The question concerning the origin of certain “moral” accusations against Christians on a popular level – accusations, which must have been rather widespread judging by their attestation in the apologetic literature – has long been a matter of scholarly dispute. Wolfgang Speyer has attempted to explain their emergence by demonstrating that the Pagan polemists have sometimes turned against all Christians the very same accusations made by the “Großkirche” against “heretical”, mainly Gnostic, groups – so e.g. in the case of accusations of a sexual nature. For the purposes of such an explanation, any parallel between a Christian anti-heretical text on the one hand and one of these popular Pagan accusations on the other might turn out to be quite valuable. This paper presents two new parallels of this kind, which could help shed some light on the genesis and/or the reception history of the accusation that Christians kill and eat a baby in their Sunday gatherings. These two Christian texts do indeed describe the “real”, invisible sacrifice behind the “breaking of the bread” as the killing of a baby – i.e., the new-born Jesus Christ – and his dismemberment by assisting angels. Could this answer to those doubting the full (i.e., also corporeal) reality of the Sacrament of the Eucharist have some sort of connection with the aforementioned polemical claim against Christians?
No comments:
Post a Comment