In the end, however, Origen’s principal argument for the validity of his faith was its own success. Christianity’s spread, he implied, was a kind of democratic referendum on the elitist institutions of the ancients. The philosophy of the ancients and the Stoics had reserved final wisdom for a chosen few. Christianity delivered those same truths, and the moral virtues that went with them, to the many, right down to slaves and the homeless. Plato was like a chef at a five-star restaurant, Origen said, who only knew recipes that appealed to his handful of wealthy diners. Jesus, by contrast,
...more
Very interesting. Through Christianity people gained access to mental models previously only for philosophers
