Christianity in the eyes of a Greek intellectual: the notions of σοφία and τελετή in Lucian's De morte Peregrini

This article aims to draw a general picture of Lucian of Samosata’s perception of Christianity through the analysis of the peculiar vocabulary used in chapt. 11 of his De morte Peregrini, where Christianity is mentioned as θαυμαστὴ σοφία and καινὴ τελετή. To do this, at first, the different meanings and the evolution of these two nouns in the context of the history of the Greek language have been analyzed; subsequently, they have been studied in their specific uses within Lucian’s works. After this preliminary analysis, from which an apparent difficulty to reconcile the two terms with the definition of Christian religion has emerged, the attention has been focused on their specific use related to Christianity in De morte Peregrini. As for θαυμαστὴ σοφία, the narrative context and the particular connotation of Jesus as σοφιστής (given in a later passage and read in the light of the historic-religious category of θεῖος ἀνήρ) have made it possible to recognize a specific meaning as set of knowledge and norms that makes up the doctrine transmitted to Christians by Jesus, i.e. as the ‘content’ of Christianity; the definition of καινὴ τελετή, which concerns instead the ‘external form’ of Christianity, has found an explanation in the context of the general structure of Greek polytheism (in which the general concept of ‘religion’ is missing), which determines the impossibility for Lucian to understand and explain Christianity outside the traditional parameters, and leads him to identify it as one of the various options of devotional and initiatory worship that were spreading within Greek religion. Finally, the cross-reading of these two definitions in the light of the surrounding vocabulary and of the conception of Jesus as θεῖος ἀνήρ, allowed to recognize in Lucian an attitude of general lack of interest and slight mockery towards Christianity, which connects him to other intellectuals of the time, even on the linguistic level.