''De recta in Deum fide'' ('On the Orthodox Faith in God'), also known as the ''Dialogue of Adamantius'', is an anonymous

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

in Greek from the late 3rd or early 4th century."Adamantius"
in

F. L. Cross Frank Leslie Cross (22 January 1900 – 30 December 1968) was an English patristics scholar and Anglican priest. He was the founder of the Oxford International Conference on Patristic Studies and editor (with Elizabeth Livingstone) of ''The Ox ...

and

E. A. Livingstone Elizabeth Anne Livingstone (born on July 7, 1929) , also known as E. A. Livingstone, is an English Anglican theologian, specialising in patristics. Life Education She has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Oxford and a Lamb ...

(eds.), ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'', 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005 nline 2009. Accessed 11 December 2021. Ilaria Ramelli
"''De recta in Deum fide''"
in David G. Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (eds.), ''Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online'' (Brill, 2018). Accessed 11 December 2021.David W. Deakle, "Adamantius (third–fourth century)", in Everett Ferguson (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity'', 2nd ed. (Routledge, 1999), p. 19. It was probably written in Asia Minor or

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. It is a defence of Christian orthodoxy against the heresies of Marcionism and Gnosticism. The orthodox protagonist in the dialogue is named Adamantius, and this has been taken as the name of the author. In chapter 24 of the '' Philocalia'', a collection of the works of Origen, the latter is identified with Adamantius. Although the ''Philocalia'' was originally compiled in the 4th century by Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus, the authenticity of chapter 24 is suspect and the identification of Origen as the author of ''De recta'' is not accepted today. Internal evidence suggests that the work was composed in two stages, or possibly that there was a first and a second edition. ''De recta in Deum fide'' is divided into five books covering a series of three disputations. In the first debate, Adamantius faces off against two disciples of Marcion, Megethius and Marcus. In the second, he debates a disciple of Bardaisan named Marinus. In the third, he debates two Valentinians, Droserius and Valens. The debates are judged by a

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

named Eutropius, who declares Adamantius the winner at the end of the second book and again at the end of the fifth. In the end, Eutropius wishes to convert to Christianity. ''De recta'' was translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia in the 4th century. Although it has been little studied, it is an important witness to the diversity of opinion among heretics and to the texts of the Marcionites.

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