Notes from 'Critics of the Early Church' [Roosevelt Institute Class]

ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE CLASS
“CRITICS OF THE EARLY CHURCH”

09/03/2011

Summary of some of the main pagan criticism of the early church:

1.       The doctrine of the resurrection is absurd

Example: Acts 17, 1 Corinthians 15

2.       There are contradictions in the Scriptures

Example: Porphyry, Thallus

3.       Atheism is widely held

Example: The Martyrdom of Polycarp (8.2; 9.2; 10, 1), a trial under Domitian

4.       Christianity is the worship of a criminal

Example: Early art mocking Christian worship, 1 Corinthians 1:21–25

5.       Christianity is a novelty

Example: Suetonius (Nero 16.2)

6.       Christianity evidences a lack of patriotism

Example: Pliny the Younger (Epistles 10.96.3-4), Tacitus (Annals 15.44)

7.       Christians practice incest

Example: Cornelius Fronto

8.       Christians practice cannibalism

Example: Athenagoras, Justin Martyr

9.       Christianity leads to the destruction of a society

Example: Decius, Diocletian and Julian

10.   Christians are ignorant and arrogant

Example: Celsus, Lucian of Samosata

*This list is adapted from the helpful “The Arguments of the Apologists” in Robert C. Walton’s Chronological and Background Charts of Church History, revised and expanded edition (Grand Rapids, MI: 2005), Chart 15.