Download or read book Against the Christians written by Jeffrey W. Hargis and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1999 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against the Christians examines the anti-Christian polemic works of Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate. The first book to analyze the phenomenon of early anti-Christian literature in depth, it chooses the critics' objection to Christian exclusivism as its starting point. The evolution in the polemic, from a rhetoric of radical distinction to one of «rhetorical assimilation, » reveals a sophisticated attempt to expose contradictions and inconsistencies within Christianity, while at the same time reflecting the process of fusion between Christianity and the culture of late antiquity.