mattingly, H., ‘Jovius and Herculius’, Harvard Theological Review, 1952, pp. 131 ff.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 398 note 1} Contra Heraclium, II.

Article contents

Early Christianity and Pagan Thought: Confluences and Conflicts

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests