Extracts
- Accounts of non-Christian revivification plagued Christian religionists. Stupendous miracles constituted a vital component of Christianity’s claim to authenticity, and the fact that many pagan holy men claimed to bring people back from the grave fed into the rivalry between the fledgling faith and dominant pagan cults. In the early 4th century, a provincial governor named Hierocles, seeking to defame Jesus and the Christian movement, wrote a treatise about Apollonius of Tyana, a Pythagorean magus who lived in the 1st century and was reputed to have miraculous powers to heal the sick, predict the future, and raise the dead. Hierocles compared Apollonius and Jesus, to Jesus’ disadvantage.
- Author's Conclusion: Christianity was ultimately successful at establishing itself as the only legitimate religion in the Roman world. However, the struggle for supremacy was protracted and hard fought. The Church was met with the challenge of facing down an ancient, finely chiselled and much beloved cultural system of which demons and magic were a part. Christianity’s success was due, in part, to the development of a new and thoroughgoing system of rituals responsive to its own worldview.
Author Narrative
- Martha Rampton is emeritus professor in medieval history, and the founder of the Centre for Gender Equity, both at Pacific University, Oregon. She is the author of Trafficking with Demons: Magic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000 (2021).
Notes
- While the Author’s Conclusion points to the development of Christian healing rituals to replace the rival pagan ones, the text stresses the simplicity and purity of Christian ritual (eg. The sign of the cross) as against repulsive elements in pagan magic.
- It was interesting to be reminded that – for Graeco-Roman pagans – being brought back from the dead by necromancy was a disaster rather than a boon and was performed for others’ purposes rather than for the good of the deceased.
- Apollonius of Tyana receives the expected mention (the introduction of which appears above). It was interesting to learn of the anti-Christian motivation for the work of Hieracles. This might lead one to think that the works of Apollonius were made up for this specific purpose. However, the main biography of Apollonius is by Philostratus, written before Hierocles was writing during the Diocletian Persecution and many records are earlier. See Wikipedia: Apollonius of Tyana.
- No doubt this is a plug for the author’s book. It is factual rather than apologetic.
Comment:
- Sub-Title: "It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals"
- For the full text see Aeon: Rampton - Miracles not magic.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)