Ciceronianus

Thank you. That was a pretty nasty rabbit.

I don't know. As far as I'm aware, the records we have relate only to persons of status, wealth and power when it comes to such things.

How do you know you can't comprehend? Try to, and see what happens.

It's called "holy" before its impact (explosion) you see. I can't remember if it killed that rabbit, though.

In that case we may speak of them as being contingently holy, or holy at some point or to some person, sometime, maybe not now but maybe in the future...

What happens to them, or to those who live on?

I'm aware they bother some, and have an opinion why they do. Quietism, I think, simply recognizes that philosophers haven't and likely will never prov...

A Prologue to Love is a book by Taylor Caldwell. Seneca is quoted in the book. I'm not sure of the source of the quote by Seneca. I'm not sure what yo...

It is, yes. On that we agree, though not perhaps for the same reasons.

That would seem to make them "holy" not because of what they are, but because of how they came to be interpreted centuries after they were written by ...

That's interesting. If you mean that they're more inspiring to us for being metaphors, I think I understand. But is their effect on us, or some of us,...

I know what you mean. And, a good deal of the ritual involved in the worship of the traditional gods seems devoted to keeping them happy enough not to...

Mine as well.

Sad but true. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, how much the Christian religion has to do with what it purports to worship.

Very interesting. Some think it was too late to do anything significant, but perhaps he could at least have managed to keep paganism going for a time ...

I think that Holy Books present a problem for those who consider them fundamental to their religious beliefs. The problem is that the more one disrega...

My interest in Jesus is that of a lapsed Catholic and someone interested in Rome and its empire, including the pagan religions popular in it, and in t...

This thread seems to have taken on a life of its own, and I think the theme you mention has become a part of it. But when I commenced it, I was noting...

What would be a non-fictional ideal?

I don't know if Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and the several Roman Senators who considered themselves Stoics can be considered working men, or even Musoni...

Sorry, but when I see "View Answer" I'm too much reminded of advertising. I decline to do so. I don't think a Stoic would consider Stoicism "The way o...

I started clerking at a law firm after my first year in law school. I enjoyed that far more than my time in the lecture halls. Oddly, my grades got be...

Early Christianity cheerfully looted from pagan philosophy extensively, but I'm not aware of anything indicating that Jesus did himself.

I've always been baffled by this view, as I think it clear that what you're taught, especially in law school, has nothing to do with the practice of l...

Then there are the torch bearers, Cautes and Cautopates, one with torch up, one with torch down. Representing sunrise and sunset? Maybe. And then ther...

You're quite welcome. The subject fascinates me. I think there are still many Christians who don't know aspects of Christianity's history. For example...

The claim made in the Gospel of John the Christianity is the only path to God is another way the Jesus of the Gospel seems to cause embarrassment to s...

Sol Invictus was chosen by Aurelian to be the "chief" Roman god. But yes, the last half of the third century C.E. was a tough time for the Empire. The...

The date ultimately chosen for celebration of the birth of Christ was believed to be the birthday of Mithras, and also of the god Sol Invictus. Since ...

A few of the Emperors after Constantine were Arians--Constantius II and Valens--even though Arian "lost" at the Council of Nicea. The Trinitarian fact...

I don't know how we come to terms with our Christian past, or if we can. Perhaps it's something like Original Sin is said to be, and is an unending pr...

It's hard to say. I think it's particularly hard to say how pagan religion would have developed, or even what it was like. I'm intrigued by the pagan ...

Well, there's a lot I'd like to know that I think can't be recovered, so it may be just my own frustration and disappointment. I'd like to know better...

Far too much of antiquity is lost to us, unfortunately.

It was a mess, or stew, certainly. It's unfortunate it turned out as it did. I like to speculate how Christianity would have turned out if, for exampl...

I can picture it! Imagine Rock Hudson working there when she arrives.

They may have been. As I said, though, I don't see Tacitus relying on any work by Josephus for the little he (Tacitus) writes about the person known a...

I'm not sure how that's the logical conclusion, but it certainly might be a way of making Scripture "one size fits all" if that's what you want it to ...

Yes, even change it, or ignore it, as I think they did.

Well, Christian propaganda, more likely. As Christianity spread, it was prudent for Christians to make the Jews the villains rather than the Romans. H...

I'm ashamed to admit I thought, for a very brief but delightful moment, you were referring to "Doris Day."

The Jesus Freaks were a thing. They may still be around. I think they even called themselves "Jesus Freaks." Even Elton John referred to them in Tiny ...

I think it does. But they go to such great lengths in their efforts to make of Christianity what they want it to be, what they find to be intellectual...

I think it's significant that Christianity as a religion is in great part the creation of a man who never knew Jesus, and who disagreed with James the...

One would think so. And the answer may be that they're "stuck" with him if they want to be known as Christians. But I think that the Jesus of the Gosp...

I think you're right. They're an odd couple. It was a bad choice on my part.

It seems to me that if the Gospels are believed to be suggestive, inspiring, thought-provoking (insert appropriate adjective) stories, something of Ch...

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Jesus turns water into wine. What room is there for interpretation, here? "Well, he didn't really raise him from t...

So, I take it, the Catholic priest doesn't believe the Gospels, or believes in them, or the Jesus they portray, only as metaphor. The sophisticated, k...

Based on the definitions I related, I don't think the nomination is racist. To be racist, it seems you must contend that a particular race is superior...