Can one say with Peter Brown that “the new way of thinking that emerged in Christian circles in the course of the second century shifted the center of gravity of thought on the nature of human frailty from death to sexuality” (Body and society, p. 86)? The comment is quoted approvingly by B. Williams in Shame and necessity, p. 12, where I find the remark in the context of a discussion of the course taken by history (intellectual history?), and the “formative influence of Christianity” in it. The use of these words has become strange to me, even as shortcuts, as I can’t conceive of history as a category of thought, or of christianity for that matter. Would these “phenomena” have a force all their own, a magic, and carry influence or force? Something else, behind or “below” these words, does, and I fear even philosophers here are trading in adulterated merchandise.