Johannes Breuer: The Role of Imperfection in Arnobius of Sicca

At about 300 CE Arnobius of Sicca composed an apologetic work named Adversus nationes. In this treatise he defends Christian faith against a great number of reproaches and attacks on his part aspects of the traditional pagan religion and intellectual life. His work is characterised by a technique that modern scholars call retorsio: the speaker demonstrates that pagans can also be charged with those opinions and ways of conduct that they accuse the Christians of.In my paper I will argue that imperfection is an important feature of the debate presented in Adversus nationes by analyzing the way Arnobius discusses two topics which involve imperfection: on the one hand, I will demonstrate his reaction to the pagan reproach that the Christian sacred writings display stylistic flaws, on the other hand, I will focus on his criticizing the imperfection of pagan philosophers. When discussing the literary qualities of Christian sacred writings, Arnobius (or his persona) argues that it is necessary to evaluate the content of a statement without taking its stylistic presentation into account; moreover, he provides interesting insights into his linguistic concepts. Then again he criticizes pagan philosophers for imperfection in several respects, e.g. the limitations of their knowledge, their disagreement among themselves and even their own weaknesses of character.My aim is to demonstrate the virtuosity with which this Christian apologist handles the topic “imperfection” not only to put pagan criticism of Christian faith into perspective, but also to attack pagan notions.

Han-luen Kantzer Komline: Arnobius and the Argument from Antiquity

Nowadays, people often think “novelty” is good.All things being equal, creativity is a virtue.But in the ancient world this assumption did not hold. As the slogan went, “older is better.” This assumption served as the basis for the argumentum ad antiquitatem, which sought to prove superiority based on longevity. This way of arguing, which had been employed also in Greek literature, Roman literature, and in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism, was picked up by the early apologists, including Aristides, Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Tertullian and Minucius Felix. But what was the fate of the argument from antiquity as Christianity moved toward the fourth century?How did Christians appropriate or alter this cultural assumption, and how did their reactions develop over time?In order to move toward answering these larger questions, this paper investigates the theme of the argument from antiquity in Arnobius of Sicca’s Adversus nationes.In Adversus nationesbook two, Arnobius argues for the mortality of the soul against those he calls uiri noui. The very use of this name for his opponents relies on a derogatory association with the new. However, elsewhere in the same book, one finds an extended discussion of the alleged novelty of Christianity in which Arnobius suggests that age is not absolute but rather a relative and subjective matter, an observation that complicates simplistic versions of the argument from antiquity, as well as simplistic understandings of how Christians like Arnobius employed it.

Johannes Breuer: The Rhetoric of Persuasion as Hermeneutical Key to Arnobius' Adversus nationes

At about 300 A.D. Arnobius of Sicca, a teacher of rhetoric who had converted to Christianity at an advanced age, composed an apologetic work entitled Adversus nationes. In this treatise Christian faith is defended against a great number of reproaches. In particular, he deals with the accusation that the pagan Roman gods have been annoyed by the fact that many human beings stopped worshipping them and became Christians and therefore afflicted the world with wars, cataclysms, and famines.
Although no one would deny that Arnobius' work is interspersed with rhetorical devices, scholars usually criticised this feature (mainly for aesthetical reasons) arguing that the church father simply could not help employing these techniques due to his profession. An analysis of the text, however, that takes into acccount how rhetorical elements contribute to conveying the author's particular concerns, seems to be much more beneficial for the general understanding of the work. This is even more relevant since Arnobius himself chose the situation of a trial as fictional framework for his apologia.
In my paper, I would like to present the presuppositions, the legitimation and one specific example of this rhetorical or functional approach of analysis that may yield a hermeneutical key to the supposed aesthetical defects of the work. Moreover, the insights into the rhetorical nature of Adversus nationes might also have consequences on how we should evaluate the historical value of, for example, Arnobius' presentations of philosophical doctrines.