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Early African Apologists A Note on Two African Apologists: Arnobius and Lactantius Ligon Duncan The purpose of this short paper is to make comment upon something of the distinctive styles and contributions of two African Apologists of the early fourth century, Arnobius and Lactantius. We will attempt to place them against an African background by giving consideration to biographical information and reviewing their major writings, suggesting the possible contexts of their composition. What we know about Arnobius, we learn from Jerome who makes brief mention of him six times or from Arnobius himself. In De viris illustribus 79, Jerome tells us that Arnobius taught rhetoric at Sicca in Africa during the reign of Diocletian and that he "wrote the books Adversus gentes." This work is preserved in only one manuscript (Paris MS., Cod. lat. 1661) and in that document is entitled Adversus nationes. This is the title preferred by most modern writers. The discrepancy is usually explained by suggesting that Jerome recalled the name of the work from memory inadvertently substituting the rough equivalent gentes for nationes. Jerome tells us in his Chronicon (A.D. 327) that Arnobius had an excellent reputation as a rhetorician in Africa and was giving instruction in oratory to pupils in Sicca. He also comments that Arnobius was a pagan who had used his oratorical skills in attacking Christianity. However, Jerome informs, Arnobius became a convert to Christ through dreams. The bishop of Sicca was skeptical of Arnobius' profession and Arnobius, in order to prove the integrity of his conversion, "gave all his efforts to the composition of most splendid books against his former religion." In Epistula 70, Jerome accurately reports that Arnobius published seven books. Jerome's references to Arnobius do introduce a difficulty into the discussion of the chronology of Arnobius' writing. Jerome places him in the reign of Diocletian (285-305) in De viris illustribus 79 and 80, and in A.D. 327 in the Chronicon. Quasten (who is representative of the other authors surveyed) argues for the earlier dating because of the internal testimony in Adversus nationes, and hence assigns the work to the period of the Diocletian persecution, with a terminus ante quem of A.D. 311. Jerome also claims that Lactantius was the student of Arnobius (De viris illustribus 80). This has caused a considerable amount of consternation to G.E. McCracken (and others) who note that Lactantius never refers to Arnobius in his writings. McCracken says:
In response to this kind of argument it has been suggested that both men were pagans during the time of Lactantius' study at Sicca and that Lactantius left for Nicomedia before Arnobius' conversion. Since the general date of Lactantius' arrival in Nicomedia is given as c. 300, it is further postulated that he may never have known of Arnobius' conversion or of his subsequent efforts at apologetic writing. To sum up, then, our biographical knowledge of Arnobius we have observed that he was rhetorician at Sicca. If Jerome is right, he was a tutor to Lactantius. He converted to the Christian faith in his later years and wrote an apologetic for his newly found religion (probably c. 300-305). Arnobius' Adversus nationes comes in seven books, as we have already noted. The first book is a rebuttal of the old pagan charge against the Christians which maintained that the Christians were responsible for the current problems of mankind. The second book serves notice of the fact that much of the teaching of Christianity which is looked upon with contempt by the Romans can be found in their own philosophers. In the third book, Arnobius ridicules the passion of the pagan gods as inferior to the Christian concept of God. In the fourth book he continues his diatribe against the heathen gods, mocking the concept of multiple deities and the attendant religious difficulties, the silliness of the myths, and the lurid character of Jupiter as described in their own literature. In book five he criticizes other myths and attempts by the pagans to allegorize them. In book six he opposes the pagan ceremonial, particularly as manifested in their temples and images, arguing against the use of images in worship (Gregory would not have been pleased). In the seventh book he extends his rejection of pagan ceremonial to their sacrifices, arguing that pagan religion suffers from an inadequate concept of deity. Jerome does not think much of Arnobius' style, commenting that "Arnobius is uneven and prolix [wordy] and without clear divisions in his work, resulting in confusion (Epistula 58)." Others are equally or more uncomplimentary. F.L. Cross insists:
However, not a few of his modern reviewers are more appreciative than these assessors. Quasten says, "The author [Arnobius], it is true, drives home every argument with endless and tiresome repetitions, but the composition as a whole does not lack organic unity." McCracken adds, in response to Jerome:
Arnobius' theological content, or lack thereof, has also been criticized. Cross finds Arnobius theologically unsatisfactory and adds that "Arnobius seems to have had little understanding of the Christian faith. He never quotes, and almost never even refers to, Scripture and he speaks disparagingly of all kinds of exterior worship." Altaner suggests that Arnobius was too much influenced by "pagan religious thought and philosophy" even speculating that he was indebted to Marcionite teaching! As we consider Arnobius' contribution, then, it seems we will have to go elsewhere than theology. He has been a perennially ignored apologete. Jerome is the only near contemporary who writes of him, we have but one manuscript of his work and he was generally overlooked during the reformation. However, he does give us a good supply of information concerning the religions of the empire of his day. McCracken evaluates:
Whatever may be the shortcomings in Arnobius' theological views his writing does possess an earnestness and urgency which renders him much less 'tedious' to read than is sometimes suggested. ****** Lactantius, like his purported teacher Arnobius, was an African. Our sources for his life are limited to Jerome's passages in De viris illustribus and Chronicon, and from allusions in his own writings. Lactantius informs us that he was called from his former province to Bithynia to teach rhetoric. Jerome specifically identifies the city of Nicomedia in Bithynia. Jerome supposes that he was unsuccessful there and as a result turned to writing (De viris illustribus 80). However, Stevenson takes exception to Jerome on this point, discounting it as an "assumption on Jerome's part." Stevenson postulates that the reason for Lactantius' poverty, as described by Jerome, was the loss of his official position when persecution began in 303. He further reminds us that Jerome himself notes that Lactantius was already writing before he left Africa and hence his literary activity needs no such explanation of the occasion of its beginning. Indeed, Lactantius himself explains his motivation to write the Divinae institutiones. His desire was to author a definitive apology of Christianity against her adversaries (Divinae institutiones 5-1,2). Lactantius probably left Bithynia about 305. Stevenson is tempted to suggest that he traveled west with Constantine at this time, but admits this idea to be speculation. At any rate, Jerome states twice that in old age Lactantius was the teacher of Constantine's oldest son in Gaul. Quasten and Altaner identify the location specifically as Constantine's court at Treves. We do not know the date of his death. Lactantius' authored a number of works, some of which were written before the persecution. His earliest extant work is De opificio dei is an argument from the human body for the existence an providence of God, though Quasten comments that it "fails of distinctively Christian ideas and has a purely rational character." Lactantius is explicit enough in chapters 12 and 13 to encourage the translators of ANCL to leave these passages in the original! His magnum opus is the seven volume Divinae institutiones. In the first book "False Worship of the Gods" he attacks the gods of Rome, and the error of polytheism in book two "The Origin of Error." The third book, "False Wisdom of the Philosophers," contrasts reason and revelation, and argues for the necessary relationship between revelation and "true wisdom." In book four he teaches that the "true wisdom" and "true religion" go hand in hand. Christ is the true wisdom. The fifth book "Of Justice" deplores the lack of justice in the world caused by man's idolatry and treats of the equality of men before God. Book six "Of True Worship" contrasts Christian and pagan worship, and expounds in detail the former. Finally, book seven "Of the Happy Life" gives a millennarian explication of the last days (which will, no doubt, please Larry Crutchfield of Bibliotheca Sacra exceedingly). The Epitome seems to be an abbreviated edition of the Divinae institutiones written for Pentadius. In his De ira dei Lactantius argues against the Epicurean and Stoic concepts of the impassibility of deity. He is also at odds with his teacher Arnobius on the subject, in emphasis if not in fact. De mortibus persecutorum is his treatise on the judgment against those who have persecuted the Church. He begins by recounting the ends of Nero, Domitian, Decius, Valerius, and Aurelian. Then proceeds to record many important contemporary events up to the battle of Milvian Bridge. Some have accused the work of being "Constantinian propaganda" and to this charge T.D. Barnes responds. Barnes asserts that the question of the date of the work is integral to the discussion. If the work is late (c.318-320) then Lactantius is giving the 'party line' concerning the role of Constantine in the period, however if the work is early then it provides a unique glimpse at the history of the early days of the fourth century. Barnes asserts that De mortibus was written between 313 and 315. Hence, the work is of greater significance as a source of information on Constantine's relationship to Christianity from 306 (the date of Constantine's "first act" which was, according to Lactantius, the restoration of the holy religion [De mortibus 24]) on to the agreement between Constantine and Licinius. The final work we will make mention of is Lactantius' poem De ave Phoenice, the familiar story of the bird which rises from its own ashes which had been used by Clement of Rome and Tertullian as symbolic of resurrection. There has been considerable discussion concerning the ascribing of this poem to Lactantius and over the dating of the work. Quasten concludes, "[t]he similarities of thought, language and style existing between the poem and Lactantius' authentic works favor his authorship." Regarding his literary style, it need hardly be mentioned that Lactantius is uniformly referred to as the "Christian Cicero." His style is consciously modeled after the great Roman poet and Jerome said that his writings in form could be considered an abstract of Ciceronian dialogues (von Campenhausen, 64). It has also been noted that the Humanists of the fifteenth century were quite enthusiastic about him and in the sixteenth century he is admired by both Erasmus and Zwingli. Calvin refers to him no fewer than a dozen times in the Institutes. Lactantius' theological content usually receives reviews similar to those of his teacher Arnobius. Quasten comments, "[u]nfortunately, the quality of his [Lactantius] thought does not correspond to the excellence of its expression." Altaner adds, "his knowledge of Christian doctrine and literature was defective." And Pierre De Labriolle laments, "[a]s a theologian, he does not count. He is a far from trustworthy exponent, and some of his interpretations are wholly lacking in taste." Further, Lactantius is usually accused of holding to various manifestations of dualism, a heterodox understanding of the Holy Spirit and a strange eschatological point of view. In addition, he rejects traducianism and argues for creationism in regard to the origin of the soul. On the subject of Lactantius' distinctive contribution De Labriolle is blunt: "His [Lactantius] train of thought has so little new about it that it felt no need of expression in any other than the old mould of Ciceronian prose." Quasten concedes that Lactantius was the "first Latin writer to attempt a systematic presentation of the Christian faith" but adds that "he is not a genuine theologian." The observations that we have already reviewed from T.D. Barnes concerning De mortibus persecutorum speak for themselves. Lactantius' witness to these events of history are important in their own right. In Lactantius the tradition of the African Church supplying Latin Christainity with its more important authors is continued.
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