ABSTRACT
In Minucius Felix’s Octavius, the pagan opponent of Christianity is most outraged by two aspects of the sect. First is the effrontery that such low-status people are offering opinions on “heavenly things” (16.5). The other cause of outrage is Christians’ belief in a bodily resurrection: “They say they are reborn after death from the cinders and the ashes” (11.2).1 Caecilius Natalis, this pagan spokesman, mocks Christians on both counts: “Let your present life, O miserable people, be your gauge of what happens after death. See how some part of you, the greater and better part as you say, experiences want, cold, labor and hunger” (12.2). Caecilius derides Christians’ menial status and their belief that the body is a vital part of their personhood – indeed, “the greater and better part” (ecce pars vestrum maior, melior, ut dicitis). Caecilius is a fictional opponent, but Celsus similarly associates and scorns these same features – Christians’ low status and their belief in an immortal body (Contra Cels.7.45, 8.49).
