CelsusCelsus (ˈsɛlsəs; Κέλσος, Kélsos; ) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, The True Word (also Account, Doctrine or Discourse; Greek: Λόγος Ἀληθής), survives exclusively in quotations from it in Contra Celsum, a refutation written in 248 by Origen of Alexandria. The True Word is the earliest known comprehensive criticism of Christianity. Hanegraaff has argued that it was written shortly after the death of Justin Martyr (who was possibly the first Christian apologist), and was probably a response to his work.
Arian controversyThe Arian controversy was a series of Christian disputes about the nature of Christ that began with a dispute between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, two Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. The most important of these controversies concerned the relationship between the substance of God the Father and the substance of His Son. Emperor Constantine, through the Council of Nicaea in 325, attempted to unite Christianity and establish a single, imperially approved version of the faith.
Pre-existencePre-existence, preexistence, beforelife, or premortal existence, is the belief that each individual human soul existed before mortal conception, and at some point before birth enters or is placed into the body. Concepts of pre-existence can encompass either the belief that the soul came into existence at some time prior to conception or the belief that the soul is eternal. Alternative positions are traducianism and creationism, which both hold that the individual human soul does not come into existence until conception.
ApocatastasisIn theology, apocatastasis (æpoʊkəˈtæstəsᵻs; occasionally spelled apokatastasis) is the restoration of creation to a condition of perfection. In Christianity, it is a form of Christian universalism that includes the ultimate salvation of everyone—including the damned in hell and the devil. The New Testament () refers to the "apocatastasis of all things", although this passage is not usually understood to teach universal salvation.
PanarionIn early Christian heresiology, the Panarion (Πανάριον, derived from Latin panarium, meaning "bread basket"), to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name Adversus Haereses (Latin: "Against Heresies"), is the most important of the works of Epiphanius of Salamis. It was written in Koine Greek beginning in 374 or 375, and issued about three years later, as a treatise on heresies, with its title referring to the text as a "stock of remedies to offset the poisons of heresy.
PleromaPleroma (πλήρωμα, literally "fullness") generally refers to the totality of divine powers. It is used in Christian theological contexts, especially in Gnosticism. The term also appears in the Epistle to the Colossians, which is traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. The word is used 17 times in the New Testament. The word literally means "fullness", from the verb (πληρόω, "to fill"), from (πλήρης, "full"). The word itself is a relative term, capable of many shades of meaning, according to the subject with which it is joined and the antithesis to which it is contrasted.
EncratitesThe Encratites ("self-controlled") were an ascetic 2nd-century sect of Christians who forbade marriage and counselled abstinence from meat. Eusebius says that Tatian was the author of this heresy. It has been supposed that it was these Gnostic Encratites who were chastised in the epistle of 1 Timothy (4:1-4). The first mention of a Christian sect of this name occurs in Irenæus. They are mentioned more than once by Clement of Alexandria, who says that they are named from "Temperance".
Zechariah (New Testament figure)_Zacharias Zechariah (זְכַרְיָה Zəḵaryāh, "remember Yah"; Ζαχαρίας; Zacharias in KJV; Zachary in the Douay–Rheims Bible; Zakariyya (Zakariyyā) in Islamic tradition) is a figure in the New Testament and the Quran, and venerated in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron in the Gospel of Luke (), and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of the Virgin Mary ().
Easter letterThe Festal Letters or Easter Letters are a series of annual letters by which the Bishops of Alexandria, in conformity with a decision of the First Council of Nicaea, announced the date on which Easter was to be celebrated. The council chose Alexandria because of its famous school of astronomy, and the date of Easter depends on the spring equinox and the phases of the moon. The most famous of those letters are those authored by Athanasius, a collection of which was rediscovered in a Syriac translation in 1842.
Didymus the BlindDidymus the Blind (alternatively spelled Dedimus or Didymous) (313 - 398) was a Christian theologian in the Church of Alexandria, where he taught for about half a century. He was a student of Origen, and, after the Second Council of Constantinople condemned Origen, Didymus's works were not copied. Many of his writings are lost, but some of his commentaries and essays survive. He was seen as intelligent and a good teacher. Didymus became blind at the age of four, before he had learned to read.