LUCIAN
(Lucian of Samosata)
At that time, and in much of the world today, religious preaching and those who do it are licensed by the state. Lucian’s response was one of the first statements that governments and temporal powers endorsement was not required, nor was any formal ordination or grant of authority from a formal church as existed among the pagans of the time where the religion was seen as another extension of the state. Even in America there is some ambivalence on this point. Many religions require not only training but a grant of authority from the religious hierarchy. Others such as some Baptists and many Protestant Fundamentalist groups believe that no specific authority is needed other than the “calling of god.” Lucian was apparently the first person to claim the authority as an individual. He was burnt alive for his position. There is a second Saint Lucian. To distinguish the latter is often referred to as Saint Lucian the Syrian.
This is a particularly interesting contemporary passage about the early Christians. Unlike many who despised the Christians, or thought them dangerous to society, Lucian was an intellectual of his era. He saw the Christians as naïve, ignorant, bumpkins, who could be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people.
Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 – after 180) was a Syrian satirist and rhetorician who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in Ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek popular during the Second Sophistic period).
