Blackbelt Christians
March 15, 2010
One of my favorite stories, from early Christian history, involves Saint Anthony, the desert monk, the most important of the early Christian monks. Here’s the story as related by Ramsay MacMullen, Emeritus Professor of History at Yale and an expert on Roman history, in his book, Christianizing The Roman Empire.
“…here is how Saint Athanasius in the 350s, writing the Life of Saint Anthony, depicted the old man demonstrating the superiority of Christianity. He had been visited and challenged by ‘persons counted as wise among pagans’ (§74). In answer to them, he undertook to offer proof (§80) that ‘believing, pistis, in Christ is the only true religiousness,’ derived not by ‘seeking logical conclusions through reasoning’ but rather through that believing in itself. ‘We convince,’ he says, ‘because people first trust in what they can actually see, and then in reasoned argument.’ ”
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