"Let us come to the philosophers, whose authority is of greater weight, and their judgment more to be relied on, because they are believed to have paid attention, not to matters of fiction, but to the investigation of the truth"
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Lactantius is doing something sly: he flatters philosophy in order to subordinate it. On the surface, he’s paying deference to the “authority” of philosophers, praising their seriousness as truth-seekers rather than storytellers. But the compliment is bait. By granting philosophers the higher ground of method and rigor, he sets up the reader to accept his next move: if even these professionals of “investigation” can be recruited to his argument, then the argument must be unimpeachable.
The subtext is a dispute about which narratives deserve to govern public life. In late antiquity, educated elites were steeped in pagan myth, rhetoric, and classical learning, while Christianity was positioning itself not as another cult story but as a rival epistemology. Lactantius, a Christian apologist trained in Roman rhetoric, wants to drag the conversation out of the realm of poetry and civic myth-making and into the courtroom of reason. “Matters of fiction” isn’t a neutral category; it’s a strategic downgrade of the old religious imagination, a way of suggesting that tradition is basically literature with political power.
The line also reveals a cultural anxiety: belief needs credentialing. He gestures toward a new hierarchy of trust, where “truth” is what the right class of thinkers is “believed” to pursue. That final phrase quietly admits the precariousness of authority. Philosophers aren’t reliable because they’re right; they’re reliable because audiences have already agreed to treat them as serious. Lactantius exploits that social contract, redirecting its prestige toward a Christian claim to be not merely inspiring, but true.
The subtext is a dispute about which narratives deserve to govern public life. In late antiquity, educated elites were steeped in pagan myth, rhetoric, and classical learning, while Christianity was positioning itself not as another cult story but as a rival epistemology. Lactantius, a Christian apologist trained in Roman rhetoric, wants to drag the conversation out of the realm of poetry and civic myth-making and into the courtroom of reason. “Matters of fiction” isn’t a neutral category; it’s a strategic downgrade of the old religious imagination, a way of suggesting that tradition is basically literature with political power.
The line also reveals a cultural anxiety: belief needs credentialing. He gestures toward a new hierarchy of trust, where “truth” is what the right class of thinkers is “believed” to pursue. That final phrase quietly admits the precariousness of authority. Philosophers aren’t reliable because they’re right; they’re reliable because audiences have already agreed to treat them as serious. Lactantius exploits that social contract, redirecting its prestige toward a Christian claim to be not merely inspiring, but true.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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