ARNOBIO of SICCA, called the ELDER. — Christian writer and apologist, who lived at Sicca Veneria (today el-Zef) in Proconsular Africa at the beginning of the 4th century, d. around 327. According to what s. Jerome relates, A. was a rhetorician (and in this capacity also had Lactantius as a disciple) who, after having opposed Christianity, converted late in life and offered the bishop, as evidence of his conversion, an apologetic work, Adversus nationes, composed by him ca. 303–305 and handed down to us through a single manuscript (ed. by A. Reifferscheid, in CSEL, 4, Vienna 1875, and ed. by C. Marchesi, Turin 1934).
The work consists of 7 books; the final chapters (38–51) of the seventh, hastily and disorderly compiled, have led some to regard them rather as a draft, but their authenticity is beyond question. A. defends Christianity against the accusations of the pagans (I), responds to various objections concerning Christ’s saving work, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and the essence of Christianity (II), turns the accusation of impiety back upon the pagans (III–V), showing how it is they, and not the Christians, who offend the divinity through the practices of their worship (VI–VII). Although in his work A. reveals the most unexpected influences of non-Christian authors, especially of Epicureanism, he displays singular ineptitude, not to say ignorance, in his use of the New, and above all of the Old, Testament, the latter explicitly repudiated by him. Although his work is neither an exposition of the Christian faith nor intended to be one, theological notions in it often prove superficial or contradictory, so that in the later Christian tradition he appeared as a theological witness of very limited authority. Despite this, A.’s work, by virtue of its very drama, rich in ferment and suggestive ideas, occupies a uniquely important place in the history of the literature and thought of Christian Africa and in more than one respect anticipates that of s. Augustine.
For A., God is an indifferent being, who is neither moved nor vengeful; he cannot have created the human soul, which is inclined as it is toward vice and sin; rather, it is the work of inferior divinities and is in itself neither mortal nor immortal, though capable of attaining immortality through the practice of good works. For A., Christ is subordinate to the Father; two natures coexist in him, but in the Passion on Golgotha only the man whom Christ bore died; the saving mission of the Son of God is reduced to a mission of instruction. It should be remembered that for A. the gods of paganism are creatures of God, immaterial and immortal beings, almost angels possessing a special character.
ARNOLD (ERNOLD) of BONNEVAL: V. ARNALDO di BONNEVAL.