Apollonius of Tyana, and other essays
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| Thomas Whittaker |
Contents:
Apollonius of Tyana.--Celsus and Origen.--John Scotus Erigena.--Animism, religion and philosophy.--A compendious classification of the sciences.--Teleology and the individual
Excerpt:
A reformer of Greek religion from within, whose activity may have coincided with the first emergence of the Christian propaganda from Judaea, is undoubtedly an interesting historical figure. And both in ancient and in modern times Apollonius of Tyana has been made the subject of parallels which were probably never thought of by the author of his extant Life.
The first of these parallels were by Hierocles, Proconsul of Bithynia under Diocletian; in which the attempt seems to have been made to show that the marvels attributed to Apollonius were better authenticated than those attributed to Christ. We do not possess this work itself; but we have the reply of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea and ecclesiastical historian, written after the triumph of the new faith. The most elaborate modern parallel is that of F. C. Baur, first published in 1832.
Baur here attempts to show, not only that there are resemblances between the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus and the Gospels, but that Philostratus deliberately modelled his hero on the type set forth by the Evangelists. Though he was followed in this view by Zeller, it is now generally rejected; so that there is no need to enter into controversy on the subject. It remains, however, nonetheless interesting to try to determine the character of the reforming activity of Apollonius himself. Was his predominant aim to conduct the world along the path of intensified supernaturalism.
Whittaker was educated at Dublin Royal College of Science and Exeter College, Oxford. He was an editor of the journal Mind (1885-1891). He won a Natural Science scholarship at Exeter College. From 1910 he was director of the Rationalist Press Association. Whittaker was an advocate of the Christ myth theory. He was influenced by the writings of Willem Christiaan van Manen and J. M. Robertson
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