Origen: Contra Celsum

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Cambridge University Press, Feb 28, 1980 - Religion - 530 pages
Few works of the early Church are as interesting to the modern reader or as important to the historian as Origen's reply to the attack on Christianity made by the pagan Celsus. The Contra Celsum is the culmination of the great apologetic movement of the second and third centuries AD, and is for the Greek Church what St Augustine's City of God is for Western Christendom. It is also one of the chief monuments of the coming together of ancient Greek culture and the new faith of the expanding Christian society. Thus Origen's work is of interest not only to the historian and theologian, but also to the hellenist. Professor Chadwick's English translation is preceded by a substantial introduction which includes discussion on Celsus' date, identity and theological outlook, as well as an account of Origen's philosophical background and method. The notes elucidate the many obscure allusions of a difficult text.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION
ix
2 DATE OF THE CONTRA CELSUM
xiv
3 CELSUS THEOLOGY
xvi
4 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF CELSUS TEXT
xxii
5 THE IDENTITY AND DATE OF CELSUS
xxiv
6 MANUSCRIPTS EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS
xxix
ABBREVIATIONS
xxxiii
BIBLIOGRAPHY
xxxv
CONTRA CELSUM
1
PREFACE
3
APPENDED NOTE ON 3 78
512
GENERAL INDEX
513
INDEX OF CLASSICAL AUTHORS
519
INDEX OF BIBLICAL PASSAGES
521
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About the author (1980)

Origen is the foremost member of the School of Alexandria, the first school of genuinely philosophical Christian theology. His Platonism is of an older form, uninfluenced by the Neoplatonism of Plotinus, so his philosophy is quite distinct from that of Augustine of Hippo on a number of issues, but especially on the issue of original sin and freedom of will and on the justification of God's permitting evil in the world. Origen became a center of controversy because of his contention that even the Devil would in the end return to God, and he seems to have held that a person enjoys as many successive lives on earth as are needed to return to God after the Fall. However, all matters concerning the interpretation of his thought are controversial. The other members of the school are Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.213) and Irenaeus of Lyons (died c.202).

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