On Grace
View publication
Book Series
Brepols Library of Christian Sources, vol. 15
- Pages: approx. 520 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Language(s):English, Latin
- Publication Year:2025
- € 90,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61790-9
- Paperback
- Forthcoming (Oct/25)
- € 90,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61791-6
- E-book
- Forthcoming
*How to pre-order?
In this volume, Arnobius deploys all his rhetorician's powers of exaggeration and ridicule to mock pagan beliefs, representations of their gods, and rituals.
Subject(s)
BIO
Robert Parker is Wykeham Professor Emeritus of Ancient History in the University of Oxford.
Mark Edwards is Fellow and Tutor in Theology at Christ Church, Oxford.
Summary
Arnobius was an originally pagan teacher of rhetoric who, after his conversion, was asked to demonstrate his commitment to his new faith by a work of Christian apology. He therefore turned all his rhetorical skills to defence of his new religion and, more effectively, mockery of the pagan gods. Like his fellow African Tertullian, he represents a Christian continuation of the great pagan tradition of satirical writing in Latin. One does not read Arnobius for deep or precise knowledge of Christian doctrine or history. His strength is in attack: nowhere are pagan myths and cult practices more cruelly and effectively ridiculed.
