Arnobius of Sicca: A Late Apologist Against the Pagans
In the twilight of the Roman Empire, as the Great Persecution dawned, a brilliant pagan rhetorician from the North African city of Sicca Veneria underwent a startling conversion. To prove the sincerity of his new Christian faith, he penned one of the most voluminous, passionate, and unorthodox defenses of Christianity to survive from antiquity: the Adversus Nationes (Against the Pagans). His name was Arnobius, and his work stands as a monumental, enigmatic outlier in the history of early Christian thought.
This groundbreaking scholarly study, Arnobius of Sicca: A Late Apologist Against the Pagans, rescues this compelling figure from the margins of history. Moving beyond centuries of neglect and dismissal, this book argues that Arnobius's very strangeness is the key to his significance. He was not a conventional Church Father, but a fierce and original thinker whose work captures the raw intellectual ferment of a faith still in formation.
Inside this comprehensive volume, you will discover:
The World of the Third-Century Crucible: A vivid reconstruction of the political chaos, philosophical eclecticism, and religious competition that shaped Arnobius's world.
The Mind of a Convert: An exploration of Arnobius's life as a rhetor, the mystery of his conversion, and the charged context in which he wrote his great apology.
A Masterclass in Polemics: A detailed analysis of Arnobius's fiery rhetorical arsenal-his devastating use of irony, sarcasm, and logical critique to dismantle pagan mythology, ritual, and idolatry.
A Theology of Radical Originality: A deep dive into Arnobius's unique and controversial doctrines, including his rejection of the soul's natural immortality, his subordinationist Christology that framed Jesus as a divine "Physician," and his adaptation of Platonic concepts for a fiercely Christian purpose.
A Legacy of Neglect and Rediscovery: The fascinating journey of the Adversus Nationes from patristic obscurity to Renaissance rediscovery and modern scholarly rehabilitation.
Arnobius of Sicca is more than a study of a single figure. It is a window into a road not taken in Christian history-a path of radical confrontation with classical culture, theological experimentation, and a salvation based not on dogma but on divine healing. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of Patristics, Late Antiquity, the history of Christianity, and classical rhetoric. It is a compelling portrait of a man who, standing at the precipice of a new world, used the tools of the old to desperately argue for the truth of the new.
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