Porphyry, who apparently was once Christian but left the faith to become an important philosopher of much distinction and respectability, gave a devastating tract against the Christian faith to justify his apostasy.[5] Like many who leave a particular faith, the vehemence he used against his former beliefs, being an “ex-Christian,” reads often like any tract today coming from “ex” Mormons, “ex” Muslims, or even “ex” Catholics: full of a kind of hate which leads to a distortion of the former faith, so that what is being discussed is not the proper faith itself but a simulacra of it at best. And so, while a major and noteworthy philosopher, who Christians would study and learn much from, his Against the Christians was destroyed, and we only have a few fragments of it preserved in Christian responses to the text. He, more than Celsus, railed against Christian Scripture and beliefs, but he also agreed with Celsus that Christianity was a threat to the empire; it is not just they lacked patriotism, they were seeking to undermine the empire and take it over. He believed even the words of Christ hinted at this:
The words of Christ’s, “I came not to bring peace but a sword. I came to separate a son from his father,” belie the true intentions of the Christians. They seek riches and glory. Far from being friends of the empire, they are renegades waiting for their chance to seize control.[6]
Christians, in the years before Constantine, were quite used to the fear and misinformation which was spread about them by the Romans, so that they often wrote explanations of their faith, showing how the gossip was wrong, that Christians were much maligned and actually were proper, respectful subjects of the empire. Origen gave us a prime example of this when he explained:
To this our answer is, that we do, when occasion requires, give help to kings, and that, so to say, a divine help, “putting on the whole armour of God.” And this we do in obedience to the injunction of the apostle, “I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority;” and the more any one excels in piety, the more effective help does he render to kings, even more than is given by soldiers, who go forth to fight and slay as many of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of our faith who require us to bear arms for the commonwealth, and to slay men, we can reply: “Do not those who are priests at certain shrines, and those who attend on certain gods, as you account them, keep their hands free from blood, that they may with hands unstained and free from human blood offer the appointed sacrifices to your gods; and even when war is upon you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If that, then, is a laudable custom, how much more so, that while others are engaged in battle, these too should engage as the priests and ministers of God, keeping their hands pure, and wrestling in prayers to God on behalf of those who are fighting in a righteous cause, and for the king who reigns righteously, that whatever is opposed to those who act righteously may be destroyed!” And as we by our prayers vanquish all demons who stir up war, and lead to the violation of oaths, and disturb the peace, we in this way are much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to fight for them. And we do take our part in public affairs, when along with righteous prayers we join self-denying exercises and meditations, which teach us to despise pleasures, and not to be led away by them. And none fight better for the king than we do. We do not indeed fight under him, although he require it; but we fight on his behalf, forming a special army— an army of piety— by offering our prayers to God.[7]
Christians looked for the common good, and did what they did, not to spite the empire and hurt it, but as true patriots. By doing what was right and just, and not just blindly obeying the random dictates of the empire, Christian were seeking to preserve the empire from harm, to bring to it peace instead of the sword which would bring down its ruin. Far from being violent rebels seeking its dissolution, far from being traitors to Rome, Christians remained patriots, respecting the empire while understanding the proper place of that patriotism remains a thing of earthly duty, a duty which is limited by the kingdom of God.
Christians should turn their attention back to these early texts, to better understand their place in the world, but also to better understand the error of gossip and innuendo when talking about other faiths and religions. Christians faced the same type of critiques which, in other times, they would wrongly make against Jews and Muslims; if they kept their own on their foundations, they would understand the problem with this methodology and repent of it. Indeed, they would follow Vatican II in declaring an end to all such inter-faith rivalry based upon polemics and like the early Christians seek peaceful resolution and mutual respect with other faiths. This does not mean Christians are in agreement with all the doctrines and disciplines of other faiths: obviously, they are not. But they can and should recognize the core desire of humanity to be with God, to worship God, and to realize because of this in the other faiths God is indeed worshiped and loved. This common core and foundation, not fear and hatred, is what should drive Christians forward in dialogue. If we can recognize in the other a mutual love and appreciation of God, this can lead to a true and proper meeting of the heart, where dialogue can lead somewhere beyond the throwing of stones which keeps the other away from us. Whatever the other’s understanding of God might entail, recognizing that it is God they seek and love is what should drive us to learn from them what they know of God even as we share, likewise, the revelation we have in Jesus Christ. But if we don’t listen to them and show them hate, how can we say we worship God in spirit and in truth and get them to believe us?
[1] Minucius Felix, Octavius in ANF(4):177-8,
[2] Celsus, On the True Doctrine. trans. R. Joseph Hoffman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 124. This text is a reconstruction made of Celsus’ original using what has been preserved of it elsewhere, especially in the works of Origen, to create the text.
[3] Ibid., 124-5.
[4] Ibid., 125-6.
[5] Christians will long read the writings of Porphyry and learn from them, using his philosophical analysis in their own presentation of doctrine.
[6] Porphyry, Porphyry Against the Christians: The Literary Remains. ed. and trans. R. Joseph Hoffman (New York: Prometheus Books, 1994), 29.
[7] Origen, Against Celsus in ANF(4): 667-8.
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