ATON . Celsus (late second century A.D.?), anti-Christian writer known only as the author of a work called The True Doctrine (Alethes Logos), which is quoted extensively by Origen of Alexandria in his response, Against Celsus (written in the late 240s). The True Doctrine is mainly important because it is the first anti-Christian polemic of which we have significant knowledge. Origen considers Celsus to be an Epicurean, but he is uncertain about this. There are no traces of Epicureanism in Origen’s quotations from Celsus, which indicate instead that he is an eclectic Middle Platonist of no great originality, a polytheist whose conception of the ‘unnameable’ first deity transcending being and knowable only by ‘synthesis, analysis, or analogy’ is based on Plato’s description of the Good in Republic VI. In accordance with the Timaeus, Celsus believes that God created ‘immortal things’ and turned the creation of ‘mortal things’ over to them. According to him, the universe has a providential organization in which humans hold no special place, and its history is one of eternally repeating sequences of events separated by catastrophes. See also MID- DLE PLATONISM , ORIGE. I.M.