Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Celsus And Origen On Christian Unity

Here's a post I wrote on the subject several years ago, which includes quotations from both sources. Notice that when Celsus criticizes Christian disunity, Origen's response makes no appeal to a papacy, a worldwide denomination every Christian belongs to, or ecumenical councils, for example. Such means of unity, which are often proposed by modern critics of Evangelicalism, aren't mentioned by Origen. As Robert Eno, a Roman Catholic patristic scholar, noted, "a plain recognition of Roman primacy or of a connection between Peter and the contemporary bishop of Rome seems remote from Origen’s thoughts" (The Rise Of The Papacy [Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, 1990], 43). And for those who want to dismiss Origen as a heretic, schismatic, or something of the like, see here. Origen's response to Celsus regarding Christian unity probably represents common Christian thought at the time.

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