Persuasive Rhetoric in Origen’s Contra Celsum.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the philosophical and rhetorical elements of Origen of Alexandria’s Contra Celsum. Herein, one can find to their delight three major themes of ancient argumentation: the argument from antiquity, the moral effect argument, and the argument from prophecy. The bulk of this thesis is the author’s own exegesis of key passages in the Contra Celsum. The major thesis advanced here is that the strategies of rhetoric used by Christian and non-Christian in late antiquity were quite similar, in fact, exactly the same in many cases. The interpretation of key textual passages in the Contra Celsum advanced here is offered as evidence of the alleged similarities in rhetorical strategies.