Justin Martyr on early Christian atheism
Raúl Vidales, "How should we speak of Christ today?" ch. 11 in
Faces of Jesus: Latin American christologies (Orbis: NY 1984),
original title: Jesús: Ni vencidoni monarca celestial
(Tierra Nueva: Buenos Aires, Argentina 1977) viii, 92
Christological faith has always been a painful part of the history of
Christianity. Thus it was in the first centuries--and not only because Christians
underwent martyrdom at the hands of a polytheistic Greco-Roman society for their
alleged atheism ("We are called 'atheists,' said Justin,
"'those who have no gods.' Surely we confess our atheism--for we surely
have not these so-called gods")--but also because of the difficulties that appear
in the christological controversies.*
142
* See J.M. González Ruiz, Dio e gratuito, ma non superfluo
(Jaca: Milan 1969; Marova: Madrid 1970) pp 22-35.