Journal of Early Christian Studies The Johns Hopkins University Press Porphyry on Christians and Others: “Barbarian Wisdom,” Identity Politics, and Anti-Christian Polemics on the Eve of the Great Persecution*
Journal of Early Christian Studies 13:3, 277–314 © 2005 The Johns Hopkins University Press Porphyry on Christians and Others: “Barbarian Wisdom,” Identity Politics, and Anti-Christian Polemics on the Eve of the Great Persecution* JEREMY M. SCHOTT This paper argues that we can better appreciate the motivations behind Porphyry of Tyre’s anti-Christian polemics if they are placed in the context of his larger philosophical project. Porphyry’s investigations of “foreign” religions and philosophies were based on asymmetrical distinctions between Greeks and barbarians that paralleled,...
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