Uni-Tübingen

Sub-Project D01: Platonism and Christianity: Philosophical and Literary Constellations of Threat in Late Antiquity

Abstract

The CRC 923 “Threatened Orders” Project D01 examines the “external” threat that Christianity presented to Platonism in Late Antiquity. In order to do so, it uses the concrete example of Porphyry's 15-volume work Against the Christians, which was originally written between 270 and 305 A.D. As early as the 2nd century A.D., Greek Platonists (such as Numenius, Celsus, and Amelius) began to grapple intensively with the texts and teachings of Christian authors. At first, Christianity primarily appealed to lower social classes. But a strong impetus began to emerge in the 2nd century among the social elite to develop a sophisticated “Christian Philosophy”, that adapted some platonic thought patterns or adopted methods of philological text exegesis, as e.g. the work of Origen (185/86–254) shows. Those who upheld a philosophy of a religious Platonism thus saw the increasingly philosophically grounded Christian religion with its new content as a serious threat to their own philosophy, and therefore also the entire pagan religion, theology and culture. In sum, Christianity represented a threat to their entire elite way of life and thinking. Alongside the anti-Christian texts of philosophers such as Celsus or Julian the Apostate, the scenario of a Christian threat, as processed in a literary and philosophical way by the Platonist Porphyry, played an especially important role in constructing this threat. For the first time ever, all of the surviving fragments of Porphyry's Against the Christians will be completely translated into German and annotated and interpreted with a special focus on anti-Christian tendencies and Platonic ways of dealing with the threat of Christianity. This edition will also situate the philological, philosophical and theological strategies used in the text within their socio-historical context.

Project Team

Project Leader:

Prof. Dr. Irmgard Männlein-Robert

Post-doc Researcher:

Dr. phil. Matthias Becker

Academic Disciplines and Orientation

Classics (Greek Philology)

Project Description

The CRC 923 “Threatened Orders” Project D01 examines the “external” threat that Christianity presented to Platonism in Late Antiquity. In order to do so, it uses the concrete example of Porphyry's 15-volume work Against the Christians, which was originally written between 270 and 305 A.D. As early as the 2nd century A.D., Greek Platonists (such as Numenius, Celsus, and Amelius) began to grapple intensively with the texts and teachings of Christian authors. At first, Christianity primarily appealed to lower social classes. But a strong impetus began to emerge in the 2nd century among the social elite to develop a sophisticated “Christian Philosophy”, that adapted some platonic thought patterns or adopted methods of philological text exegesis, as e.g. the work of Origen (185/86–254) shows. Those who upheld a philosophy of a religious Platonism thus saw the increasingly philosophically grounded Christian religion with its new content as a serious threat to their own philosophy and therefore also the entire pagan religion, theology and culture. In sum, Christianity represented a threat to their entire elite way of life and thinking. Alongside the anti-Christian texts of philosophers such as Celsus or Julian the Apostate, the scenario of a Christian threat, as processed in a literary and philosophical way by the Platonist Porphyry, played an especially important role in constructing this threat. For the first time ever, all of the surviving fragments of Porphyry's Against the Christians will be completely translated into German and annotated and interpreted with a special focus on anti-Christian tendencies and Platonic ways of dealing with the threat of Christianity. This edition will also situate the philological, philosophical and theological strategies used in the text within their socio-historical context (such as the cults of the martyrs and the persecution of the Christians between 260 and 303 A.D.).

Moving beyond Against the Christians, other relevant texts written by Porphyry (e.g. De philosophia ex oraculis haurienda, Vita Plotini and De abstinentia) will be analysed in terms of anti-Christian tendencies and Platonic ways of dealing with the external threat presented by the Christian religion. A key aspect of this analysis is the fact that Porphyry – in keeping with the tradition of the philologically oriented Middle Platonism – concentrates on refuting and desecrating the biblical texts themselves and not just Christian teachings and tenets of the Christian faith. For example, Porphyry re-dates the Old Testament Book of Daniel (moving its date of composition from the late 7th century B.C. to the 2nd century B.C.), thereby rendering the prophecies it contains as “ex eventu”. The task of the project is to determine how the arguments that come to light in the text fragments should be interpreted: Should they be seen as aggressive, systematic diatribes with a programmatic character, invectives with literary aspirations or desperate apologetics? Furthermore, the project seeks to determine to what extent emotions can be detected in Porphyry's strategy to desecrate the Christians' Holy Scriptures and thereby destroy their authority, which was crucial for attracting new adherents to Christianity. Overall, the project is guided by the question to what extent Porphyry's fight against the threat presented by educated Christians led to the formation of a Neoplatonic philosophical and religious system.

Project-related Lectures and Publications

Becker, Matthias

Männlein-Robert, Irmgard

Congresses, Workshops, and Conferences