The Patristic Era was a time of great growth in the early Christian movement. Experiencing period waves of persecution, the early Christians were not deterred from spreading the good news of the gospel message. Patristic theologians such as Origen of Alexandria would leave a lasting impact on the church as it continued to develop theological dogmas and methods of the interpretation of Scripture. The method of Scriptural interpretation introduced by Origen addressed the questions and heresies of his time, resulting in an impact not just in his present cultural context, but the future methods of critical thinking as well.
The conquests of Alexander the Great opened Asia Minor and parts of Northern Africa to the influence of Greek culture and philosophy. Though Hellenistic thought was prominent throughout a vast part of the ancient world, the city of Alexandria proved to be particularly influential in the development of Western-Eastern Christian theology and biblical interpretation. Housing a library, the city of Alexandria provided centers for study in philosophy, literary criticism, and allegory. It would be in this contextual setting that Origen of Alexandria …show more content…
Origen cites how the advocates for heresy use passages such as Isaiah 45:7 or Micah 1:12 to propose that the god of the Old Testament is nothing but a “creator-god (dēmiourgos).” The creator-god proposed by the advocates of heresies doubted the characteristics of the triune God, which resulted in a separation between the images of God in the Old and New Testaments. Being imperfect in nature, the creator-god was said to be a product of Jewish tradition and did not fit with the salvation message proclaimed by Christ in the New Testament. Origen states that once the character of God was “forsaken,” the advocates of heresies were free to invent their own spiritual realities that deviate from the norms of
The conquests of Alexander the Great opened Asia Minor and parts of Northern Africa to the influence of Greek culture and philosophy. Though Hellenistic thought was prominent throughout a vast part of the ancient world, the city of Alexandria proved to be particularly influential in the development of Western-Eastern Christian theology and biblical interpretation. Housing a library, the city of Alexandria provided centers for study in philosophy, literary criticism, and allegory. It would be in this contextual setting that Origen of Alexandria …show more content…
Origen cites how the advocates for heresy use passages such as Isaiah 45:7 or Micah 1:12 to propose that the god of the Old Testament is nothing but a “creator-god (dēmiourgos).” The creator-god proposed by the advocates of heresies doubted the characteristics of the triune God, which resulted in a separation between the images of God in the Old and New Testaments. Being imperfect in nature, the creator-god was said to be a product of Jewish tradition and did not fit with the salvation message proclaimed by Christ in the New Testament. Origen states that once the character of God was “forsaken,” the advocates of heresies were free to invent their own spiritual realities that deviate from the norms of