/lit/ - Literature

>>19914524

>>19775790
There's a lot of that all over his works.
There was a common pagan critique that the Christianization ruined the fortunes of the Empire by spurning its patron deities and turning to a foreign bizarre god who could not care nor help about the Empire.
So, in City of God, one chapter is dedicated to a meandering discourse listing off different Roman patron deities and questioning which would be responsible for the Empire's success. He proceeds to show that no single deity is inarguably responsible, that no subset of deities cannot be expanded further, and that an adequate description of such a patron deity would have to approximate the Christian God and his total dominion of all existence. No pagan deity can hold the same status because they were all considered to inhabit images around the empire, in a manner implying limitation. The God of scripture was not bound by these limits and unlike any of the pagan deities, was actually involved in a covenant guaranteeing the prosperity of the faithful state; so the pagan criticism was attacked from all angles to exonerate Christianity of the Empire's fall. (Which was later borne out by the great continued success of the Christian East.)
Generally Augustine acts to defend Christian theology against accusations and to address pagan theological stances, weaving from polemics to high theology.

>>19775803
The postmodernists apply this manner of critique to everything, but the consensus that paganism collapsed because of its inability to present a unified front long precedes postmodernism. Julian himself diagnosed this as being their problem. Philosophers had already attacked the multifarious pantheon and its literal existence for decades by the time Christianity emerged, and centuries by the time it started spreading.

>>19775884
Anon said that Augustine was wrong to claim that the pagans didn't know who was the chief of lightning, or how many of them there were, because a schema did exist.
And I responded that it might as well have not existed, because the Hellenistic world was centralizing philosophically such that a variety of regional opinions did not satisfy intellectuals or the burgeoning Christian movement regarding standards for theology.
In fact, when faced with different regional dialectics of Christianity, Christians of that time subsequently responded with asserting uniformity or else proclaiming heresy and then battling with as much fervor as they had against pagans.

>>19775992
>except there are answers
No, there are no hard answers. This is why paganism died. The fact that you are projecting fucking Protestant tendencies (which share this problem really) onto the CHRISTIAN side of Classical Antiquity is incredibly embarrassing. You presentist fools posture and masturbate without any regard for the historical facts of the matter, you stunted spawn of the 2000s.
It was a syncretistic cosmopolitan religious world which fell apart under rigorous examination. That's it.

>>19542661

>>18856904
>When you are the true church of Jesus Christ
Church of the Assumption of Our Blessed Virgin Lady of the Annunciation of the Immaculate Conception of the Sacred Immaculate Heart of the Rosary Nativity Church really sounds like Christ's church.
>The Holy Spirit guides the church in its infallible proclamations (eg. ecumenical councils, ex cathedra declarations)
Proofs?

>>17772815
>The WHO says that someone that can't get a GF in 12 months is disabled.

>>17543670
The only way to be critical and independent is demand proofs for literally everything. And I mean everything, you might not understand what it entails to doubt literally everything you haven't seen proofs for. For things you don't know you are allowed to say 'this option seems more likely because it contradicts less with things I do believe have proofs' but you still have maintain doubt about almost everything.

>>17537299
>Socialism is better at maximizing prosperity because it promotes equality.

>>15704219
Proofs?

>>15570583
>He died of asphyxiation. There's been ample sources on this.
and don't post the """"autopsy'""" by the guy who just watched the video

>>15511163
>that grant you certain advantages

>>14138277
can't argue with that holy dubs.
Why though?

>>13997748
>the structure of power in our society has conditioned my mind so that I'm inclined to post here

>>13991082
>God- The Bible
>God-

>>13956968
>but because they can

>>13192171
>Dostoevsky wished he could be Christian, but was unable to do so.

>>10065297
>1:1

>>10026785
>free will

>>10022451
>because things die every

>>10017844
>death
Where's the proof?

>>10011853
>fact
*possibility