Summary Of Contra Celsus

In a passage preserved by Origen in Contra Celsum, Celsus advances a pagan Christology. Noting that no god or son of god had ever come to earth, Celsus suggests that a being such as Christ could be an angel or a god, but most likely a daimon (Contra Celsum, 5.2). This paper explores how this passage may be informed by supplementing the Celsus' non-extant demonology with previous views on daimones, all the while being mindful the Celsus has been filtered through Origen's own Christology and demonology. It is not unfounded to assert that Origen's work can perhaps inform our understanding of pagan demonology. Much recent scholarship has demonstrated that both pagans and Christians shared overlapping religious beliefs. Early Christians did not develop daimones ex nihilo as merely a rhetorical tool: pagans and Christians shared the same cultural milieu.
Celsus presents a henotheistic framework which necessitated the worship of the highest god’s subordinates: beings such as angels, daimones, and heroes (cf. Contra Celsum, 7.68). Within his argument, Celsus seems to take the ontological category of “daimon” for granted, only explicitly describing how daimones fit into a greater cosmology. This picture is further complicated by the very fuzzy definition of what constituted a “daimon” in antiquity. Among many definitions, daimones were cited as gods (Il.1.222, 3.420), the spirits of heroes (Hes. Op. 314), and intermediary spirits (Symp.