La polemica contro il cristianesimo come religione incivile in Minucio Felice e Celso

The article focuses on the polemic of Pagan philosophers towards Christianity in the 2nd century AD. This polemic is to be considered crucial for the historical-theoretical understanding of the genesis of the complex philosophical problem of civil religion. It was precisely the criticisms that Pagan philosophers levelled against the Christians that, on the one hand, reinforced the traditional concept of religion as a civil and political phenomenon, and, on the other hand, in reacting to these criticisms, led the Christians themselves to raise the issue of the compatibility of their doctrine with political power. The article will examine this matter in two important authors : Minucius Felix, who wrote the Octavius (around 200), one of the earliest apologetic dialogues, and Celsus, the Middle-Platonic philosopher who drafted the Alethes logos (around 177-180), the discourse, reasoning or true word/wisdom, a work we know only fragmentarily through Origen’s Contra Celsum.