But since Celsus has declared it to be a saying of many Christians, that
“the wisdom of this life is a bad thing, but that foolishness is good,”
we have to answer that he slanders the gospel, not giving the words as
they actually occur in the writings of Paul, where they run as follow:
“If any one among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a
fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God.”[1154] The apostle, therefore, does not say simply
that “wisdom is foolishness with God,” but “the wisdom of _this world_.”
And again, not, “If any one among you seemeth to be wise, let him become
a fool universally;” but, “let him become a fool _in this world_, that
he may become wise.” We term, then, “the wisdom of this world,” every
false system of philosophy, which, according to the Scriptures, is
brought to nought; and we call foolishness good, not without
restriction, but when a man becomes foolish as to _this world_. As if we
were to say that the Platonist, who believes in the immortality of the
soul, and in the doctrine of its metempsychosis,[1155] incurs the charge
of folly with the Stoics, who discard this opinion; and with the
Peripatetics, who babble about the subtleties of Plato; and with the
Epicureans, who call it superstition to introduce a providence, and to
place a God over all things. Moreover, that it is in agreement with the
spirit of Christianity, of much more importance to give our assent to
doctrines upon grounds of reason and wisdom than on that of faith
merely, and that it was only in certain circumstances that the latter
course was desired by Christianity, in order not to leave men altogether
without help, is shown by that genuine disciple of Jesus, Paul, when he
says: “For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe.”[1156] Now by these words it is clearly shown that it is
by the wisdom of God that God ought to be known. But as this result did
not follow, it pleased God a second time to save them that believe, not
by “folly” _universally_, but by such foolishness as depended on
preaching. For the preaching of Jesus Christ as crucified is the
“foolishness” of preaching, as Paul also perceived, when he said, “But
we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the
Greeks foolishness; but to them who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God, and wisdom of God.”[1157]
Footnote 1154:
1 Cor. iii. 18, 19.
Footnote 1155:
μετενσωματώσεως.
Footnote 1156:
Ἔτι δὲ ὅτι καὶ κατὰ τὸ τῷ λόγῳ ἀρέσκον, πολλῷ διαφέρει μετὰ λόγου καὶ
σοφίας συγκατατίθεσθαι τοῖς δόγμασιν, ἤπερ μετὰ ψιλῆς τῆς πίστεως· καὶ
ὅτι κατὰ περίστασιν καὶ τοῦτ’ ἐβουλήθη ὁ λόγος, ἵνα μὴ πάντη ἀνωφελεῖς
ἐάσῃ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· δηλοῖ ὁ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ γνήσιος μαθητὴς, etc.
Footnote 1157:
1 Cor. i. 23, 24.