Universal Salvation in Late Antiquity: Porphyry of Tyre and the Pagan-Christian Debate (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) - Hardcover

"The great merit of this study is the originality of Simmons who highlights a fundamental problem, which became central during the third century: universal salvation, or one way of salvation for all people...Simmons, despite the lack of the texts and the shortage of data, takes a position on these issues, without attempting to give a definitive answer. For what I have presented, for the comprehensiveness of the content and for the originality of the issue, I consider this study very good and indispensable for the Porphyrian scholars and specialists of Late Antiquity." --Giuseppe Muscolino, Mediaeval Sophia "We have a new work 'definitive for its time' on the mysterious transition of Christianity from an object of persecution under Diocletian (303-305) to the official cult of the empire under Constantine (312), and finally to the banning of paganism under Theodosius (380). The culmination of close to 30 years' work, Simmons' chef d'oeuvre is all the more impressive in that he had to reconstruct the last, desperate counter-offensive by Porphyry almost entirely from fragments quoted by his enemies, the Christian apologists responding to his vitriolic charges - which were all the more serious and incisive in that Porphyry as a youth had studied under Origen in Caesarea and was most likely a former Christian himself. In short, unlike Celsus, he had 'insider information'." --Patrick Madigan, The Heythrop Journal "Simmons demonstrates command of sources in Greek, Latin and Syriac...for those interested in Porphyry's response to Christianity, this will likely be the volume of choice for some considerable time." -- The Classical Review

This study offers an in-depth examination of Porphyrian soteriology, or the concept of the salvation of the soul, in the thought of Porphyry of Tyre, whose significance for late antique thought is immense. Porphyry's concept of salvation is important for an understanding of those cataclysmic forces, not always theological, that helped convert the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity. Porphyry, a disciple of Plotinus, was the last and greatest anti-Christian writer to vehemently attack the Church before the Constantinian revolution. His contribution to the pagan-Christian debate on universalism can thus shed light on the failure of paganism and the triumph of Christianity in late antiquity. In a broader historical and cultural context this study will address some of the issues central to the debate on universalism, in which Porphyry was passionately involved and which was becoming increasingly significant during the unprecedented series of economic, cultural, political, and military crises of the third century. As the author will argue, Porphyry may have failed to find one way of salvation for all humanity, he nonetheless arrived a hierarchical soteriology, something natural for a Neoplatonist, which resulted in an integrative religious and philosophical system. His system is examined in the context of other developing ideologies of universalism, during a period of unprecedented imperial crises, which were used by the emperors as an agent of political and religious unification. Christianity finally triumphed over its competitors owing to its being perceived to be the only universal salvation cult that was capable of bringing about this unification. In short, it won due to its unique universalist soteriology. By examining a rival to Christianity's concept of universal salvation, this book will be valuable to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, patristics, church history, and late antiquity.