|
Esoteric Christianity
Esoteric Christianity is a mystical approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand. The term ''esoteric'' was coined in the 17th century and derives from the Greek (, "inner"). These spiritual currents share some common features, such as heterodox or heretical Christian theology; the canonical gospels, various apocalyptic literature, and some New Testament apocrypha as sacred texts; and '' disciplina arcani'', a supposed oral tradition from the Twelve Apostles containing esoteric teachings of Jesus the Christ. Esoteric Christianity is closely related to Gnosticism, and survives in a few modern churches. There are also esoteric Christian Societies such as the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. History Ancient roots Some modern scholars believe that in the early stages of proto-orthodox Christianity, a nucleus of oral teachings were inherited from Palestinian and Hellenistic Judaism. In the 4th century, it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Christian Community
The Christian Community is an esoterically-oriented Christian denomination established in Germany in 1922 by Lutheran ministers influenced by Anthroposophy. As of 2023, it claims approximately 100,000 members in more than 400 congregations. History During the early growth of the Anthroposophical Society, some Lutheran pastors in Germany appealed to Rudolf Steiner for a system of worship oriented towards his concept of Jesus Christ as the first fully initiated human in history, possessing absolute consciousness of the spiritual realm. According to a founding member of the Christian Community, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, he and the other founders were inspired by Steiner. In 1939 in London, Evelyn Capel became the first English woman priest of The Christian Community to celebrate the sacraments. After World War II, she helped reestablish Christian Community congregations in Germany, as well as expand its foothold to South Africa. In Nazi Germany, The Christian Community came under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical period in which they worked became known as the Patristics, Patristic Era and spans approximately from the late 1st to mid-8th centuries, flourishing in particular during the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity was in the process of establishing itself as the State church of the Roman Empire, state church of the Roman Empire. For many denominations of Christianity, the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Nicene Fathers and Christianity in the 5th century#Post-Nicene Fathers, Post-Nicene Fathers are included in Sacred tradition, Sacred Tradition. As such, in traditional dogmatic theology, authors considered Church Fathers are treated as authoritative for the establishment of doctrine. The academic field of patristics, the study of the Chu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholic Answers
Catholic Answers is a Catholic advocacy group based in El Cajon, California. History Catholic Answers was founded in 1979 by Karl Keating in response to a fundamentalist Protestant church in San Diego that was distributing anti-Catholic propaganda in the form of tracts placed on the cars of Catholics attending Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi .... He first started by writing a modest tract titled "Catholic Answers" to counter the arguments he saw in the anti-Catholic tract. He distributed it on the windshields of the cars in the fundamentalist Protestant church's parking lot. Due to the feedback he received from that tract, he published 24 more tracts. In 1988 he quit his law practice and turned Catholic Answers into a full-time apostolate, with an office and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contra Celsum
''Against Celsus'' ( Greek: Κατὰ Κέλσου, ''Kata Kelsou''; Latin: ''Contra Celsum''), preserved entirely in Greek, is a major apologetics work by the Church Father Origen of Alexandria, written in around 248 AD, countering the writings of Celsus, a pagan philosopher and controversialist who had written a scathing attack on Christianity in his treatise ''The True'' ''Word'' (Λόγος Ἀληθής, ''Logos Alēthēs''). Among a variety of other charges, Celsus had denounced many Christian doctrines as irrational and criticized Christians themselves as uneducated, deluded, unpatriotic, close-minded towards reason, and too accepting of sinners. He had accused Jesus of performing his miracles using black magic rather than actual divine powers and of plagiarizing his teachings from Plato. Celsus had warned that Christianity itself was drawing people away from traditional religion and claimed that its growth would lead to a collapse of traditional, conservative valu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Principiis
''On the First Principles'' (Greek: Περὶ Ἀρχῶν / ''Peri Archon''; Latin: ''De Principiis'') is a theological treatise by the Christian writer Origen. It was the first systematic exposition of Christian theology. It is thought to have been written around 220–230 AD. The full text has not been completely preserved. When Origen was around forty-five years of age, he interrupted his burgeoning program of scriptural exegesis to write ''Peri Archon''. In this work he provided a unified discussion of Christian teachings so that his readers could probe more deeply into the church's rule of faith and discriminate among conflicting scriptural interpretations that were swirling through Alexandria in the late 220s. After completing this treatise, Origen resumed his biblical scholarship, likely viewing ''Peri Archon'' as a detour, perhaps even a necessary one, but nevertheless still a detour from his larger project of scriptural interpretation. Fragments from Books 3.1 and 4.1-3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basilideans
The Basilidians or Basilideans were a Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the 2nd century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter, though others stated he was a disciple of the Simonian Menander. Basilides enjoined on his followers, like Pythagoras, a silence of five years. They kept the anniversary of the day of the baptism of Jesus as a feast day and spent the eve of it in reading. Basilides also instructed his followers not to scruple eating things offered to idols. The sect had three grades – material, intellectual and spiritual – and possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The sect's doctrines were often similar to those of the Ophites and later Jewish Kabbalah. Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4th century as Epiphanius knew of Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was however almost exclusively limited to Egypt, though according to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentinianism
Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic Christian movements. Founded by Valentinus ( CE – CE) in the 2nd century, its influence spread widely, not just within the Roman Empire but also from northwest Africa to Egypt through to Asia Minor and Syria in the east. Later in the movement's history, it broke into Eastern and a Western schools. The Valentinian movement remained active until the 4th century, declining after Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, which established Nicene Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. No evidence exists that Valentinus was labeled a heretic during his lifetime. Irenaeus of Lyons, who was the first patristic source to describe Valentinus's teachings—though likely incompletely and with a bias toward the time's proto-orthodox Christianity—did not finish his apologetic work '' Against Heresies'' until the later 2nd century, likely sometime after Valentinus's death. The rapid growth of the Vale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (other), lifespan in a different physical form or physical body, body after biological death. In most beliefs involving reincarnation, the soul of a human being is immortality, immortal and does not disperse after the physical body has perished. Upon death, the soul merely becomes transmigrated into a newborn baby or into an animal to continue its immortality. (The term "transmigration" means the passing of a soul from one body to another after death.) Reincarnation (''punarjanman'') is a central tenet of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. In various forms, it occurs as an esoteric belief in many streams of Judaism, in certain Paganism, pagan religions (including Wicca), and in some beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and of Australian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metempsychosis
In philosophy and theology, metempsychosis () is the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The term is derived from ancient Greek philosophy, and has been recontextualized by modern philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Kurt Gödel, Mircea Eliade, and Magdalena Villaba; otherwise, the word "transmigration" is more appropriate. The word plays a prominent role in James Joyce's '' Ulysses'' and is also associated with Nietzsche. Another term sometimes used synonymously is '' palingenesis''. Orphism A belief in metempsychosis has been associated with Orphism, the name given to a religious movement said in antiquity to have been founded by the legendary poet Orpheus. Orphism is said to hold that soul and body are united by a contract unequally binding on either. The soul is divine but immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. Death dissolves that contract but only to reimprison the liberated soul after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platonism
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism has had a profound effect on Western thought. At the most fundamental level, Platonism affirms the existence of abstract objects, which are asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the sensible external world and from the internal world of consciousness, and is the opposite of nominalism." Philosophers who affirm the existence of abstract objects are sometimes called platonists; those who deny their existence are sometimes called nominalists. The terms "platonism" and "nominalism" have established senses in the history of philosophy, where they denote positions that have little to do with the modern notion of an abstract object. In this connection, it is essential to bear in mind that modern platonists (with a small 'p') need not accept any of the doctrines of Plato, just as modern nomina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the largest List of denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement, denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded during the Second Great Awakening, the church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built Temple (LDS Church), temples worldwide. According to the church, , it has over 17.5 million The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics, members, of which Membership statistics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (United States), over 6.8 million live in the U.S. The church also reports over 109,000 Missionary (LDS Church), volunteer missionaries and 202 dedicated List of temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, temples. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
