ABSTRACT
Theodoret of Cyrus, a Church historian of the fifth century, provides a provocative historical anecdote from the previous century: And first Emperor Julian forbade the sons of the Galileans to take part in the words of the poets, and rhetors, and philosophers. The course of scholarship on the Delphic Oracle has swung rather pendulum-like over the last century. The Early Church Fathers were certainly not alone in their stance against traditional Graeco-Roman religion. That ground had already been well trodden by earlier philosophers. Thus, in many instances, the apologists did not need to invent new controversies, but simply to dredge up old ones and occasionally to present them in a new package wrapped in Christian morals and teachings. Given the shortage of evidence on which to base conclusions about the practices of the Oracle of Delphi in antiquity and speculative character of the research, there are at least two benefits that recommend a social constructionist approach in this subfield.
