Origen

be any record of a major controversy concerning man’s freedom in the decision-making process prior to the Pelagian controversy of the 5th century. To be sure, there were debates concerning “free will” prior to the Pelagian controversy (Chrysostom, Origen, Jerome, and others opposed determinism), but none that took center stage the way the Pelagian controversy did. Pelagius, a British-born monk who resided in Rome before it fell in 410, was “roused to anger by an inert Christendom, that excused…

his discussions concerning God. He might have hated the Church, but that should not detract from his Christian faith. Machiavelli’s combination of ancient religion and Christianity fit somewhat into what ancient theologians such as Justin Martyr, Origen and many others did. These men mostly focused on bringing Platonism into Christianity, but Machiavelli considered Aristotle more important. Black argued that Machiavelli was not the next Aristotle, however, this paper would not argue that either.…

that: if Christianity were true, why did it come so late in history; the miracles of Jesus were worked through magic; the looming issues with the incarnation; and the immorality of the soul. Celsus created an uproar, which warranted a response from Origen and his work was also used in several other attacks against Christians, including Galen’s. Chi-Rho: Two Greek characters that begin the word Christos, whose English equivalent is Christ. This symbol came to prominence through Constantine, in…

with his interpretation of Darwin’s works. In 1859, Darwin released “The Origen of Species” which explains his theory of evolution, but also emphasizing that there is no direct creation by God (Vietri, June 12, 2017). Gladstone was fascinated with the arguments brought forth in this text, impressed with Darwin’s logic and the exposition of natural selection. However, Gladstone clarifies that, even after his reading of “The Origen of Species”, he did not feel a divide between Natural Science and…

earliest of times the western world too was in favor of the concept and reincarnation enjoyed a honored place in these religions after the Second Council of Constantinople the entire outlook towards this concept of rebirth changed. This council condemned Origen who believed in the preexistence of soul before its arrival on this earth and embraced Aristotelian concept of soul. While the Hindus and Buddhists are of the opinion that nothing on this earth occurs by accident and we reap what we sow…

The first great heresy for the Christian religion is considered to be the Arian heresy-- with the name deriving from its most influential preacher, a parish priest named Arius from Antioch. The Arian heresy arose, in the year 318, from the fact that it was difficult to explain the difference between “the One and the Many, between the ultimate unity that lay behind the visible universe and the incapable variety that exists in the world as we know it”. Arius resolved this problem by preaching…

Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian born in Lucerne to a well-established family. Von Balthasar joined the Society of Jesus in 1929 upon the completion of his dissertation. At the leading of Henri de Lubac, von Balthasar studied Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor where he discovered a hope for the salvation of the world. During his time as a chaplain in Basle, von Balthasar met the protestant theologian Karl Barth, who would go on to become close friend and major…

148731 No Home, No Problem? Times are changing at a more rapid speed than ever before. With a fast-paced, globalizing society, people begin to lose ties to their home, their place of origen. In the personal essay, “On Going Home”, Joan Didion comments on her own personal experience when visiting her family and conveys her disappointment that the younger generations do not have a home to come back to; they lack tradition. The news article, “Gimme Shelter”, written by Corinne Purtill…

This too shows that the upper echelon had reservations about the killing Christians. Trajan’s persecution of the Christians was implemented as a means of social control to ensure that the pagan population did not rebel against the emperor. However, Trajan’s quest for social control did not deter pagans from converting to Christianity, courageous martyrdom in the circus actually promoted the faith. The act of martyrdom is Christianity embracing their ideological differences and exaggerating the…

never been questioned. However the belief in reincarnation as well as pre- existence of soul was present among the Christians as early as the second century A.D. when it was preached by early Christian theologians ad apologists like Justin Matyr and Origen. So it can be said that early Christianity before it was taken over by Constantine had very different view about reincarnation and unlike modern Christianity where only the Gnostics and the esoteric schools have faith in this concept of…