Against Celsus 3.54

We admit that we want to educate all people with the word of God, even if Celsus does not wish it, so that we give adolescents the exhortation suited to them and show house-slaves how, taking on a free spirit, they may be ennobled by the word. And those among us who are ambassadors of Christianity say plainly that they are debtors “to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish”; for they do not deny that the souls even of the foolish must be healed, so that, laying aside their ignorance as far as possible, they may hasten toward greater understanding, hearing Solomon too when he says, “And you foolish, take heart,” and, “Whoever of you is most foolish, let him turn aside to me; and to those lacking sense I give command,” says Wisdom: “Come, eat my bread and drink the wine I have mixed for you; leave folly, that you may live, and direct understanding in knowledge.” I would also say this, because of what lies before us in Celsus's discourse: Do not those who practice philosophy invite adolescents to hear them? And do they not exhort young men from the worst life to better things? And why do they not want house-slaves to practice philosophy? Or are we too going to accuse philosophers who exhorted house-slaves to virtue: Pythagoras, Zamolxis; Zeno, Persaeus; and, just the other day, those who exhorted Epictetus to philosophy? Or is it permitted to you, Greeks, to call adolescents, house-slaves, and foolish people to philosophy, but when we do this, are we not acting from love of mankind, wanting to heal every rational nature with the medicine of the word and to bring it into fellowship with God who created all things? These things, then, suffice against Celsus's revilings, rather than accusations.