The Church Fathers · c. 248
Against Celsus
Contra Celsum
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185–c. 253
What it is
A point-by-point reply, seventy years late, to the most intelligent pagan attack on Christianity ever written — quoting Celsus so fully that his lost book can be largely reconstructed from it.
Why it lasted
The greatest apologetic work of the ancient church, and an unmatched record of what an educated pagan actually thought of Christians.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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