Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 6) (Available from Amazon or free here) -Continue 'The seven books of Arnobius against the heathen' by reading Book III.
My summary
This week Arnobius defends worship of God alone by showing the foolishness of worshiping pagan gods.
He asks the pagans to explain:
(i) how they know about their gods;
(ii) the gender of their gods;
(iii) the bodily form of their gods;
(iv) the senses of their gods;
(v) the attributes of their gods;
(vi) the occupations of their gods;
(vii) the sins of their gods.
What grabbed me
I liked this concluding comment from Arnobius about the pagan gods: 'It is a vast and endless task to examine each kind [god] separately, and make it evident even from your religious books that you neither hold nor believe that there is any god concerning whom you have not brought forward doubtful and inconsistent statements, expressing a thousand different beliefs. But, to be brief, and avoid prolixity, it is enough to have said what has been said; it is, further, too troublesome to gather together many things into one mass, since it is made manifest and evident in different ways that you waver, and say nothing with certainty of these things which you assert.'
No wonder few worship such gods today!
Next week's reading
Continue 'The seven books of Arnobius against the heathen' by reading Book IV.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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