Real liberation is the search of knowledge and wisdom.
Celsus the early critic of Christianity
The second century pagan scholar Celsus is one of the most well known early critics of Christianity and the earliest whose work still substantially survives. Celsus had noticed the rapid growth of the Christian cult during his time. This new belief borrowed nothing from Greek philosophy and based itself entirely on Jewish mythology and prophesies. Christians, like Jews, believed in a messiah figure as well. Here the similarity with Judaism stopped abruptly. The Jewish expectancy as described by their scriptures was of a mortal hero. He would lead the Jewish people being an inspirational political leader and bring peace and prosperity and would teach God’s law. Christians in contrast believed Jesus, a carpenter turned preacher, was not only the messiah the Jews had been waiting for along but also divine in essence. And importantly he had come to save the whole human race not just to rule the Jews.
Christians also looked down on pagans as idol-worshippers and had little respect for pagan beliefs. They were told not to associate with pagans and not to eat of flesh sacrificed to pagan gods. Pagans they believed would go to hell for not believing in Jesus. The gods of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were really demons in disguise who had fooled the people and who gained strength from the animal sacrifices offered to them in the temples. It was a kind of disdain for the cultural milieu of the time that Celsus and his fellow pagans had never experienced. They lived in a Greco-Roman culture with a multitude of beliefs and gods and where people chose which ideas and philosophy they wanted to follow without being ridiculed. Christianity had however inherited the Jewish contempt for paganism and taken it to new levels.
The true Doctrine
Celsus felt compelled to attack this brash new belief. He wrote a strong polemic with the title ‘Alethes Logos’ meaning the True Doctrine, a work that countered many of Christianity’s core beliefs. This book would be banned by the later Christian Emperor Theodosius the Second but the bulk of the work unexpectedly survived being quoted verbatim by a third century Christian apologist called Origen who had written a response to Celsus calling his book ‘Contra Celsum’ or Against Celsus.
Celsus wrote his criticism both from his own pagan point of view and from the point of Judasim. This was to show the new religion fitted in neither camp. This new sect were essentially renegade Jews “whom their miserable countrymen despised and hated” for not following the Jewish Law and customs which had been part and parcel of life for many centuries. Celsus speculated the real father of Jesus had been a Roman soldier by the name of Panthera who Mary had had a clandestine relationship with as opposed to the supernatural explanation that the Christians readily offered from their gospels. He also reiterated the Jewish belief that a messiah had to be essentially a great leader leading the jews out of slavery and who would become a great king. Jesus, in contrast, failed to fulfil any of the expectations and criteria of a supposed messiah.
Celsus’ suggestion considering their disdain for pagan beliefs and customs was that the Christians were “breaking the religious peace of the world.”
Jesus’ failure in life
Celsus mocked the less than moderate success of Jesus considering he was divine.
‘The truth is, as long as he [Jesus] lived he persuaded nobody, not even his own disciples, and finally was punished and endured all this. His life here was a complete failure — and yet you want to argue that having failed to persuade people here, he marched down to Hell to persuade people there. You invent absurd excuses for him, but if we are to accept them [we will need to know] why we should accept anyone who has been condemned and died a miserable death as a divine messenger? Anyone who is rash enough may say of a robber, “This was no robber but a god, for he foretold his fellow robbers what he was to suffer.”’
The problem of evil and sin
Celsus saw evil as inherent in matter and therefore the world. Put simply evil cannot increase or decrease in the universe. The world didn’t need improvement — it is what it is. This was opposed to Christian belief that evil ‘entered’ the world when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the apple. Prior to that everything was complete purity. Romans 5:12–17 explicitly states evil entered the world by Adam and that only the belief in Jesus Christ can banish this impurity and return the world to pristine conditions.
No Messiah is required
Celsus point of view was that no ‘saviour’ or ‘ messiah’ is required. Revelation is contrary to reason and logic given to man. The Christian parables and myths were only for the vulgar minded, he wrote. To rely on revelation and unsystematic beliefs as found in Christianity is to hamper one’s own mind and to limit our potential. Instead, by using reason, man can form his own philosophy. Put simply we have the tools we require within us. Man doesn’t need external help, a special messenger from God or any form of intermediary between himself and the Creator. Real liberation is the search of knowledge and wisdom. Philosophy, the literal meaning of which is the love of wisdom is the ultimate direction and purpose of life.
