Sophron and Neophilus, or The School of Wisdom

Soph. That, friend, is precisely the greatest absurdity among our self-appointed Aufklärer Enlighteners, that they do not first better agree upon the most important points before they set their hand to the work. The fragmentist sees in Jesus a power-hungry man, a subtle though benevolent deceiver who was concerned with nothing other than setting himself up as King over Judea. The author of our Horus, however, declares him, briefly and simply, to be a quite good-natured enthusiast whose head (in which, moreover, as he himself admits, the most sublime and rarest wisdom resided) had been turned by astrological whims, and who truly and in all seriousness believed himself to be the Messiah. The former claims the disciples carried his dead corpse away from the grave and pretended he had risen. The latter lets him return to life through the power of the spices of Joseph and appear to his friends. To whom, then, should one listen, my dear Neophilus, since they, the opponents of Christianity, are in disagreement precisely regarding the most important story of the entire New Testament, precisely regarding that which...