Ebook: Against the Christians. The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic (Patristic Studies 1)

Against the Christians examines the anti-Christian polemic works of Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate. The first book to analyze the phenomenon of early anti-Christian literature in depth, it chooses the critics' objection to Christian exclusivism as its starting point. The evolution of the polemic, from a rhetoric of radical distinction to one of "rhetorical assimilation," reveals a sophisticated attempt to expose contradictions and inconsistencies within Christianity while at the same time reflecting the process of fusion between Christianity and the culture of late antiquity.