Against Celsus 8.31

After this Celsus sets down what is admittedly said by Christians and Jews in defence of their abstaining from offerings to idols, when they say that those devoted to the God over all must not feast with demons; in answer to which he said what has been quoted. Now we, as far as foods and drinks are concerned, know no other ways of feasting with demons than eating what the many call sacred offerings and drinking the wine of the libations made to the demons. But Celsus thinks that one who partakes of bread, or drinks wine in any way, or tastes fruits, feasts with demons; and even if one partakes only of water, he says that in this too the drinker feasts with demons. He adds to this that whoever breathes this air also receives it from certain demons, since the demons appointed over the air grant animals the air for breathing. Let whoever wishes, then, take up Celsus's argument and show how it is not some divine angels of God, but demons, whose whole race is wicked, that have been appointed to manage all the things mentioned. For we too say that it is not without the oversight of invisible husbandmen, so to speak, and other stewards, not only of what grows from the earth but also of all flowing water and of the air, that the earth bears what are said to be governed by nature, that water gushes and flows in springs and in rivers that rise from the ground, and that the air is kept uncorrupted and life-giving for those who breathe it. We do not, however, say that these invisible beings are demons; but, if one must venture to say something, if these are the works of demons, we shall say that famines, failures of vines and fruit trees, and droughts, and also the corruption of the air to the ruin of crops, and sometimes to the death of animals and to plague among men, all these the demons bring about with their own hands as executioners, having received by some divine judgment authority to do these things at certain times, either for the conversion of men who have run aground on the flood of wickedness, or for the training of the rational race; so that those who remain pious even in such trials and in no way become worse may be made manifest to invisible and visible spectators who did not until then see their disposition, while those of the opposite disposition, who conceal the display of their wickedness, being exposed by what happens, may perceive what they are and become plain to the spectators, if I may so call them.