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ISBN 0-7134-4800-8 Manufactured in the United States of America for the Publisher B.

Stephen Benko, Professar of History a t California State University a t Fresno, is author of The Catacombs and the Colosseum and The Early Church.Ĭopyright© 1984 by Stephen Benko First published 1985 Ali rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Their arguments forced like-minded Christians to rethink their position, expunge the excesses and reform Christianity, making it more palatable to the Roman majority. Benko demonstrates the intelligent and thorough going critique of Christianity presented by two pagans, Galen and Celsus.

The challenge to Christianity was also made on a higher intellectual leve!. He shows how Christian belief in demons and exorcisms, in the supernatural power of materia! elements (bread and water), as well as warding off evi! by signs and symbols and speaking in tongues, may all have encouraged opposition. Benko examines the bases of these charges. Such secrecy only fuelled the imagination of Romans, and suggestions that Christians recognised each other by secret marks, met at night and made lave to one another indiscriminately, were widely believed in antiquity. They met in secrecy and practised what to the uninitiated appeared as cannibalism and magie. In the early Roman Empire Christians were seen as anti-Romans, overthrowing ancient gods, and upsetting the social arder. Stephen Benko' has provided a persuasively argued and refreshing perspective on the confrontation of the pagan and early Christian worlds. This study examines the accusations against Christians, arguing that they may have been right within the context of the times.

They portrayed pagans as victims of misinformation or perpetrators of malice. The early Church fathers rejected these charges and subjected them to detailed scholarly repudiation. To the average Roman citizen, the early rites and practices of Christians laid them open to charges of immorality and of fomenting rebellion against the state.