October 12, 1838

Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord, (1878) is a study of Philo of Alexandria. Philo was, according to The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the author of a

'speculative and philosophical justification for Judaism in terms of Greek philosophy. Thus Philo produced a synthesis of both traditions developing concepts for future Hellenistic interpretation of messianic Hebrew thought, especially by Clement of Alexandria, Christian Apologists like Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and by Origen. He may have influenced Paul, his contemporary, and perhaps the authors of the Gospel of John (C. H. Dodd) and the Epistle to the Hebrews (R. Williamson and H. W. Attridge). ....'

The author of Philochristus was a Cambridge scholar, a fellow of St. Johns College. Edwin Abbott Abbott (December 20, 1838 to October 12, 1926) wrote Flatland, (1884) a volume which revealed one of the subtlest mind of his century or any other. Yet this genius couldn't quite grasp that cat worship could be part of respectable cosmological conjectures. He wrote regarding various misguided religious explanations. We quote his critique of an Epicurean perspective in Philochristus:

'He began with reckoning up how many unjust acts, how many oppressions and sins, how many diseases and miseries, had been let loose by the gods (if gods there were) to prey upon the children of men. He set forth the diverse gods and goddesses worshipped by diverse nations; the gods of the Grecians and Romans, wrought of marble or ivory; the sword worshipped by the Scythians; the cat and ibis by the Egyptians. What, he asked, had they all done for their servants? Then he said that in a certain region of Syria there lived a nation which professed to reject the gods of other nations and to believe in one only god: but to what end? Their god had allowed their enemies to destroy his own temple with fire, and had given up his chosen people to be the servants of the Romans. He added a story of one of our learned men, whose life had been blameless and whose teaching had been of the One True God. "Yet," said the Epicurean, "what befell this teacher of truth in his old age? His god delivered him into the hands of persecutors, who placed his tongue between the teeth of a dog which had been made exceeding fierce with hunger; and so the dog bit off the tongue of the pious teacher, even that tongue which had ever spoken words of truth. What say we then? If there be a god, then he suffered this wickedness (for without him is naught); and therefore he is wicked. But if there be no god, then at least we are delivered from the constraint to believe that the Supreme Governor of the world is worse than the worst of men."'

Abbott wrote regarding Philo the Alexandrine that "a dog [might] hope to lap up the Nile as that ...[one] shouldst drain dry the wisdom of Philo the Alexandrine."