Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book III/Chapter LXXVI

Chapter LXXVI.

And he produces a second illustration to our disadvantage, saying that &#8220;our teacher acts like a drunken man, who, entering a company of drunkards, should accuse those who are sober of being drunk.&#8221;&#160; But let him show, say from the writings of Paul, that the apostle of Jesus gave way to drunkenness, and that his words were not those of soberness; or from the writings of John, that his thoughts do not breathe a spirit of temperance and of freedom from the intoxication of evil.&#160; No one, then, who is of sound mind, and teaches the doctrines of Christianity, gets drunk with wine; but Celsus utters these calumnies against us in a spirit very unlike that of a philosopher.&#160; Moreover, let Celsus say who those &#8220;sober&#8221; persons are whom the ambassadors of Christianity accuse.&#160; For in our judgment all are intoxicated who address themselves to inanimate objects as to God.&#160; And why do I say &#8220;intoxicated?&#8221;&#160; &#8220;Insane&#8221; would be the more appropriate word for those who hasten to temples and worship images or animals as divinities.&#160; And they too are not less insane who think that images, fashioned by men of worthless and sometimes most wicked character, confer any honour upon genuine divinities.