Esotorlogy, Theology and Philosophy of The Christian Faith

THE CONCISE
ESOTORLOGY,
THEOLOGY AND
PHILOSOPHY OF
THE CHRISTIAN
FAITH
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
The spiritual path of faith
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Introduction
Early Christians used the Greek word μυστήριον (mysterion)

to describe the Christian Mystery. The Old Testament versions
use the word mysterion as an equivalent to the Hebrew sôd,
"secret" (Proverbs 20:19). In the New Testament the word
mystery is applied ordinarily to the sublime revelation of the
Gospel (Matthew 13:11; Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9; 1
Corinthians 15:51), and to the Incarnation and life of the
Saviour and his manifestation by the preaching of the Apostles
(Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:4; 6:19; Colossians 1:26; 4:3).
The word "mysticism" has the same root, being derived from
the Greek μυω, meaning "to conceal",[9] and its derivative
μυστικός, mystikos, meaning 'an initiate'. In the Hellenistic
world, 'mystical' referred to "secret" religious rituals The use
of the word lacked any direct references to the
transcendental. A "mystikos" was an initiate of a mystery
religion.
Theologians give the name mystery to revealed truths that
surpass the powers of natural reason, so, in a narrow sense,
the Mystery is a truth that transcends the created intellect.
The impossibility of obtaining a rational comprehension of the
Mystery leads to an inner or hidden way of comprehension of
the Christian Mystery that is indicated by the term esoteric in
Esoteric Christianity.
Even though revealed and believed, the Mystery remains
nevertheless obscure and veiled during the mortal life, if the
deciphering of the mysteries, made possible by esotericism,
does not intervene.
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This esoteric knowledge would allow a deep comprehension

of the Christian mysteries that otherwise would remain
obscure.
“1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And
from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who
creep into households and make captives of gullible women
loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also
resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning
the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will
be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
10 But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11
persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra--what persecutions I endured. And out of
them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yes, and all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men
and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived. 14 But you must continue in the things which you
have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you
have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise
for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
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doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in

righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Tim 3:1-17 (NKJV)
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Table of Contents
1 Original Sacred Mysteries of Christianity
2 The Incarnation
3 Christian Mysticism
4 Religious Ecstasy
5 Baptism of the Holy Spirit
6 Spiritual Gifts
7 Western Esotericism
8 Emanuel Swedenborg
9 Evelyn Underhill
10 Gnosticism
11 Origen Adamantius
12 Calvinism
13 Arminianism
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Chapter One
Original Sacred Mysteries of Christianity
The term sacred mysteries generally denotes the area of

supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a
religious ideology. The term has two senses, which often
overlap:
Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret

from non-believers, or lower levels of believers, who have not
had an initiation into the higher levels of belief (the concealed
knowledge may be called esoteric).
Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot
be explained by normal rational or scientific means.
Although the term "mystery" is not often used in
anthropology, access by initiation or rite of passage to
otherwise secret beliefs is an extremely common feature of
indigenous religions all over the world.
Mysticism may be defined as an area of philosophical or
religious thought which focuses on mysteries in the first sense
above. A mystagogue or hierophant is a holder and teacher of
secret knowledge in the second sense above.
Although the term is not used equally by all Christian

traditions, many if not most basic aspects of Christian theology
require a supernatural explanation. To name but a few key
examples, these include the existence of God, the nature of
the Trinity, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and the Resurrection of
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Jesus. These are mysteries in the sense that they cannot be

explained or apprehended by reason alone.
The word mysterion (μυστήριον) is used 27 times in the New

Testament. It denotes not so much the meaning of the
modern English term mystery, but rather something that is
mystical. In the biblical Greek, the term refers to "that which,
being outside the unassisted natural apprehension, can be
made known only by divine revelation". In the Catholic Church
the Latin term is mysterium fidei, "mystery of faith", defined
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997) to mean a
mystery hidden in God, which can never be known unless
revealed by God.
In the Roman Catholic Church the First Vatican Council re-

affirmed the existence of mysteries as a doctrine of Catholic
faith as follows: "If anyone say that in Divine Revelation there
are contained no mysteries properly so called (vera et proprie
dicta mysteria), but that through reason rightly developed
(per rationem rite excultam) all the dogmas of faith can be
understood and demonstrated from natural principles: let him
be anathema" (Sess. III, De fide et ratione, can. i). The position,
if not the terminology, of other Christian churches is
essentially the same.
In parts of the Early Church many aspects of Christian

theology, including some sacraments and sacramental, were
kept hidden from the pagans — the so-called Disciplina arcani
— lest they become objects of ridicule, and were also
introduced gradually to catechumens or new converts. As the
Age of Persecution ended, the secrecy was gradually relaxed
but the term continued to be used, and "mysteries" is still used
as a name for sacraments in the Eastern Orthodox churches.
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This is not usually so in the West, though theologically many

aspects of them are recognized as mysteries in the main sense
described above, especially (for those churches accepting it)
the doctrine of transubstantiation in the Eucharist. Hence
Pope Paul VI's papal encyclical of 3 September 1965 on the
Eucharist was titled, from its opening words, Mysterium Fidei.
In the Roman Rite Catholic Mass within or immediately after
the formula of consecration of the wine, the celebrant says
"Let us proclaim the mystery of faith". Originally the term
"Mystery" was used for the sacraments generally in both the
East and the West, as shown from the "Mystagogical Homilies"
of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and the work, On the Mysteries by St.
Ambrose of Milan.
Although all the official doctrines of Christian churches have

long been fully public, the loosely defined area of Christian
thought called Christian mysticism often concerns the
contemplation of sacred mysteries and may include the
development of personal theories about them, undertaken in
the knowledge that they can never be fully apprehended by
man.
Eastern Orthodoxy
The term is used in Eastern Christianity to refer to what the

Western Church currently calls Sacraments and Sacramentals,
terms which the Western Church has carefully defined in
Canon Law. Thus, for instance, the Council of Trent declared
there to be exactly seven sacraments. The Eastern Churches,
in contrast, have never defined the Mysteries in such precise
terms. And, though the Western Church teaches that the
consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist are one
Sacrament, the Divine Liturgy refers to the Eucharist as the
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Mysteries, in the plural. Orthodox Christians have always

received Holy Communion in both species (both the Body and
the Blood), and even reserve both in the tabernacle. The
Sacred Mysteries can be defined as "those holy acts through
which the Holy Spirit mysteriously and invisibly confers Grace
(the saving power of God) upon man".
Though Orthodox instructional materials may list seven Sacred

Mysteries (the same as the Western seven sacraments -
Western names in parentheses) - Baptism, Chrismation
(Confirmation), Confession (Penance, Reconciliation or
Confession), Holy Communion (Eucharist or Holy
Communion), Marriage (Holy Matrimony), Ordination (Holy
Orders), and Unction (Anointing of the Sick. Archaic: Extreme
Unction) - it must be understood that the term is not limited
to these seven. As in the West, all faithful men are expected
to receive six of the seven listed above, as well as either
marriage or ordination, or both; women may not receive holy
orders.
Christian life is centered in the Mystery of the Incarnation of

Christ, the union of God and man. However, the redemption
of man is not considered to have taken place only in the past,
but continues to this day through theosis. The Sacraments, or
Sacred Mysteries are the most important means by which the
faithful may obtain union with God, provided they are
received with faith after appropriate preparation. Christians
believe that God is present everywhere and fills all things by
his Divine grace, and that all of creation is, in some sense, a
"sacrament". However, they believe that "He is more
specifically and intensively present in [those] particular and
reliable manners which He Himself has established," i.e., in the
Sacred Mysteries.
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Heterodoxy in a religious sense means "any opinions or

doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position".
Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy,
while the adjective "heterodox" could be applied to a
dissident.
Heterodoxy is also an ecclesiastical term of art, defined in

various ways by different religions and churches. For example,
in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches
heterodoxy may describe beliefs that differ from strictly
orthodox views but that fall short of heresy.
Christian theology is the enterprise which seeks to construct

a coherent system of Christian belief and practice. This is
based primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and the
New Testament as well as the historic traditions of Christians.
Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis,
and argument to clarify, examine, understand, explicate,
critique, defend or promote Christianity. Theology might be
undertaken to help the theologian better understand
Christian tenets, make comparisons between Christianity and
other traditions, defend Christianity against objections and
criticism, facilitate reforms in the Christian church, assist in the
propagation of Christianity, draw on the resources of the
Christian tradition to address some present situation or need,
or for a variety of other reasons.
Systematic theology is a discipline of Christian theology that

formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the
Christian faith and beliefs. Systematic theology draws on the
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foundational sacred texts of Christianity, while simultaneously

investigating the development of Christian doctrine over the
course of history, particularly through philosophical evolution.
Inherent to a system of theological thought is that a method
is developed, one which can be applied both broadly and
particularly. Systematic theology will typically explore God
(theology proper), the attributes of God, the Trinity for
Trinitarian Christians, revelation, biblical hermeneutics, the
creation, divine providence, theodicy, anthropology,
hematology, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology,
ecclesiology, missiology, spirituality and mysticism,
sacramental theology, eschatology, moral theology, the
afterlife, and the Christian understanding of other religious
systems and philosophies.
Christian theology has permeated much of Western culture,
especially in pre-modern Europe.
The Old Testament is a Christian term for a collection of

religious writings by ancient Israelites that form the first
section of Christian Bibles, in contrast to the Christian New
Testament. The books included in the Old Testament (the Old
Testament canon) varies markedly between Christian
denominations; Protestants accept only the Hebrew Bible's
canon but divide it into 39 books, while Catholics, the Eastern
Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches recognize a
considerably larger collection.
The books can be broadly divided into the Pentateuch, which

tells how God selected Israel to be his chosen people; the
history books telling the history of the Israelites from their
conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the
poetic and "Wisdom" books dealing, in various forms, with
questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the
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biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning

away from God.
For the Israelites who were its original authors and readers
these books told of their own unique relationship with God
and their relationship with proselytes, but the overarching
messianic nature of Christianity has led Christians from the
very beginning of the faith to see the Old Testament as a
preparation for the New Covenant and New Testament.
The New Testament (Koine Greek: Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Hē Kainḕ

Diathḗkē) is the second major part of the Christian biblical
canon, the first part being the Old Testament. Although
Christians hold different views from Jews about the Old
Testament—that is, the Hebrew Scriptures—Christians regard
both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred
scripture. The contents of the New Testament deal explicitly
with first-century Christianity. Therefore, the New Testament
(in whole or in part) has frequently accompanied the spread
of Christianity around the world. It reflects and serves as a
source for Christian theology. Both extended readings and
phrases directly from the New Testament are also
incorporated (along with readings from the Old Testament)
into the various Christian liturgies. The New Testament has
influenced not only religious, philosophical, and political
movements in Christendom, but also has left an indelible mark
on its literature, art, and music.
The New Testament is an anthology, a collection of Christian

works written in the common Greek language of the first
century, at different times by various writers, who were early
Jewish disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. In almost all Christian
traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books. The
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original texts were written in the first and perhaps the second
centuries of the Christian Era, generally believed to be in Koine
Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern
Mediterranean from the Conquests of Alexander the Great
(335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600).
All of the works which would eventually be incorporated into
the New Testament would seem to have been written no later
than around AD 150.
Collections of related texts such as letters of the Apostle Paul

(a major collection of which must have been made already by
the early 2nd century) and the Canonical Gospels of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John (asserted by Irenaeus of Lyon in the late-
2nd century as the Four Gospels) gradually were joined to
other collections and single works in different combinations to
form various Christian canons of Scripture. Over time, some
disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation and the Minor
Catholic (General) Epistles were introduced into canons in
which they were originally absent. Other works earlier held to
be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and
the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. The
Old Testament canon is not completely uniform among all
major Christian groups including Roman Catholics,
Protestants, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Slavic Orthodox
Churches, and the Armenian Orthodox Church. However, the
twenty-seven-book canon of the New Testament, at least
since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized
within Christianit.
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The New Testament consists of

Four narratives of the life, teaching, death and resurrection of
Jesus, called "gospels" (or "good news" accounts);
a narrative of the Apostles' ministries in the early church,
called the "Acts of the Apostles", and probably written by the
same writer as the Gospel of Luke, which it continues;
Twenty-one letters, often called "epistles" in the biblical
context, written by various authors, and consisting of Christian
doctrine, counsel, instruction, and conflict resolution; and
an Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, which is a book of
prophecy, containing some instructions to the seven local
congregations of Asia Minor, but mostly containing
prophetical symbology, about the end times.
"Apocalypse" (Ἀποκάλυψις) is a Greek word meaning

"revelation", "an unveiling or unfolding of things not
previously known and which could not be known apart from
the unveiling." As a genre, apocalyptic literature details the
authors' visions of the end times as revealed by a heavenly
messenger or Angel. The apocalyptic literature of Judaism and
Christianity embraces a considerable period, from the
centuries following the exile down to the close of the middle
ages.
"Apocrypha" means "things put away" or "things hidden" and

comes from the Greek through the Latin. The general term is
usually applied to the books that were considered by the
church as useful, but not divinely inspired. As such, to refer to
Gnostic writings as "apocryphal" is misleading since they
would not be classified in the same category by orthodox
believers. Often used by the Greek Fathers was the term
antilegomena, or "spoken against", although some canonical
books were also spoken against, such as the Apocalypse of
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John in the East. Often used by scholars is the term

pseudepigrapha, or "falsely inscribed" or "falsely attributed",
in the sense that the writings were written by an anonymous
author who appended the name of an apostle to his work,
such as in the Gospel of Peter or The Æthiopic Apocalypse of
Enoch: almost all books, in both Old and New Testaments,
called "apocrypha" in the Protestant tradition are
pseudepigrapha. In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, what
are called the apocrypha by Protestants include the
deuterocanonical books: in the Catholic tradition, the term
"apocrypha" is synonymous with what Protestants would call
the pseudepigrapha, the latter term of which is almost
exclusively used by scholars.
The canon of the New Testament is the set of books most

Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New
Testament of the Christian Bible. For most, it is an agreed-
upon list of twenty-seven books that includes the Canonical
Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation. The
books of the canon of the New Testament were written mostly
in the first century and finished by the year 150 AD. For the
Orthodox, the recognition of these writings as authoritative
was formalized in the Second Council of Trullan of 692,
although it was nearly universally accepted in the mid 300's.
The Biblical canon was the result of debate and research,
reaching its final term for Catholics at the dogmatic definition
of the Council of Trent in the 16th Century, when the Old
Testament Canon was finalized in the Catholic Church as well.
Writings attributed to the Apostles circulated among the
earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were
circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st
century AD. Justin Martyr, in the mid 2nd century, mentions
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"memoirs of the apostles" as being read on the Sabbath

alongside the "writings of the prophets". A four gospel canon
(the Tetramorph) was asserted by Irenaeus, c. 180, who refers
to it directly.
By the early 200s, Origen may have been using the same
twenty-seven books as in the Catholic New Testament canon,
though there were still disputes over the canonicity of the
Letter to the Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and
Revelation, known as the Antilegomena. Likewise, the
Muratorian fragment is evidence that, perhaps as early as 200,
there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to
the twenty-seven-book NT canon, which included four gospels
and argued against objections to them. Thus, while there was
a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New
Testament canon, the major writings are claimed to have been
accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the 3rd
century.
In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria,

gave a list of the books that would become the twenty-seven-
book NT canon, and he used the word "canonized"
(kanonizomena) in regards to them. The first council that
accepted the present canon of the New Testament may have
been the Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa (AD 393); the
acts of this council, however, are lost. A brief summary of the
acts was read at and accepted by the Councils of Carthage in
397 and 419. These councils were under the authority of St.
Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed. Pope
Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the Decretum
Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical
canon identical to that mentioned above, or, if not, the list is
at least a 6th-century compilation. Likewise, Damasus'
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commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383,

was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West. In c.
405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic
bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. Christian scholars assert that,
when these bishops and councils spoke on the matter,
however, they were not defining something new but instead
"were ratifying what had already become the mind of the
Church."
Thus, some claim that, from the 4th century, there existed
unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon,
and that, by the 5th century, the Eastern Church, with a few
exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and
thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon.
Nonetheless, full dogmatic articulations of the canon were not
made until the Canon of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism,
the Gallic Confession of Faith of 1559 for Calvinism, the Thirty-
Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, and the Synod
of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox.
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Chapter Two
The Incarnation
The Incarnation in Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the

second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the
Logos (Word), "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb
of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos
(God-bearer).
The Incarnation is a fundamental theological teaching of

orthodox (Nicene) Christianity, based on its understanding of
the New Testament. The Incarnation represents the belief that
Jesus, who is the non-created second hypostasis of the triune
God, took on a human body and nature and became both man
and God. In the Bible its clearest teaching is in John 1:14: "And
the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us."
In the Incarnation, as traditionally defined by those Churches

that adhere to the Council of Chalcedon, the divine nature of
the Son was united but not mixed with human nature[2] in one
divine Person, Jesus Christ, who was both "truly God and truly
man". The Incarnation is commemorated and celebrated each
year at Christmas, and also reference can be made to the Feast
of the Annunciation; "different aspects of the mystery of the
Incarnation" are celebrated at Christmas and the
Annunciation.
This is central to the traditional faith held by most Christians.

Alternative views on the subject and the Gospel according to
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the Hebrews) have been proposed throughout the centuries,

but all were rejected by mainstream Christian bodies.
An alternative doctrine known as "Oneness" has been
espoused among various Pentecostal groups.
In the early Christian era, there was considerable

disagreement amongst Christians regarding the nature of
Christ's Incarnation. While all Christians believed that Jesus
was indeed the Son of God, (Artermi, Eirini, The religious
policy of the Byzantine emperors from 1st to 4th ecumenical
council) the exact nature of his Sonship was contested,
together with the precise relationship of the "Father," "Son"
and "Holy Spirit" referred to in the New Testament. Though
Jesus was clearly the "Son," what exactly did this mean?
Debate on this subject raged most especially during the first
four centuries of Christianity, involving Jewish Christians,
Gnostics, followers of the Presbyter Arius of Alexandria, and
adherents of St. Athanasius the Great, among others.
Council of Nicea, 325.
Eventually, the Christian Church accepted the teaching of St.

Athanasius and his allies, that Christ was the incarnation of the
eternal second person of the Trinity, who was truly God and
truly a man simultaneously. All divergent beliefs were defined
as heresies. This included Docetism, which said that Jesus was
a divine being that took on human appearance but not flesh;
Arianism, which held that Christ was a created being; and
Nestorianism, maintained that the Son of God and the man,
Jesus, shared the same body but retained two separate
natures. The Oneness belief held by certain modern
Pentecostal churches is also seen as heretical by most
mainstream Christian bodies.
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The most widely-accepted definitions of the Incarnation and

the nature of Jesus were made by the First Council of Nicaea
in 325, the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the Council of
Chalcedon in 451. These councils declared that Jesus was both
fully God: begotten from, but not created by the Father; and
fully man: taking his flesh and human nature from the Virgin
Mary. These two natures, human and divine, were
hypostatically united into the one personhood of Jesus Christ.
A contemporary way to saying this Christian faith is the
statement of the French catholic novelist Joseph Malègue in
Augustin ou le Maïtre est là: ‘’ It is not Christ who is
incomprehensible for me if He is God, it is God who is strange
for me if He is not Christ.‘’
Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic
The significance of the Incarnation has been extensively

discussed throughout Christian history, and is the subject of
countless hymns and prayers. For instance, the Divine Liturgy
of St. John Chrysostom (c. 400), as used by Eastern Orthodox
Christians and Byzantine Catholics, includes this "Hymn to the
Only Begotten Son":
O only begotten Son and Word of God,

Who, being immortal,
Deigned for our salvation
To become incarnate
Of the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary,
And became man without change;
You were also crucified,
O Christ our God,
And by death have trampled Death,
Being one of the Holy Trinity,
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Glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit—

Save us!
West Syriac Churches
The West Syriac Churches - Syriac Orthodox, Malankara

Orthodox, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Syriac Catholic and
Maronite Catholic - principally celebrating the Holy Qurbono
of St. James (c. AD 60) have a similar ma‛neetho,[7] a poetic
hymn, traditionally attributed to St. Severus, the Patriarch of
Antioch (c. 465-538):
I exalt Thee, Lord and King,

Only-begotten Son and Word
Of the heavenly Father,
Immortal by nature, Thou came down by grace
For salvation
And life for all human race; was incarnate
Of the holy,
Glorious, pure Virgin
Mary, Mother of God
And became man without any change;
Was crucified for us.
O Christ, our God,
Who by Thy death trampled and slaughtered our death,
Who are one of the Holy Trinity?
Worshipped and honored with
The Father and the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us all.
The Athanasius (5th century) and Nicene Creeds contain a
comprehensive traditional definition of the Incarnation.
Contemporary Protestantism.
Jürgen Moltmann
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The link between the Incarnation and the Atonement within

systematic theology is complex. Within traditional models of
the Atonement, such as Substitution, Satisfaction or Christus
Victor, Christ must be human in order for the Sacrifice of the
Cross to be efficacious, for human sins to be "removed"
and/or "conquered". In his work The Trinity and the Kingdom
of God, Jürgen Moltmann differentiated between what he
called a "fortuitous" and a "necessary" Incarnation. The latter
gives a soteriological emphasis to the Incarnation: the Son of
God became a man so that he could save us from our sins. The
former, on the other hand, speaks of the Incarnation as a
fulfilment of the Love of God, of his desire to be present and
living amidst humanity, to "walk in the garden" with us.
Moltmann favours "fortuitous" Incarnation primarily because
he feels that to speak of an incarnation of "necessity" is to do
an injustice to the life of Christ. Moltmann's work, alongside
other systematic theologians, opens up avenues of liberation
Christology.
Alternative views of the Incarnation.
Michael Servetus
During the Reformation, Michael Servetus taught a theology
of the Incarnation that denied trinitarianism, insisting that
classical Trinitarians were essentially tritheists who had
rejected Biblical monotheism in favor of Greek philosophy.
The Son of God, Servetus asserted, is not an eternally existing
being, but rather the more abstract Logos (a manifestation of
the One True God, not a separate person) incarnate. For this
reason, Servetus refused to call Christ the "eternal Son of God"
preferring "the Son of the eternal God" instead.
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In describing Servetus' theology of the Logos, Andrew Dibb

(2005) comments: "In Genesis God reveals himself as the
creator. In John he reveals that he created by means of the
Word, or Logos, Finally, also in John, he shows that this Logos
became flesh and 'dwelt among us'. Creation took place by the
spoken word, for God said 'Let there be…' The spoken word of
Genesis, the Logos of John, and the Christ, are all one and the
same."
Condemned by both the Roman Catholic and Protestant
churches on account of his heterodox Christology, Servetus
was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1553, by the Reformed
Protestants in Geneva, Switzerland. The French reformer John
Calvin, who asserted he would ensure the death of Servetus if
he set foot in Geneva because of his non-Reformed views on
the Trinity and the sacrament of baptism, requested he be
beheaded as a traitor rather than burned as a heretic, but the
authorities insisted on executing Servetus by fire.
English Arians
Post-Reformation Arians such as William Whiston often held a

view of the Incarnation in keeping with the personal pre-
existence of Christ. Whiston considered the Incarnation to be
of the Logos who had pre-existed as "a Metaphysick existence,
in potentia or in the like higher and sublimer Manner in the
Father as his Wisdom or Word before his real Creation or
Generation".
Socinian and Unitarian
Servetus rejected Arianism because it denied Jesus' divinity so

it is certain that he would have also rejected Socinianism as a
form of Arianism which both rejects that Jesus is God, and,
also that Jesus consciously existed before his birth, which most
26
Arian groups accept. Fausto Sozzini and writers of the Polish

Brethren such as Samuel Przypkowski, Marcin Czechowic and
Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen saw incarnation as being
primarily a function of fatherhood. Namely that Christ was
literally both 'Son of Man' from his maternal side, and also
literally 'Son of God' on his paternal side. The concept of
incarnation —"the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"—
was understood as the literal word or logos of Ps. 33:6 having
been made human by a virgin birth. Sozzini, Przypkowski and
other Socinian writers were distinct from Servetus in stating
that Jesus having "come down from heaven" was primarily in
terms of Mary's miraculous conception and not in Jesus having
in any literal sense been in heaven. Today the number of
churches with Socinian Christology is very small, the main
group known for this are the Christadelphians, other groups
include CoGGC and CGAF. Modern Socinian or "Biblical
Unitarian" writers generally place emphasis on "made flesh"
not just meaning "made a body", but incarnation (a term these
groups would avoid) requiring Jesus having the temptable and
mortal nature of his mother.
The Oneness view of the Incarnation
In contrast to the traditional view of the Incarnation cited

above, adherents of Oneness Pentecostalism believe in the
doctrine of Oneness. Although both Oneness and traditional
Christianity teach that God is a singular Spirit, Oneness
adherents reject the idea that God is a Trinity of persons.
Oneness doctrine teaches there is one God who manifests
himself in different ways, as opposed to a Trinity, where God
is seen as one being consisting of three distinct persons. To a
Oneness Pentecostal, Jesus is seen as both fully divine and
fully human. The term Father refers to God Himself, who
27
caused the conception of the Son in Mary, thus becoming the

father of the child she bore. The term Son refers to the body
Jesus dwelt in, and the Holy Ghost refers to the manifestation
of God's Spirit inside of and around His people. Thus the Father
is not the Son — and this distinction is crucial — but is in the
Son as the fullness of his divine nature. Traditional Trinitarians
believe that the Son always existed as the eternal second
person of the Trinity; Oneness adherents believe that the Son
did not come into being until the Incarnation, when the one
and only true God took on human flesh for the first, last and
only time in history. Oneness doctrine is explained in detail in
UPCI minister Dr. David K. Bernard's The Oneness of God.
28
29
Chapter Three
Christian Mysticism
Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical

practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been
connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox traditions.
The attributes and means by which Christian mysticism is

studied and practiced are varied and range from ecstatic
visions of the soul's mystical union with God to simple
prayerful contemplation of Holy Scripture (i.e., Lectio Divina).
"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning "to

conceal", and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning 'an
initiate'. In the Hellenistic world, a "mystikos" was an initiate
of a mystery religion. "Mystical" referred to secret religious
rituals and use of the word lacked any direct references to the
transcendental.
In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three

dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the
biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative. The
biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical
interpretations of Scriptures. The liturgical dimension refers to
the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence Christ at
30
the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or

experiential knowledge of God.
Bernard McGinn defines Christian mysticism as:

[T]hat part, or element, of Christian belief and practice that
concerns the preparation for, the consciousness of, and the
effect of [...] a direct and transformative presence of [the
Christian] God.
Presence versus experience
McGinn argues that "presence" is more accurate than "union",

since not all mystics spoke of union with God, and since many
visions and miracles were not necessarily related to union. He
also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's
presence, rather than of "experience", since mystical activity
is not simply about the sensation of God as an external object,
but more broadly about:
...new ways of knowing and loving based on states of
awareness in which God becomes present in our inner acts.
William James popularized the use of the term "religious
experience" in his The Varieties of Religious Experience. It has
also influenced the understanding of mysticism as a distinctive
experience which supplies knowledge.
Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious

experience" further back to the German theologian Friedrich
Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is
based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious
experience" was used by Schleiermacher to defend religion
against the growing scientific and secular critique. It was
31
adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James

was the most influential.
Personal transformation
Resurrection of Jesus, Matthias Grünewald.

Related to this idea of "presence" instead of "experience" is
McGinn's emphasis on the transformation that occurs through
mystical activity:
This is why the only test that Christianity has known for
determining the authenticity of a mystic and her or his
message has been that of personal transformation, both on
the mystic's part and—especially—on the part of those whom
the mystic has affected.
Other critics point out that the stress on "experience" is

accompanied with favoring the atomic individual, instead of
the shared life on the community. It also fails to distinguish
between episodic experience, and mysticism as a process, that
is embedded in a total religious matrix of liturgy, scripture,
worship, virtues, theology, rituals and practices.
Richard King also points to disjunction between "mystical

experience" and social justice:
The privatisation of mysticism - that is, the increasing
tendency to locate the mystical in the psychological realm of
personal experiences - serves to exclude it from political issues
as social justice. Mysticism thus becomes seen as a personal
matter of cultivating inner states of tranquility and
equanimity, which, rather than seeking to transform the
32
world, serve to accommodate the individual to the status quo

through the alleviation of anxiety and stress.
Social constructionism
Mystical experience is not simply a matter between the mystic

and God, but is often shaped by cultural issues. For instance,
Carolyn Walker Bynum has shown how, in the late Middle
Ages, miracles attending the taking of the Eucharist were not
simply symbolic of the Passion story, but served as vindication
of the mystic's theological orthodoxy by proving that the
mystic had not fallen prey to heretical ideas, such as the
Cathar rejection of the material world as evil, contrary to
orthodox teaching that God took on human flesh and
remained sinless. Thus, the nature of mystical experience
could be tailored to the particular cultural and theological
issues of the time.
Development
The idea of mystical realities has been widely held in

Christianity since the second century AD, referring not simply
to spiritual practices, but also to the belief that their rituals
and even their scriptures have hidden ("mystical") meanings.
The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was
introduced by the early Church Fathers, who used the term as
an adjective, as in mystical theology and mystical
contemplation. In subsequent centuries, especially as
Christian apologetics began to use Greek philosophy to explain
Christian ideas, Neoplatonism became an influence on
33
Christian mystical thought and practice via such authors as

Augustine of Hippo and Origen.
Jewish antecedents
Jewish spirituality in the period before Jesus was highly

corporate and public, based mostly on the worship services of
the synagogues, which included the reading and
interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and the recitation of
prayers, and on the major festivals. Thus, private spirituality
was strongly influenced by the liturgies and by the scriptures
(e.g., the use of the Psalms for prayer), and individual prayers
often recalled historical events just as much as they recalled
their own immediate needs. Of special importance are the
following concepts:
Da'at (knowledge) and Chokhmah (wisdom), which come from

years of reading, praying and meditating the scriptures;
Shekhinah, the presence of God in our daily lives, the
superiority of that presence to earthly wealth, and the pain
and longing that come when God is absent; the hiddenness of
God, which comes from our inability to survive the full
revelation of God's glory and which forces us to seek to know
God through faith and obedience;
"Torah-mysticism", a view of God's laws as the central
expression of God's will and therefore as worthy object not
only of obedience but also of loving meditation and Torah
study; and poverty, an ascetic value, based on the apocalyptic
expectation of God's impending arrival, that characterized the
34
Jewish people's reaction to being oppressed by a series of

foreign empires.
In Christian mysticism, Shekhinah became mystery, Da'at

became gnosis, and poverty became an important component
of monasticism.
Gospels
Transfiguration of Jesus depicting him with Elijah, Moses and

3 apostles by Carracci, 1594
The Christian scriptures, insofar as they are the founding
narrative of the Christian church, provide many key stories and
concepts that become important for Christian mystics in all
later generations: practices such as the Eucharist, baptism and
the Lord's Prayer all become activities that take on importance
for both their ritual and symbolic values. Other scriptural
narratives present scenes that become the focus of
meditation: the Crucifixion of Jesus and his appearances after
his Resurrection are two of the most central to Christian
theology; but Jesus' conception, in which the Holy Spirit
overshadows Mary, and his Transfiguration, in which he is
briefly revealed in his heavenly glory, also become important
images for meditation. Moreover, many of the Christian texts
build on Jewish spiritual foundations, such as chokhmah,
shekhinah.
But different writers present different images and ideas. The

Synoptic Gospels (in spite of their many differences) introduce
several important ideas, two of which are related to Greco-
Judaic notions of knowledge/gnosis by virtue of being mental
acts: purity of heart, in which we will to see in God's light; and
35
repentance, which involves allowing God to judge and then

transform us. Another key idea presented by the Synoptics is
the desert, which is used as a metaphor for the place where
we meet God in the poverty of our spirit.
The Gospel of John focuses on God's glory in his use of light

imagery and in his presentation of the Cross as a moment of
exaltation; he also sees the Cross as the example of agape
love, a love which is not so much an emotion as a willingness
to serve and care for others. But in stressing love, John shifts
the goal of spiritual growth away from knowledge/gnosis,
which he presents more in terms of Stoic ideas about the role
of reason as being the underlying principle of the universe and
as the spiritual principle within all people. Although John does
not follow up on the Stoic notion that this principle makes
union with the divine possible for humanity, it is an idea that
later Christian writers develop. Later generations will also shift
back and forth between whether to follow the Synoptics in
stressing knowledge or John in stressing love.
In his letters, Paul also focuses on mental activities, but not in

the same way as the Synoptics, which equate renewing the
mind with repentance. Instead, Paul sees the renewal of our
minds as happening as we contemplate what Jesus did on the
Cross, which then opens us to grace and to the movement of
the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Like John, Paul is less interested
in knowledge, preferring to emphasize the hiddenness, the
"mystery" of God's plan as revealed through Christ. But Paul's
discussion of the Cross differs from John's in being less about
how it reveals God's glory and more about how it becomes the
stumbling block that turns our minds back to God. Paul also
describes the Christian life as that of an athlete, demanding
36
practice and training for the sake of the prize; later writers will
see in this image a call to ascetical practices.
Early church
Christian mysticism in ancient Africa and Catholic spirituality

The texts attributed to the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest post-
Biblical texts we have, share several key themes, particularly
the call to unity in the face of persecution and internal
divisions, the reality of the charisms, especially prophecy,
visions and Christian gnosis, which is understood as "a gift of
the Holy Spirit that enables us to know Christ" through
meditating on the scriptures and on the Cross of Christ. (This
understanding of gnosis is not the same as that developed by
the Gnostics, who focused on esoteric knowledge that is
available only to a few people but that allows them to free
themselves from the evil world. These authors also discuss the
notion of the "two ways", that is, the way of life and the way
of death; this idea has biblical roots, being found in both the
Sermon on the Mount and the Torah. The two ways are then
related to the notion of purity of heart, which is developed by
contrasting it against the divided or duplicitous heart and by
linking it to the need for asceticism, which keeps the heart
whole/pure. Purity of heart was especially important given
the real threat of martyrdom, which many writers discussed in
theological terms, seeing it not as an evil but as an opportunity
to truly die for the sake of God—the ultimate example of
ascetic practice. Martyrdom could also be seen as symbolic in
its connections with the Eucharist and with baptism.
37
Hellenism
The Alexandrian contribution to Christian mysticism centers

around Origen and Clement of Alexandria. Clement was an
early Christian humanist who argued that reason is the most
important aspect of human existence and that gnosis (not
something we can attain by ourselves, but the gift of Christ)
helps us find the spiritual realities that are hidden behind the
natural world and within the scriptures. Given the importance
of reason, Clement stresses apatheia as a reasonable ordering
of our passions in order to live within God's love, which is seen
as a form of truth. Origen, who had a lasting influence on
Eastern Christian thought, further develops the idea that the
spiritual realities can be found through allegorical readings of
the scriptures (along the lines of Jewish aggadah tradition),
but he focuses his attention on the Cross and on the
importance of imitating Christ through the Cross, especially
through spiritual combat and asceticism. Origen stresses the
importance of combining intellect and virtue (theoria and
praxis) in our spiritual exercises, drawing on the image of
Moses and Aaron leading the Israelites through the
wilderness, and he describes our union with God as the
marriage of our souls with Christ the Logos, using the wedding
imagery from the Song of Songs. Alexandrian mysticism
developed alongside Hermeticism and Neoplatonism and
therefore share some of the same ideas, images, etc. in spite
of their differences.
Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher who

was important for connecting the Hebrew Scriptures to Greek
thought, and thereby to Greek Christians, who struggled to
understand their connection to Jewish history. In particular,
Philo taught that allegorical interpretations of the Hebrew
38
Scriptures provides access to the real meanings of the texts.

Philo also taught the need to bring together the contemplative
focus of the Stoics and Essenes with the active lives of virtue
and community worship found in Platonism and the
Therapeutae. Using terms reminiscent of the Platonists, Philo
described the intellectual component of faith as a sort of
spiritual ecstasy in which our nous (mind) is suspended and
God's Spirit takes its place. Philo's ideas influenced the
Alexandrian Christians, Clement and Origen and through
them, Gregory of Nyssa.
Desert Fathers
Inspired by Christ's teaching and example, men and women

withdrew to the deserts of Sketes where, either as solitary
individuals or communities, they lived lives of austere
simplicity oriented towards contemplative prayer. These
communities formed the basis for what later would become
known as Christian monasticism. Mysticism is integral to
Christian monasticism because the goal of practice for the
monastic is union with God.
Monasticism
The Eastern church then saw the development of monasticism

and the mystical contributions of Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius
Ponticus and Pseudo-Dionysius. Monasticism, also known as
anchoritism (meaning "to withdraw") was seen as an
alternative to martyrdom, and was less about escaping the
world than about fighting demons (who were thought to live
in the desert) and about gaining liberation from our bodily
passions in order to be open to the Word of God. Anchorites
practiced continuous meditation on the scriptures as a means
39
of climbing the ladder of perfection—a common religious

image in the Mediterranean world and one found in
Christianity through the story of Jacob's ladder—and sought
to fend off the demon of acedia ("un-caring"), a boredom or
apathy that prevents us from continuing on in our spiritual
training. Anchorites could live in total solitude ("hermits",
from the word erēmitēs, "of the desert") or in loose
communities ("cenobites", meaning "common life").
Monasticism eventually made its way to the West and was

established by the work of John Cassian and Benedict of
Nursia. Meanwhile, Western spiritual writing was deeply
influenced by the works of such men as Jerome and Augustine
of Hippo.
Middle ages
Stigmatization of St Francis, by Giotto

The Early Middle Ages in the West includes the work of
Gregory the Great and Bede, as well as developments in Celtic
Christianity and Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and comes to
fulfillment in the work of Johannes Scotus Eriugena and the
Carolingian Renaissance.
The High Middle Ages saw a flourishing of mystical practice

and theorization corresponding to the flourishing of new
monastic orders, with such figures as Guigo II, Hildegard of
Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Victorines, all coming from
different orders, as well as the first real flowering of popular
piety among the laypeople.
40
The Late Middle Ages saw the clash between the Dominican
and Franciscan schools of thought, which was also a conflict
between two different mystical theologies: on the one hand
that of Dominic de Guzmán and on the other that of Francis of
Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Bonaventure, Jacopone da Todi,
Angela of Foligno. Moreover there was the growth of groups
of mystics centered around geographic regions: the Beguines,
such as Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch (among
others); the Rhenish-Flemish mystics Meister Eckhart,
Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso and John of Ruysbroeck; and the
English mystics Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and Julian of
Norwich. This period also saw such individuals as Catherine of
Siena and Catherine of Genoa, the Devotio Moderna, and such
books as the Theologia Germanica, The Cloud of Unknowing
and The Imitation of Christ.
Reformation
With the Renaissance came the Protestant Reformation,

which in many ways downplayed mysticism, although it still
produced a fair amount of spiritual literature. Even the most
active reformers can be linked to Medieval mystical traditions.
Martin Luther, for instance, was a monk who was influenced
by the German Dominican mystical tradition of Eckhart and
Tauler as well by the Dionysian-influenced Wesonmystik
("essence mysticism") tradition. He also published the
Theologia Germanica, which he claimed was the most
important book after the Bible and Augustine for teaching him
about God, Christ, and humanity.[26] Even John Calvin, who
rejected many Medieval ascetic practices and who favored
doctrinal knowledge of God over affective experience, has
Medieval influences, namely, Jean Gerson and the Devotio
moderna, with its emphasis on piety as the method of spiritual
41
growth in which the individual practices dependence on God

by imitating Christ and the son-father relationship.
Meanwhile, his notion that we can begin to enjoy our eternal
salvation through our earthly successes leads in later
generations to "a mysticism of consolation".[27]
Counter-reformation[edit source | editbeta]
But the Reformation brought about the Counter-Reformation
and, with it, a new flowering of mystical literature, often
grouped by nationality.
Spanish mysticsim[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Spanish mystics
Ecstasy of St. Theresa depicts Teresa of Avilas meditation

The Spanish had Ignatius Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises
were designed to open people to a receptive mode of
consciousness in which they can experience God through
careful spiritual direction and through understanding how the
mind connects to the will and how to weather the experiences
of spiritual consolation and desolation;[28] Teresa of Avila,
who used the metaphors of watering a garden and walking
through the rooms of a castle to explain how meditation leads
to union with God;[29] and John of the Cross, who used a wide
range of biblical and spiritual influences both to rewrite the
traditional "three ways" of mysticism after the manner of
bridal mysticism and to present the two "dark nights": the dark
night of the senses and the dark night of the soul, during which
the individual renounces everything that might become an
obstacle between the soul and God and then experiences the
pain of feeling separated from God, unable to carry on normal
spiritual exercises, as it encounters the enormous gap
between its human nature and God's divine wisdom and light
and moves up the 10-step ladder of ascent towards God.[30]
42
Another prominent mystic was Miguel de Molinos, the chief

apostle of the religious revival known as Quietism. No breath
of suspicion arose against Molinos until 1681, when the Jesuit
preacher Paolo Segneri, attacked his views, though without
mentioning his name, in his Concordia tra la fatica e la quiete
nell' orazione. The matter was referred to the Inquisition. A
report got abroad that Molinos had been convicted of moral
enormities, as well as of heretical doctrines; and it was seen
that he was doomed. On September 3, 1687 he made public
profession of his errors, and was sentenced to imprisonment
for life. Contemporary Protestants saw in the fate of Molinos
nothing more than a persecution by the Jesuits of a wise and
enlightened man, who had dared to withstand the petty
ceremonialism of the Italian piety of the day. Molinos died in
prison in 1696 or 1697.
Italy.
Going back to Evagrius Ponticus, Christian mystics have been

described as pursuing a threefold path corresponding to body,
mind, and soul (or spirit). The three aspects later became
purgative, illuminative, and unitive in the western churches
and prayer of the lips, the mind, the heart in the eastern
churches.[38] The first, purification is where aspiring
traditionally Christian mystics start. This aspect focuses on
discipline, particularly in terms of the human body; thus, it
emphasizes prayer at certain times, either alone or with
others, and in certain postures, often standing or kneeling. It
also emphasizes the other disciplines of fasting and alms-
giving, the latter including those activities called "the works of
mercy," both spiritual and corporal, such as feeding the
hungry and sheltering the homeless.
43
Purification, which grounds Christian spirituality in general, is

primarily focused on efforts to, in the words of St. Paul, "put
to death the deeds of the flesh by the Holy Spirit" (Romans
8:13). This is considered a result of the Spirit working in the
person and is not a result of personal deeds. Also in the words
of St. Paul, "...he who began a good work in you will carry it on
to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Epistle to the
Philippians 1:6). The "deeds of the flesh" here include not only
external behavior, but also those habits, attitudes,
compulsions, addictions, etc. (sometimes called egoic
passions) which oppose themselves to true being and living as
a Christian not only exteriorly, but interiorly as well. Evelyn
Underhill describes purification as an awareness of one's own
imperfections and finiteness, followed by self-discipline and
mortification.[39] Because of its physical, disciplinary aspect,
this phase, as well as the entire Christian spiritual path, is often
referred to as "ascetic," a term which is derived from a Greek
word which connotes athletic training. Because of this, in
ancient Christian literature, prominent mystics are often
called "spiritual athletes," an image which is also used several
times in the New Testament to describe the Christian life.
What is sought here is salvation in the original sense of the
word, referring not only to one's eternal fate, but also to
healing in all areas of life, including the restoration of spiritual,
psychological, and physical health.
It remains a paradox of the mystics that the passivity at which
they appear to aim is really a state of the most intense activity:
more, that where it is wholly absent no great creative action
can take place. In it, the superficial self compels itself to be
still, in order that it may liberate another more deep-seated
power which is, in the ecstasy of the contemplative genius,
raised to the highest pitch of efficiency.[40]
44
The second phase, the path of illumination, has to do with the

activity of the Holy Spirit enlightening the mind, giving insights
into truths not only explicit in scripture and the rest of the
Christian tradition, but also those implicit in nature, not in the
scientific sense, but rather in terms of an illumination of the
"depth" aspects of reality and natural happenings, such that
the working of God is perceived in all that one experiences.
Underhill describes it as marked by a consciousness of a
transcendent order and a vision of a new heaven and a new
earth.
The third phase, usually called contemplation (or Mystical
Contemplative Prayer [41]) in the Western tradition, refers to
the experience of oneself as in some way united with God. The
experience of union varies, but it is first and foremost always
associated with a reuniting with Divine love, the underlying
theme being that God, the perfect goodness,[42] is known or
experienced at least as much by the heart as by the intellect
since, in the words 1 John 4:16: "God is love, and he who
abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some
approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two
phases as preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical
experience, but others state that these three phases overlap
and intertwine.
Mystical Contemplative Prayer is the blessing for which the
Christian mystic hopes. No human effort can produce it. This
form of prayer has three characteristics. (a)It is infused (i.e.
filled with enthusiasm or desire.) (b) It is extraordinary (i.e.
indicating that the intellect operates in new way). (c)
Moreover, It is passive (i.e. showing that the soul receives
something from God, and is conscious of receiving it.) It can
manifest itself in one of four degrees. The four degrees are the
prayer of quiet, the prayer of union, ecstatic union, and
transforming deifying union.[41]
45
Underhill's five-stage path[edit source | editbeta]

Author and mystic Evelyn Underhill recognizes two additional
phases to the mystical path. First comes the awakening, the
stage in which one begins to have some consciousness of
absolute or divine reality. Purgation and illumination are
followed by a fourth stage which Underhill, borrowing the
language of St. John of the Cross, calls the dark night of the
soul. This stage, experienced by the few, is one of final and
complete purification and is marked by confusion,
helplessness, stagnation of the will, and a sense of the
withdrawal of God's presence. This dark night of the soul is
not, in Underhill's conception, the Divine Darkness of the
pseudo-Dionysius and German Christian mysticism. It is the
period of final "unselfing" and the surrender to the hidden
purposes of the divine will. Her fifth and final stage is union
with the object of love, the one Reality, God. Here the self has
been permanently established on a transcendental level and
liberated for a new purpose.[43]
Community[edit source | editbeta]
Another aspect of traditional Christian spirituality, or
mysticism, has to do with its communal basis. Even for
hermits, the Christian life is always lived in communion with
the Church, the community of believers. Thus, participation in
corporate worship, especially the Eucharist, is an essential
part of Christian mysticism. Connected with this is the practice
of having a spiritual director, confessor, or "soul friend" with
which to discuss one's spiritual progress. This person, who
may be clerical or lay, acts as a spiritual mentor.
Types of meditation[edit source | editbeta]
Within theistic mysticism two broad tendencies can be
identified. One is a tendency to understand God by asserting
what He is not and the other by asserting what He is. The
46
former leads to what is called apophatic theology and the

latter to cataphatic theology.
Apophatic (imageless, stillness, and wordlessness) -- e.g., The
Cloud of the Unknowing, Meister Eckhart; and
Cataphatic (imaging God, imagination or words) -- e.g.,The
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Dame Julian,
Francis of Assisi,[44] This second type is considered by Pseudo-
Dionysius the Areopagite [45]
Scholars such as Urban T. Holmes, III have also categorized
mystical theology in terms of whether it focuses on
illuminating the mind, which Holmes refers to as speculative
practice, or the heart/emotions, which he calls affective
practice. Combining the speculative/affective scale with the
apophatic/cataphatic scale allows for a range of categories:
Rationalism = Cataphatic and speculative

Pietism = Cataphatic and affective
Encratism = Apophatic and speculative
Quietism = Apophatic and affective
47
48
Chapter Four
Religious Ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness

characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and
expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness which is
frequently accompanied by visions and emotional/intuitive
(and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience
is usually brief in time, there are records of such experiences
lasting several days or even more, and of recurring
experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime. Subjective
perception of time, space and/or self may strongly change or
disappear during ecstasy.
Religious people may hold the view that true religious ecstasy
occurs only in their religious context (e.g. as a gift from the
supernatural being whom they follow) and it cannot be
induced by natural means (human activities). Trance-like
states which are often interpreted as religious ecstasy can be
deliberately induced with techniques or ecstatic practices;
including, prayer, religious rituals, meditation, breathing
exercises, physical exercise, sex, music, dancing, sweating,
fasting, thirsting, and psychotropic drugs. An ecstatic
experience may take place in occasion of contact with
something or somebody perceived as extremely beautiful or
holy. It may also happen without any known reason. The
49
particular technique that an individual uses to induce ecstasy

is usually one that is associated with that individual's
particular religious and cultural traditions. As a result, an
ecstatic experience is usually interpreted within the particular
individual religious context and cultural traditions. These
interpretations often include statements about contact with
supernatural or spiritual beings, about receiving new
information as a revelation, also religion-related explanations
of subsequent change of values, attitudes and behavior (e.g.
in case of religious conversion).
Classical Indian dancers are believed to enter ecstatic trance

while dancing.
Achieving ecstatic trances is a shaman activity, who induce
ecstasy for such purposes as traveling to heaven or the
underworld, guiding or otherwise interacting with spirits,
clairvoyance, and healing. Some shamans take drugs from
such plants as Ayahuasca, peyote and cannabis (also see
cannabis (drug) or certain mushrooms in their attempts to
reach ecstasy, while others rely on such non-chemical means
as ritual, music, dance, ascetic practices, or visual designs as
aids to mental discipline.
Modern meditator experiences in the Thai Forest Tradition, as
well as other Theravadin traditions, demonstrates that this
effort and rarity is necessary only to become completely
immersed in the absorptions and experience no other
sensations. It is possible to experience the absorptions in a less
intense state with much less practice.
In the Dionysian Mysteries, initiates used intoxicants and

other trance-inducing techniques (like dance and music) to
50
remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the

individual to return to a natural state.
Sufism (the mystical branch of Islam) has theoretical and

metaphorical texts regarding ecstasy as a state of connection
with Allah. Sufis practice rituals (dhikr, sema) using body
movement and music to achieve the state. Zila Khan also
practices this through Music Therapy and her performances.
In the monotheistic tradition, ecstasy is usually associated
with communion and oneness with God. However, such
experiences can also be personal mystical experiences with no
significance to anyone but the person experiencing them.
Some charismatic Christians practice ecstatic states (such as
"being slain in the Spirit") and interpret these as given by the
Holy Spirit. The firewalkers of Greece dance themselves into a
state of ecstasy at the annual Anastenaria, when they believe
themselves under the influence of Saint Constantine.[3] [4][5]
Historically, large groups of individuals have experienced
religious ecstasies during periods of Christian revivals, to the
point of causing controversy as to the origin and nature of
these experiences.[6][7] In response to claims that all
emotional expressions of religious ecstasy were attacks on
order and theological soundness from the Devil, Jonathan
Edwards published his now-famous and influential Treatise on
Religious Affections. Here, he argues, religious ecstasy could
come from oneself, the Devil, or God, and it was only by
observing the fruit, or changes in inner thought and behaviour,
that one could determine if the religious ecstasy had come
from God.[8]
In hagiography (writings about Christian saints) many
instances are recorded in which saints are granted ecstasies.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia[9] religious ecstasy
(called "supernatural ecstasy") includes two elements: one,
51
interior and invisible, in which the mind rivets its attention on

a religious subject, and another, corporeal and visible, in
which the activity of the senses is suspended, reducing the
effect of external sensations upon the subject and rendering
him or her resistant to awakening. The witnesses of a Marian
apparition often describe experiencing these elements of
ecstasy.
Modern Witchcraft traditions may define themselves as
"ecstatic traditions," and focus on reaching ecstatic states in
their rituals. The Reclaiming Tradition and the Feri Tradition
are two modern ecstatic Witchcraft examples.
As described by the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, God-
intoxicated souls known as masts experience a unique type of
spiritual ecstasy: "[M]asts are desperately in love with God –
or consumed by their love for God. Masts do not suffer from
what may be called a disease. They are in a state of mental
disorder because their minds are overcome by such intense
spiritual energies that are far too much for them, forcing them
to lose contact with the world, shed normal human habits and
customs, and civilized society and live in a state of spiritual
splendor but physical squalor. They are overcome by an
agonizing love for God and are drowned in their ecstasy. Only
the divine love embodied in a Perfect Master can reach them.
Being slain in the Spirit is a practice where the laying on of

hands is practiced during a public prayer ministry. Church
members or attendees may come to the front of the church
(or in other gatherings not necessarily in a church service or
building) to receive a special work of the Holy Spirit from the
Pastor, service leader or a team of ministers.[2]:91 Often a
significant amount of time is spent singing and praying during
the church service before this point. Attendees are then
prayed over and touched by the service leader or leaders.
52
They perceive the Spirit of God upon them and they fall,
usually onto their backs.[3]:235 In most cases, their fall is
broken by deacons, catchers, ushers or orderlies behind them
to prevent injury. Beliefs associated with this phenomenon
include divine healing, receiving visions, being set free of
demonic spirits, hearing God speak.
As Thomas Csordas says: "In Charismatic ritual life, resting in
the Spirit can serve the purposes of demonstrating divine
power; of exhibiting the faith of those who are "open" to such
power; of allowing a person to be close to, "touched by," or
"spoken to" by God (sometimes via embodied imagery); of
preparing a person to receive and exercise a spiritual gift; or
of healing."
Stigmata (singular stigma) is a term used by members of the

Christian faith to describe body marks, sores, or sensations of
pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of
Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists, and feet.
The term originates from the line at the end of Saint Paul's
Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the
marks of Jesus." Stigmata is the plural of the Greek word
στίγμα stigma, meaning a mark, tattoo,[1] or brand such as
might have been used for identification of an animal or slave.
An individual bearing stigmata is referred to as a stigmatic or
a stigmatist.
Stigmata are primarily associated with the Roman Catholic
faith. Many reported stigmatics are members of Catholic
religious orders.[2] St. Francis of Assisi was the first recorded
stigmatic in Christian history. For over fifty years, Padre Pio of
Pietrelcina of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin reported
stigmata which were studied by several 20th-century
physicians whose independence from the Church is not
known.[citation needed]
53
A high percentage (perhaps over 80%) of all stigmatics are

women.[3] In his Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a
Modern Age, Edward Harrison suggests that there is no single
mechanism whereby the marks of stigmata were produced.
Reported cases of stigmata take various forms. Many show

some or all of five Holy Wounds that were, according to the
Bible, inflicted on Jesus during his crucifixion: wounds in the
wrists and feet, from nails; and in the side, from a lance. Some
stigmatics display wounds to the forehead similar to those
caused by the Crown of Thorns.[3] Stigmata as crown of thorns
appearing in the 20th century, e.g. on Marie Rose Ferron, have
been repeatedly photographed.[6][7][8] Other reported
forms include tears of blood or sweating blood, and wounds
to the back as from scourging.
Many stigmata show recurring bleeding that stops and then
starts, at times after receiving Holy Communion, and a large
percentage of stigmatics have shown a high desire to receive
Holy Communion frequently .[3] A relatively high percentage
of stigmatics also exhibit inedia, living with minimal (or no)
food or water for long periods of time, except for the Holy
Eucharist, and some exhibit loss of weight.[3]
The ecstasy and sufferings usually began for the Saints who
suffered stigmata starting on Thursday and ending on Friday
afternoon around 3 or 4 o'clock. All the recipients of this
mystical wounding suffered dreadfully. Many of the stigmatics
experienced cruel rejection and suspicion before their wounds
were authenticated. Saints who suffered stigmata were
carefully watched day and night so that tampering with the
wounds could not be performed. When these methods were
used, a number of false stigmatics were exposed. Sometimes
this stigmata became invisible on express request and prayers
by the Saints who suffered them.[9]
54
Some stigmatics claim to feel the pain of wounds with no

external marks; these are referred to as invisible stigmata. In
other claims, stigmata are accompanied by extreme pain.
Some stigmatics' wounds do not appear to clot, and stay fresh
and uninfected. The blood from the wounds is said, in some
cases, to have a pleasant, perfumed odor, known as the Odour
of Sanctity.
Individuals who have obtained the stigmata are many times
described as ecstatics. At the time of receiving the stigmata,
they are overwhelmed with emotions.
No case of stigmata is known to have occurred before the
thirteenth century, when the depiction of the crucified Jesus
in Western Christendom emphasized his humanity.[10]
In his paper Hospitality and Pain, Christian theologian Ivan
Illich states: "Compassion with Christ... is faith so strong and
so deeply incarnate that it leads to the individual embodiment
of the contemplated pain." His thesis is that stigmata result
from exceptional poignancy of religious faith and desire to
associate oneself with the suffering Messiah.
Specific cases[edit source | editbeta]
St. Francis of Assisi[edit source | editbeta]

St. Francis of Assisi is the first recorded stigmatic in Christian
history.[11] In 1224, two years before his death, he embarked
on a journey to Mt. La Verna for a forty-day fast. One morning
near the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, a six-winged angel
allegedly appeared to Francis while he prayed. As the angel
approached, Francis could see that the angel was crucified. He
was humbled by the sight, and his heart was filled with elation
joined by pain and suffering. When the angel departed, Francis
was purportedly left with wounds in his hands, feet, and side
as if caused by the same lance that pierced Christ’s side. The
55
image of nails immediately appeared in his hands and feet,

and the wound in his side often seeped blood.[12]
St. Francis' first biographer, Thomas of Celano, reports the
event as follows in his 1230 First Life of St. Francis:
"When the blessed servant of God saw these things he was
filled with wonder, but he did not know what the vision meant.
He rejoiced greatly in the benign and gracious expression with
which he saw himself regarded by the seraph, whose beauty
was indescribable; yet he was alarmed by the fact that the
seraph was affixed to the cross and was suffering terribly. Thus
Francis rose, one might say, sad and happy, joy and grief
alternating in him. He wondered anxiously what this vision
could mean, and his soul was uneasy as it searched for
understanding. And as his understanding sought in vain for an
explanation and his heart was filled with perplexity at the
great novelty of this vision, the marks of nails began to appear
in his hands and feet, just as he had seen them slightly earlier
in the crucified man above him. His wrists and feet seemed to
be pierced by nails, with the heads of the nails appearing on
his wrists and on the upper sides of his feet, the points
appearing on the other side. The marks were round on the
palm of each hand but elongated on the other side, and small
pieces of flesh jutting out from the rest took on the
appearance of the nail-ends, bent and driven back. In the
same way the marks of nails were impressed on his feet and
projected beyond the rest of the flesh. Moreover, his right side
had a large wound as if it had been pierced with a spear, and
it often bled so that his tunic and trousers were soaked with
his sacred blood." [13]
St. Pio of Pietrelcina[edit source | editbeta]
A young Padre Pio showing the stigmata.
56
For over fifty years, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina reported stigmata

which were studied by several 20th-century physicians, whose
independence from the Church is not known.[14] [15][16] The
observations were reportedly unexplainable and the wounds
never became infected.[14][15][17] His wounds healed once,
but reappeared.[18] The wounds were examined by Luigi
Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of Barletta, for
about one year. Dr. Giorgio Festa, a private practitioner, also
examined them in 1920 and 1925. Professor Giuseppe
Bastianelli, physician to Pope Benedict XV, agreed that the
wounds existed, but made no other comment. Pathologist Dr.
Amico Bignami of the University of Rome also observed the
wounds, but could make no diagnosis.[19] Both Bignami and
Dr. Giuseppe Sala commented on the unusually smooth edges
of the wounds and lack of edema. Dr. Alberto Caserta took X-
rays of the hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the
bone structure.[20]
Scientific research[edit source | editbeta]
"Stigmata I" by Mexican artist Mauricio García Vega.

Some modern research has indicated stigmata are of
hysterical origin,[21] or linked to dissociative identity
disorders,[22] especially the link between dietary constriction
by self-starvation, dissociative mental states and self-
mutilation, in the context of a religious belief.[23] Anorexia
nervosa cases often display self-mutilation similar to stigmata
as part of a ritualistic, obsessive compulsive disorder. A
relationship between starvation and self-mutilation has been
reported amongst prisoners of war and during
famines.[24][25][26] A psychoanalytic study of stigmatic
Therese Neumann has suggested that her stigmata resulted
57
from post-traumatic stress symptoms expressed in

unconscious self-mutilation through abnormal
autosuggestibility.[27]
In his Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age,
Edward Harrison suggests that there is no single mechanism
whereby the marks of stigmata were produced. Harrison
found no evidence from a study of contemporary cases that
the marks were supernatural in origin. However, a naturalistic
viewpoint immediately dismisses the possibility of
supernatural causation, thus making the lack of "supernatural
evidence" nugatory. He concluded, however, that marks of
natural origin need not be hoaxes. Some stigmatics marked
themselves in attempt to suffer with Christ as a form of piety.
Others marked themselves accidentally and their marks were
noted as stigmata by witnesses. Often marks of human origin
produced profound and genuine religious responses. Harrison
also noted that the male-to-female ratio of stigmatics, which
for many centuries had been of the order of 7 to 1, had
changed over the last 100 years to a ratio of 5:4. Appearance
of stigmata frequently coincided with times when issues of
authority loomed large in the Church. What was significant
about stigmatics was not that they were predominantly men,
but that they were non-ordained. Having stigmata gave them
direct access to the body of Christ without requiring the
permission of the Church through the Eucharist. Only in the
last century have priests been stigmatized.[28]
From the records of St. Francis’ physical ailments and
symptoms, Dr. Edward Hartung concluded in 1935 that he
knew what health problems plagued the holy man. Hartung
believed that he had an eye ailment known as trachoma, but
also had quartan malaria. Quartan malaria infects the liver,
spleen, and stomach, causing the victim intense pain. One
complication of quartan malaria occasionally seen around
58
Francis’s time is known as purpura, a purple hemorrhage of

blood into the skin. Purpuras usually occur symmetrically, so
each hand and foot would have been affected equally. If this
were the case for St. Francis, he would have been afflicted by
ecchymoses, an exceedingly large purpura. The purple spots
of blood may have been punctured while in the wilderness and
therefore appear as an open wound like that of Christ.
59
60
Chapter Five
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Baptism with the Holy Spirit (alternatively Baptism in the Holy

Spirit or Holy Ghost) in Christian theology is a term describing
baptism (washing or immersion) in or with the Spirit of God
and is frequently associated with the bestowal of spiritual gifts
and empowerment for Christian ministry.[1][2][3] While the
phrase "baptism with the Holy Spirit" is found in the New
Testament and all Christian traditions accept it as a theological
concept, each has interpreted it in a way consistent with their
own beliefs on ecclesiology and Christian initiation.[4] One
view holds that the term refers only to Pentecost, the "once-
for-all" event for the whole Church described in the second
chapter of the Book of Acts.[5] Another view holds that the
term also refers to an experience of the individual believer
distinct from salvation and initiation into the Church.
Before the emergence of the holiness movement in the mid-
19th century and Pentecostalism in the early 20th century,
most denominations believed that Christians received the
baptism with the Holy Spirit either upon conversion and
regeneration[5] or through rites of Christian initiation. Since
the growth and spread of Pentecostal and charismatic
churches, however, the belief that the baptism with the Holy
Spirit is an experience distinct from regeneration has come
into increasing prominence.
61
In Christian theology, the work of the Holy Spirit under the Old
Covenant is viewed as less powerful and less extensive than
that under the New Covenant inaugurated on the day of
Pentecost.[7] The Spirit was restricted to certain chosen
individuals, such as high priests and prophets.[8] Often
termed the “spirit of prophecy” in rabbinic writings, the Holy
Spirit was closely associated with prophecy and divine
inspiration.[9] It was anticipated that in the future messianic
age God would pour out his spirit upon all of Israel, which
would become a nation of prophets.[10][11]
While the exact phrase "baptism with the Holy Spirit" is not
found in the New Testament, two forms of the phrase are
found in the canonical gospels using the verb "baptize". The
baptism was spoken about by John the Baptist, who
contrasted his water baptism for the forgiveness of sins with
the baptism of Jesus. In Mark and John, the Baptist proclaimed
that Jesus "will baptize in (the) Holy Spirit"; while in Matthew
and Luke, he "will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire".[12][13]
Jesus is considered the first person to receive the baptism with
the Holy Spirit.[14] The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus during
his baptism, and he was anointed with power.[15] Afterward,
Jesus began his ministry and displayed his power by casting
out demons, healing the sick, and teaching with
authority.[16][17]
The phrase "baptized in the Holy Spirit" occurs two times in
Acts, first in Acts 1:4-5[18] and second in Acts 11:16.[19] Other
terminology is used in Acts to indicate Spirit baptism, such as
"filled".[20] "Baptized in the Spirit" indicates an outward
immersion into the reality of the Holy Spirit, while "filled with
the Spirit" suggests an internal diffusion. Both terms speak to
the totality of receiving the Spirit.[21] The baptism with the
62
Holy Spirit is described in various places as the Spirit "poured

out upon", "falling upon", "coming upon" people.[22][23] To
"pour out" suggests abundance and reflects John 3:34,[24]
"God gives the Spirit without limit". Another expression,
"come upon" is related to a statement by Jesus in Lk 24:49, "I
am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the
city until you are clothed with power from on high". The
language of "come on" and "clothed with" suggest possession
by and endowment with the Holy Spirit.[21]
The narrative of Acts begins after Jesus’ crucifixion and
resurrection. The resurrected Jesus directed his disciples to
wait in Jerusalem for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and
promised, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth".[25]
After his ascension, he was given authority to pour out the
Holy Spirit.[16] In the New Testament, the messianic
expectations found in early Judaism were fulfilled on the day
of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2:1-41. The Christian community
was gathered together in Jerusalem when a sound from
heaven like rushing wind was heard and tongues like tongues
of flame rested on everyone. They were filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in tongues, miraculously praising
God in foreign languages. A crowd gathered and was
addressed by the Apostle Peter who stated that the
occurrence was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, "And in the
last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit
on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy".
He then explained how the Spirit came to be poured out,
recounting Jesus’ ministry and passion and then proclaiming
his resurrection and enthronement at the right hand of God.
In response, the crowd asked Peter what they should do. He
responded that they should repent and be baptized for the
63
forgiveness of sins in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter finished his speech stating that the promise "is for you
and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone
whom the Lord our God calls to himself".[8]
Baptism in the Holy Spirit occurs elsewhere in Acts. The gospel
had been proclaimed in Samaria and the apostles Peter and
John were sent from Jerusalem. The new believers had been
water baptized, but the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on them.
The Samaritans received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John
laid their hands on them.[26] The Apostle Paul was also filled
with the Holy Spirit when Ananias of Damascus laid hands on
him, and afterwards Paul was baptized with water.[27] Later
in Acts, Peter preached the gospel to the household of
Cornelius the Centurion, a Gentile. While he preached, the
Holy Spirit fell on the gentiles, and they began to speak in
tongues. The Jewish believers with Peter were amazed, and
the household was water baptized.[28] While the apostle Paul
was in Ephesus, he found disciples there and discovered that
they did not know of the existence of the Holy Spirit and had
only received John the Baptist’s baptism. After baptizing them
in Jesus’ name, Paul laid his hands on them, and they began to
speak in tongues and prophesy.[29]
History[edit source | editbeta]
In the early Church, the imposition of hands on the newly

baptized to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit was the origin of
the sacrament of confirmation. In the Eastern church,
confirmation continued to be celebrated immediately after
water baptism. The two rites were separated in the Western
church.[30]
According to Pentecostal historian H. Vinson Synan, "the basic
premise of Pentecostalism, that one may receive later
effusions of the Spirit after initiation/conversion, can be
64
clearly traced in Christian history to the beginnings of the rite

of confirmation in the Western churches".[31] Synan further
traces the influence of Catholic and Anglican mystical
traditions on John Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection or
entire sanctification, from which Pentecostal beliefs on Spirit
baptism developed. Wesley taught that while the new birth
was the start of the Christian life, "inbred sin" remained and
must be removed through a lifelong process of moral
cleansing.[32] John Fletcher, Wesley's designated successor,
called Christian perfection a "baptism in the Holy Spirit".[33]
His Checks to Antinomianism later became a standard for
Pentecostally-inclined holiness teachers. On the subject,
Fletcher wrote:
Lastly: if we will attain the full power of godliness, and be
peaceable as the Prince of Peace, and merciful as our heavenly
Father, let us go on to the perfection and glory of Christianity;
let us enter the full dispensation of the Spirit. Till we live in the
pentecostal glory of the Church: till we are baptized with the
Holy Ghost: till the Spirit of burning and the fire of Divine love
have melted us down, and we have been truly cast into the
softest mould of the Gospel: till we can say with St. Paul, "We
have received the Spirit of love, of power, and of a sound
mind;" till then we shall be carnal rather than spiritual
believers.[34]
In mid-19th century America, the Wesleyan holiness
movement began to teach that entire sanctification was less a
process and more of a state that one entered into by faith at
a definite moment in time. This second blessing, as it was
commonly called, allowed Christians to be freed from the
power of sin. The baptism in the Holy Spirit was generally
understood to be synonymous with second blessing
sanctification.[32] After his conversion in 1821, Presbyterian
minister and revivalist Charles Grandison Finney experienced
65
what he called "baptism in the Holy Spirit" accompanied by

"unutterable gushings" of praise.[35] Finney and other
Reformed writers, known as Oberlin perfectionists, agreed
that there was a life altering experience after conversion, but
unlike their Wesleyan holiness counterparts, they conceived
of it as an ongoing process enabling believers to devote
themselves wholly to Christ's service. Similarly, the English
Higher Life movement taught that the second blessing was an
"enduement of power". Spirit baptism gave Christians the
ability to witness and to serve. Wesleyan teachers emphasized
purity while Oberlin and higher life advocates stressed power
as the defining outcome of Spirit baptism.[32]
In the early 1890s, R.C. Horner, a Canadian holiness evangelist,
introduced a theological distinction that would be important
for the development of Pentecostalism. He argued in his books
Pentecost (1891) and Bible Doctrines (1909) that the baptism
in the Holy Spirit was not synonymous with the second
blessing but was actually a third work of grace subsequent to
salvation and sanctification that empowered the believer for
service.[36] Charles Fox Parham would build on this doctrinal
foundation when he identified speaking in tongues as the
Bible evidence of Spirit baptism.[37]
Views[edit source | editbeta]
Russian Orthodox depiction of Pentecost, c. 1497.

The diverse views on Spirit-baptism held among Christian
traditions can be categorized into three main groups. These
are baptism with the Spirit as sacramental initiation (Orthodox
and Catholic churches), regeneration (Reformed tradition),
and empowerment for witness and vocation (Pentecostals
and charismatics).[38]
66
Eastern Orthodox[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Chrismation
Orthodox Churches believe that baptism in the Holy Spirit is
conferred with water baptism. The individual is anointed with
oil (chrism) immediately after baptism. According to Cyril of
Jerusalem:
This holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say)
common, after the invocation, but the gift of Christ; and by the
presence of His Godhead, it causes in us the Holy Ghost. It is
symbolically applied to thy forehead and thy other senses and
while thy body is anointed with visible ointment, thy soul is
sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.[39]
Roman Catholic[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Confirmation (Catholic Church)
The Catholic Church teaches that baptism, confirmation, and
the Eucharist—the sacraments of Christian initiation—lay the
foundations of the Christian life.[40] The Christian life is based
on baptism. It is "the gateway to life in the Spirit" and "signifies
and actually brings about the birth of water and the
Spirit".[41] The post-baptismal anointing (Chrismation in the
Eastern churches) signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit and
announces a second anointing to be conferred later in
confirmation that completes the baptismal anointing.[42]
Confirmation, then, is necessary for the completion of
baptismal grace.[43] When confirmed, Catholics receive the
"special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the
apostles on the day of Pentecost".[44] For the confirmand it
increases the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear
of the Lord), unites more fully to Christ and the Church, and
gives strength to confess Christ and defend the faith.[45] The
rite of confirmation orients toward mission, and many
67
liturgical texts remind the initiate that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should be used for service to the church and the world.[46]
Reformed[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Reformed theology
The Reformed position on Spirit baptism is that the gift of the
Holy Spirit is given at the moment of regeneration, which, in
Protestant terms, is not predicated on water baptism or
membership in the visible church. Rather, all who have faith in
Jesus Christ are members of the invisible church and as such
are given the Holy Spirit.[5]
Wesleyanism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Wesleyanism
Within the Wesleyan tradition, baptism with the Holy Spirit
has often been linked to a sanctified life. The United
Methodist Church has a sacramental view of baptism,
believing that it is by both water and Spirit and "involves dying
to sin, newness of life, union with Christ, receiving the Holy
Spirit, and incorporation into Christ's church". It also believes
that baptism is the "doorway to the sanctified life" defined as
"a gift of the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit, a yielding to
the Spirit's power, a deepening of our love for God and
neighbor".[47]
The churches in the holiness movement emphasize entire
sanctification as a definite experience linked to Spirit baptism.
According to the Articles of Faith of the Church of the
Nazarene, sanctification is a work of God after regeneration
"which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ" and is
made possible by "initial sanctification" (which is regeneration
and simultaneous with justification), entire sanctification, and
"the continued perfecting work of the Holy Spirit culminating
in glorification".[48] Entire sanctification (as opposed to initial
sanctification) is an act of God in which a believer is made free
68
from original sin and able to devote him or herself entirely to

God:
It is wrought by the baptism with or infilling of the Holy Spirit,
and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart
from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy
Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.[48]
Mormonism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Confirmation (Latter Day Saints)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the "Baptism of fire and of
the Holy Ghost" refers to the experience of one who
undergoes the ordinance of confirmation with the laying on of
hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It follows baptism
in water and is essential to salvation.[49] The gift of the Holy
Ghost is the privilege of receiving inspiration, divine
manifestations, direction, spiritual gifts, and other blessings
from the Holy Spirit.[50] It begins the lifetime process of
sanctification.[51]
Pentecostal and charismatic[edit source | editbeta]
Pentecostal and charismatic Christians believe that all
Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.[52] However,
they believe that the experience commonly called "baptism in
the Holy Spirit" is a separate and distinct experience occurring
sometime after regeneration. It is an empowering experience,
equipping Spirit-filled believers for witness and ministry.[22]
Extending from this is the belief that all the spiritual gifts
mentioned in the New Testament are to be sought and
exercised to build up the Church.[6] It is Spirit baptism that
initiates the believer in the use of the spiritual gifts.
Pentecostals and charismatics look to the Bible to support
their doctrinal position. According to their biblical
interpretation, the Gospel of John 20:22 shows that the
disciples of Jesus were already born again before the Holy
Spirit fell at Pentecost. They then cite biblical examples in the
69
Book of Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19 to show that it was common in

the New Testament for Spirit baptism to occur after
conversion.[53] In following the biblical pattern, they argue,
Christians today should also ask Jesus for this baptism which
results in greater power for ministry and witness. There are
differences between Pentecostal and charismatic Christians'
understanding of Spirit baptism.
Classical Pentecostalism[edit source | editbeta]
The Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street, now considered

to be the birthplace of Pentecostalism.
Classical Pentecostalism includes any denomination or group
which has origins in the Pentecostal revival that began in 1901
and is most identified with the Azusa Street Mission of Los
Angeles. Some Pentecostal denominations teach that
speaking in tongues (see glossolalia) will always follow Spirit
baptism, though this is by no means universally believed or
practiced among Pentecostals.[54]
On the subject of Spirit baptism, Donald Gee wrote:
Therein lies the dynamic source of the whole subject. The
early believers had all received the gift of the Holy Ghost as
promised by our Lord and by Peter on the Day of Pentecost.
With them it was not mere intellectual assent to some article
in a creed defining an orthodox doctrine concerning the Holy
Spirit. Neither were they satisfied to acquiescence to a vague
idea that in some indefinite manner the Holy Spirit had been
imparted to them upon conversion. They gladly and thankfully
recognized His gracious operations in their regeneration and
sanctification, but their own personal reception of the Holy
Spirit was an intensely vivid experience. They knew when He
came, where He came, and how he came. Nothing reveals this
more than Paul's searching question to certain disciples whom
70
he immediately sensed to be spiritually lacking in a vital part

of their Christian inheritance—'Have ye received the Holy
Ghost?' (Acts 19:2). The challenge was to experience, not to
doctrine. How significant! An Ephesian 'Pentecost' speedily
rectified their shortcoming, and it was an experience as vivid
as all the rest had received—'They spake with tongues and
prophesied.'[55]
In Pentecostal experience, Spirit baptism can be quite
dramatic, as shown by William Durham's account of his Spirit
baptism:
I was overcome by the mighty fulness of power and went
down under it. For three hours He wrought wonderfully in me.
My body was worked in sections, a section at a time. And even
the skin on my face was jerked and shaken, and finally I felt my
lower jaw begin to quiver in a strange way. This continued for
some little time, when finally my throat began to enlarge and
I felt my vocal organs being, as it were, drawn into a different
shape. O how strange and wonderful it was! and how blessed
it was to be thus in the hands of God. And last of all I felt my
tongue begin to move and my lips to produce strange sounds
which did not originate in my mind.[56]
In some accounts of Spirit baptism, Pentecostals report
receiving visions, such as the account of Lucy Leatherman, an
Azusa Street participant:
While seeking for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost in Los
Angeles, after Sister Ferrell [sic] laid hands on me I praised and
praised God and saw my Savior in the heavens. And as I
praised, I came closer and closer and I was so small. By and by
I swept into the wound in His side, and He was not only in me
but I in Him, and there I found that rest that passeth all
understanding, and He said to me, you are in the bosom of the
Father. He said I was clothed upon and in the secret place of
the Most High. But I said, Father, I want the gift of the Holy
71
Ghost, and the heavens opened and I was overshadowed, and

such power came upon me and went through me. He said,
Praise Me, and when I did, angels came and ministered unto
me. I was passive in His hands working on my vocal cords, and
I realized they were loosing me. I began to praise Him in an
unknown language.[57]
Charismatics[edit source | editbeta]
Charismatics trace their historical origins to the charismatic
movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They are distinguished
from Pentecostals because they tend to allow for differing
viewpoints on whether Spirit baptism is subsequent to
conversion and whether tongues is always a sign of receiving
the baptism.[6] Some charismatics remain within existing
Protestant and Catholic churches while others have started
new denominations.
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal believes that there is a
further experience of empowerment with the Holy Spirit.[58]
As stated by Rev. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, "baptism in the
Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is related to a sacrament…to
the sacraments of Christian initiation. The baptism in the Spirit
makes real and in a way renews Christian initiation".[59]
Emphasis of the event is on the release of existing spiritual
gifts already given to the individual through baptism in water
and confirmation.
During the 1980s, another renewal movement emerged called
the "Third Wave of the Holy Spirit" (the first wave was
Pentecostalism and the second wave was the charismatic
movement). Third wave charismatics stress that the preaching
of the gospel, following the New Testament pattern, should be
accompanied by "signs, wonders, and miracles". They believe
that all Christians are baptized with the Holy Spirit at
conversion, and prefer to call subsequent experiences as
72
"filling" with the Holy Spirit.[6] John Wimber and the Vineyard
churches are most prominently associated with this label.
Bible references[edit source | editbeta]
Matthew 3:11: …He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…"
Mark 1:8: …He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…"
Luke 3:16: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…"
Luke 24:49: …stay here in the city until you have been clothed
with power from on high." (see fulfillment in Acts 2).
John 1:33: …the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."
Acts 1:4-5: …the Promise of the Father…"; …you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit…"
Acts 2:1-4: "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages…"
Acts 2:14-18: …I will pour out my Spirit…" (quoting Joel 2:28-
29).
Acts 4:31: …they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…"
Acts 8:14-17: …prayed for them that they might receive the
Holy Spirit…"; …as yet the Spirit had not yet come upon any of
them…"; …they received the Holy Spirit…"; …the Spirit was
given through the laying on of the apostles' hands…."
Acts 9:17: …Jesus…has sent me…that you may…be filled with
the Holy Spirit."
Acts 10:44-48: "The Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the
word…"; …the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out…";
…people who have received the Holy Spirit…"
Acts 11:15-16: …the Holy Spirit fell upon them…"; …you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit…"
Acts 19:1-6: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit…?"; …the Holy
Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and
prophesied…"
1 Cor 12:13: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free..."
73
74
Chapter Six
Spiritual Gifts
Romans 12:6-8
Prophecy
Serving
Teaching
Exhortation
Giving
Leadership
Mercy
1 Corinthians 12:8-10
Word of wisdom
Word of knowledge
Faith
Gifts of healings
Miracles
Prophecy
75
Distinguishing between spirits

Tongues
Interpretation of tongues
1 Corinthians 12:28
Apostle
Prophet
Teacher
Miracles
Kinds of healings
Helps
Administration
Tongues
Ephesians 4:11
Apostle
Prophet
Evangelist
Pastor
Teacher
1 Peter 4:11
Whoever speaks
Whoever renders service
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Romans 12:6-10
Having then gifts differing, etc.—As the goodness of God, with

this view of our mutual subserviency and usefulness, has
endowed us with different gifts and qualifications, let each
apply himself to the diligent improvement of his particular
office and talent, and modestly keep within the bounds of it,
not exalting himself or despising others.
Whether prophecy—That prophecy, in the New Testament,
often means the gift of exhorting, preaching, or of expounding
the Scriptures, is evident from many places in the Gospels,
Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles, see 1 Corinthians 11:4, 5; and
especially 1 Corinthians 14:3: He that prophesieth speaketh
unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. This
was the proper office of a preacher; and it is to the exercise of
this office that the apostle refers in the whole of the chapter
from which the above quotations are made. See also Luke
1:76; 7:28; Acts 15:32; 1 Corinthians 14:29. I think the apostle
uses the term in the same sense here—Let every man who has
the gift of preaching and interpreting the Scriptures do it in
proportion to the grace and light he has received from God,
and in no case arrogate to himself knowledge which he has not
received; let him not esteem himself more highly on account
of this gift, or affect to be wise above what is written, or
indulge himself in fanciful interpretations of the word of God.
Dr. Taylor observes that the measure of faith, Romans 12:3,
and the proportion of faith, Romans 12:6, seem not to relate
to the degree of any gift considered in itself, but rather in the
77
relation and proportion which it bore to the gifts of others; for

it is plain that he is here exhorting every man to keep soberly
within his own sphere. It is natural to suppose that the new
converts might be puffed up with the several gifts that were
bestowed upon them; and every one might be forward to
magnify his own to the disparagement of others: therefore the
apostle advises them to keep each within his proper sphere;
to know and observe the just measure and proportion of the
gift intrusted to him, not to gratify his pride but to edify the
Church.
The αναλογια της πιστεως, which we here translate the
proportion of faith, and which some render the analogy of
faith, signifies in grammar "the similar declension of similar
words;" but in Scriptural matters it has been understood to
mean the general and consistent plan or scheme of doctrines
delivered in the Scriptures; where every thing bears its due
relation and proportion to another. Thus the death of Christ is
commensurate in its merits to the evils produced by the fall of
Adam. The doctrine of justification by faith bears the strictest
analogy or proportion to the grace of Christ and the helpless,
guilty, condemned state of man: whereas the doctrine of
justification by WORKS is out of all analogy to the demerit of
sin, the perfection of the law, the holiness of God, and the
miserable, helpless state of man. This may be a good general
view of the subject; but when we come to inquire what those
mean by the analogy of faith who are most frequent in the use
of the term, we shall find that it means neither more nor less
than their own creed; and though they tell you that their
doctrines are to be examined by the Scriptures, yet they give
you roundly to know that you are to understand these
Scriptures in precisely the same way as they have interpreted
them. "To the law and to the testimony," says Dr. Campbell,
"is the common cry; only every one, the better to secure the
78
decision on the side he has espoused, would have you

previously resolve to put no sense whatever on the law and
the testimony but what his favourite doctrine will admit. Thus
they run on in a shuffling, circular sort of argument, which,
though they studiously avoid exposing, is, when dragged into
the open light, neither more nor less than this; 'you are to try
our doctrine by the Scriptures only; but then you are to be very
careful that you explain the Scripture solely by our doctrine.'
A wonderful plan of trial, which begins with giving judgment,
and ends with examining the proof, wherein the whole skill
and ingenuity of the judges are to be exerted in wresting the
evidence so as to give it the appearance of supporting the
sentence pronounced before hand." See Dr. Campbell's
Dissertations on the Gospels, Diss. iv. sect. 14, vol. i, page 146,
8vo. edit., where several other sensible remarks may be
found.
Romans 12:7
Or ministry—Διακονια simply means the office of a deacon;
and what this office was, see in the note on Acts 6:4 (note),
where the subject is largely discussed.
Or he that teacheth—The teacher, διδασκαλος, was a person
whose office it was to instruct others, who thereby
catechizing, or simply explaining the grand truths of
Christianity.
Romans 12:8
Or he that exhorteth—Ὁ παρακαλων, The person who
admonished and reprehended the unruly or disorderly; and
who supported the weak and comforted the penitents, and
those who were under heaviness through manifold
temptations.
He that giveth—He who distributeth the alms of the Church,
with simplicity—being influenced by no partiality, but dividing
to each according to the necessity of his case.
79
He that ruleth—Ὁ προϊσταμενος, He that presides over a

particular business; but as the verb προϊσταμαι also signifies
to defend or patronize, it is probably used here to signify
receiving and providing for strangers, and especially the
persecuted who were obliged to leave their own homes, and
were destitute, afflicted, and tormented. It might also imply
the persons whose business it was to receive and entertain the
apostolical teachers who traveled from place to place,
establishing and confirming the Churches. In this sense the
word προστατις is applied to Phoebe, Romans 16:2: She hath
been a SUCCORER of many, and of myself also. The apostle
directs that this office should be executed with diligence, that
such destitute persons should have their necessities as
promptly and as amply supplied as possible.
He that showeth mercy—Let the person who is called to
perform any act of compassion or mercy to the wretched do
it, not grudgingly nor of necessity, but from a spirit of pure
benevolence and sympathy. The poor are often both wicked
and worthless: and, if those who are called to minister to them
as stewards, overseers, etc., do not take care, they will get
their hearts hardened with the frequent proofs they will have
of deception, lying, idleness, etc. And on this account it is that
so many of those who have been called to minister to the poor
in parishes, workhouses, and religious societies, when they
come to relinquish their employment find that many of their
moral feelings have been considerably blunted; and perhaps
the only reward they get for their services is the character of
being hard-hearted. If whatever is done in this way be not
done unto the Lord, it can never be done with cheerfulness.
Romans 12:9
Let love be without dissimulation—Ἡ αγαπη ανυποκριτος·
Have no hypocritical love; let not your love wear a mask; make
no empty professions. Love God and your neighbor; and, by
80
obedience to the one and acts of benevolence to the other,

show that your love is sincere.
Abhor that which is evil—Αποστυγουντες το πονηρον· Hate sin
as you would hate that hell to which it leads. Στυγεω signifies
to hate or detest with horror; the preposition απο greatly
strengthens the meaning. Στυξ, Styx, was a feigned river in hell
by which the gods were wont to swear, and if any of them
falsified this oath he was deprived of his nectar and ambrosia
for a hundred years; hence the river was reputed to be hateful,
and στυγεω signified to be as hateful as hell. Two MSS. read
μισουντες, which signifies hating in the lowest sense of the
term. The word in the text is abundantly more expressive, and
our translation is both nervous and appropriate.
Cleave to that which is good—Κολλωμενοι τῳ αγαθῳ· Be
CEMENTED or GLUED to that which is good; so the word
literally signifies. Have an unalterable attachment to whatever
leads to God, and contributes to the welfare of your fellow
creatures.
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love—It is

difficult to give a simple translation of the original: τῃ
φιλαδελφιᾳ εις αλληλους φιλοστοργοι. The word φιλαδελφια
signifies that affectionate regard which every Christian should
feel for another, as being members of the same mystical body:
hence it is emphatically termed the love of the brethren.
When William Penn, of deservedly famous memory, made a
treaty with the Indians in North America, and purchased from
them a large woody tract, which, after its own nature and his
name, he called Pennsylvania, he built a city on it, and peopled
it with Christians of his own denomination, and called the city
from the word in the text, φιλαδελφια, PHILADELPHIA; an
appellation which it then bore with strict propriety: and still it
bears the name.
81
The word φιλοστοργος, which we translate kindly affectioned,

from φιλος and στοργη, signifies that tender and indescribable
affection which a mother bears to her child, and which almost
all creatures manifest towards their young; and the word
φιλος, or φιλεω, joined to it, signifies a delight in it. Feel the
tenderest affection towards each other, and delight to feel it.
"Love a brother Christian with the affection of a natural
brother."
In honor preferring one another—The meaning appears to be
this: Consider all your brethren as more worthy than yourself;
and let neither grief nor envy affect your mind at seeing
another honored and yourself neglected. This is a hard lesson,
and very few persons learn it thoroughly. If we wish to see our
brethren honored, still it is with the secret condition in our
own minds that we be honored more than they. We have no
objection to the elevation of others, providing we may be at
the head. But who can bear even to be what he calls
neglected? I once heard the following conversation between
two persons, which the reader will pardon my relating in this
place, as it appears to be rather in point, and is worthy of
regard. "I know not," said one, "that I neglect to do any thing
in my power to promote the interest of true religion in this
place, and yet I seem to be held in very little repute, scarcely
any person even noticing me." To which the other replied: "My
good friend, set yourself down for nothing, and if any person
takes you for something it will be all clear gain." I thought this
a queer saying: but how full of meaning and common sense!
Whether the object of this good counsel was profited by it I
cannot tell; but I looked on it and received instruction.
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The manifestation of the Spirit—Φανερωσις του Πνευματος.

This is variably understood by the fathers; some of them
rendering φανερωσις by illumination, others demonstration,
and others operation. The apostle's meaning seems to be this:
Whatever gifts God has bestowed, or in what various ways
soever the Spirit of God may have manifested himself, it is all
for the common benefit of the Church. God has given no gift
to any man for his own private advantage, or exclusive profit.
He has it for the benefit of others as well as for his own
salvation.
1 Corinthians 12:8
Word of wisdom—In all these places I consider that the proper
translation of λογος is doctrine, as in many other places of the
New Testament. It is very difficult to say what is intended here
by the different kinds of gifts mentioned by the apostle: they
were probably all supernatural, and were necessary at that
time only for the benefit of the Church. On the 8th, 9th, and
10th verses (1 Corinthians 12:8-10), much may be seen in
Lightfoot, Whitby, Pearce, and others.
83
1. By doctrine of wisdom we may understand, as Bp. Pearce

and Dr. Whitby observe, the mystery of our redemption, in
which the wisdom of God was most eminently conspicuous:
see 1 Corinthians 2:7, 10; and which is called the manifold
wisdom of God, Ephesians 3:10. Christ, the great teacher of it,
is called the wisdom of God, 1 Corinthians 1:24; and in him are
said to be contained all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, Colossians 2:3. The apostles to whom this doctrine
was committed are called σοφοι, wise men; (Matthew 23:34);
and they are said to teach this Gospel according to the wisdom
given them, 2 Peter 3:15.
2. By the doctrine of knowledge we may understand either a
knowledge of the types, etc., in the Old Testament; or what
are termed mysteries; the calling of the Gentiles, the recalling
of the Jews, the mystery of iniquity, of the beast, etc., and
especially the mystical sense or meaning of the Old
Testament, with all its types, rites, ceremonies, etc., etc.
3. By faith, 1 Corinthians 12:9, we are to understand that
miraculous faith by which they could remove mountains, 1
Corinthians 13:2; or a peculiar impulse, as Dr: Whitby calls it,
that came upon the apostles when any difficult matter was to
be performed, which inwardly assured them that God's power
would assist them in the performance of it. Others think that
justifying faith, received by means of Gospel teaching, is what
is intended.
4. Gifts of healing simply refers to the power which at
particular times the apostles received from the Holy Spirit to
cure diseases; a power which was not always resident in them;
for Paul could not cure Timothy, nor remove his own thorn in
the flesh; because it was given only on extraordinary
occasions, though perhaps more generally than many others.
5. The working of miracles, ενεργηματα δυναμεων, 1
Corinthians 12:10. This seems to refer to the same class as the
84
operations, ενεργηματων, 1 Corinthians 12:6, as the words are

the same; and to signify those powers by which they were
enabled at particular times to work miraculously on others;
ejecting demons, inflicting punishments or judgments, as in
the cases mentioned under 1 Corinthians 12:6. It is a
hendyadis for mighty operations.
6. Prophecy. This seems to import two things:
1st, the predicting future events, such as then particularly
concerned the state of the Church and the apostles; as the
dearth foretold by Agabus, Acts 11:28; and the binding of St.
Paul, and delivering him to the Romans, Acts 21:10, etc.; and
St. Paul's foretelling his own shipwreck on Malta, Acts 27:25,
etc. And
2ndly, as implying the faculty of teaching or expounding the
Scriptures, which is also a common acceptation of the word.
7. Discerning of spirits. A gift by which the person so privileged
could discern a false miracle from a true one; or a pretender
to inspiration from him who was made really partaker of the
Holy Ghost. It probably extended also to the discernment of
false professors from true ones, as appears in Peter in the case
of Ananias and his wife.
8. Divers kinds of tongues. Γενη γλωσσων, Different
languages, which they had never learned, and which God gave
them for the immediate instruction of people of different
countries who attended their ministry.
9. Interpretation of tongues. It was necessary that while one
was speaking the deep things of God in a company where
several were present who did not understand, though the
majority did, there should be a person who could immediately
interpret what was said to that part of the congregation that
did not understand the language. This power to interpret was
also an immediate gift of God's Spirit, and is classed here
among the miracles.
85
1 Corinthians 12:11
But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit—All
these gifts are miraculously bestowed; they cannot be
acquitted by human art or industry, the different languages
excepted; but they were given in such a way, and in such
circumstances, as sufficiently proved that they also were
miraculous gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:12
For as the body is one—Though the human body have many
members, and though it be composed of a great variety of
parts, yet it is but one entire system; every part and member
being necessary to the integrity or completeness of the whole.
So also is Christ—That is, So is the Church the body of Christ,
being composed of the different officers already mentioned,
and especially those enumerated, 1 Corinthians 12:28,
apostles, prophets, teachers, etc. It cannot be supposed that
Christ is composed of many members, etc., and therefore the
term Church must be understood, unless we suppose, which
is not improbable, that the term Ὁ Χριστος, Christ, is used to
express the Church, or whole body of Christian believers.
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized, etc.—As the body of man,
though composed of many members, is informed and
influenced by one soul; so the Church of Christ, which is his
body, though composed of many members, is informed and
influenced by one Spirit, the Holy Ghost; actuating and
working by his spiritual body, as the human soul does in the
body of man.
To drink into one Spirit—We are to understand being made
partakers of the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost agreeably
to the words of our Lord, John 7:37, etc.: If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink: this he spake of the Spirit which
they that believed on him should receive.
86
On this verse there is a great profusion of various readings,

which may be found in Griesbach, but cannot be conveniently
noticed here.
1 Corinthians 12:14
For the body is not one member—The mystical body, the
Church, as well as the natural body, is composed of many
members.
Now ye are the body of Christ—The apostle, having finished

his apologue, comes to his application.
As the members in the human body, so the different members
of the mystical body of Christ. All are intended by him to have
the same relation to each other; to be mutually subservient to
each other; to mourn for and rejoice with each other. He has
also made each necessary to the beauty, proportion, strength,
and perfection of the whole. Not one is useless; not one
unnecessary. Paul, Apollos, Kephas, etc., with all their variety
of gifts and graces, are for the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
Ephesians 4:12. Hence no teacher should be exalted above or
opposed to an other. As the eye cannot say to the hand, I have
no need of thee, so luminous Apollos cannot say to laborious
Paul, I can build up and preserve the Church without thee. The
foot planted on the ground to support the whole fabric, and
the hands that swing at liberty, and the eye that is continually
taking in near and distant prospects, are all equally serviceable
to the whole, and mutually helpful to and dependent on each
87
other. So also are the different ministers and members of the

Church of Christ.
From a general acquaintance with various ministers of Christ,
and a knowledge of their different talents and endowments
manifested either by their preaching or writings, and with the
aid of a little fancy, we could here make out a sort of
correspondency between their services and the uses of the
different members of the human body. We could call one eye,
because of his acute observation of men and things, and
penetration into cases of conscience and Divine mysteries.
Another hand, from his laborious exertions in the Church.
Another foot, from his industrious travels to spread abroad
the knowledge of Christ crucified: and so of others. But this
does not appear to be any part of the apostle's plan.
1 Corinthians 12:28
God hath set some in the Church—As God has made evident
distinctions among the members of the human body, so that
some occupy a more eminent place than others, so has he in
the Church. And to prove this, the apostle numerates the
principal offices, and in the order in which they should stand.
First, apostles—Αποστολους, from απο from, and στελλο, I
send; to send from one person to another, and from one place
to another. Persons immediately designated by Christ, and
sent by him to preach the Gospel to all mankind.
Secondarily, prophets—Προφητας, from προ, before, and
φημι, I speak; a person who, under Divine inspiration, predicts
future events; but the word is often applied to these who
preach the Gospel. See on 1 Corinthians 12:8 (note).
Thirdly, teachers—Διδασκαλους, from διδασκω, I teach;
persons whose chief business it was to instruct the people in
the elements of the Christian religion, and their duty to each
other. See on Romans 8:8 (note).
88
Miracles—Δυναμεις· Persons endued with miraculous gifts,

such as those mentioned Mark 16:17, 18; casting out devils,
speaking with new tongues, etc. See on 1 Corinthians 12:8
(note), and at the end of the chapter, (1 Corinthians 12:31
(note))
Gifts of healings—Χαρισματα ιαματων· Such as laying hands
upon the sick, and healing them, Mark 16:18; which, as being
one of the most beneficent miraculous powers, was most
frequently conceded. See on 1 Corinthians 12:8 (note).
Helps—Αντιληψεις. Dr. Lightfoot conjectures that these were
the apostles' helpers; persons who accompanied them,
baptized those who were converted by them, and were sent
by them to such places as they could not attend to, being
otherwise employed.
The Levites are termed by the Talmudists helps of the priests.
The word occurs Luke 1:54; Romans 8:26.
Governments—Κυβερνησεις. Dr. Lightfoot contends that this
word does not refer to the power of ruling, but to the case of
a person endued with a deep and comprehensive mind, who
is profoundly wise and prudent; and he thinks that it implies
the same as discernment of spirits, 1 Corinthians 12:8 (note).
He has given several proofs of this use of the word in the
Septuagint.
Diversities of tongues—Γενη γλωσσων· Kinds of tongues; that
is, different kinds. The power to speak, on all necessary
occasions, languages which they had not learned. See on 1
Corinthians 12:8 (note).
1 Corinthians 12:29
Are all apostles, etc.—That is: All are not apostles, all are not
prophets, etc.; God has distributed his various gifts among
various persons, each of whom is necessary for the complete
edification of the body of Christ. On these subjects see the
notes on 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 (note).
89
1 Corinthians 12:31
But covet earnestly—To covet signifies to desire earnestly.
This disposition towards heavenly things is highly laudable;
towards earthly things, is deeply criminal. A man may possess
the best of all these gifts, and yet be deficient in what is
essentially necessary to his salvation, for he may be without
that love or charity which the apostle here calls the more
excellent way, and which he proceeds in the next chapter to
describe.
Some think that this verse should be read affirmatively, Ye
earnestly contend about the best gifts; but I show unto you a
more excellent way; i.e. get your hearts filled with love to God
and man—love, which is the principle of obedience, which
works no ill to its neighbor, and which is the fulfilling of the
law. This is a likely reading, for there were certainly more
contentions in the Church of Corinth about the gifts than
about the graces of the Spirit.
1. AFTER all that has been said on the different offices
mentioned by the apostle in the preceding chapter, there are
some of them which perhaps are not understood. I confess I
scarcely know what to make of those which we translate helps
and governments. Bishop Pearce, who could neither see
Church government nor state government in these words,
expresses himself thus: "These two words, after all that the
commentators say about them, I do not understand; and in no
other part of the New Testament is either of them, in any
sense, mentioned as the gift of the Spirit; especially it is
observable that in 1 Corinthians 12:29, 30, where the gifts of
the Spirit are again enumerated, no notice is taken of any thing
like them, while all the other several parts are exactly
enumerated. Perhaps these words were put in the margin to
explain δυναμεις, miracles or powers; some taking the
meaning to be helps, assistances, as in 2 Corinthians 12:9;
90
others to be κυβερνησεις, governments, as in Romans 8:38;

and from being marginal explanations, they might have been
at last incorporated with the text." It must, however, be
acknowledged that the omission of these words is not
countenanced by any MS. or version. One thing we may fully
know, that there are some men who are peculiarly qualified
for governing by either providence or grace; and that there are
others who can neither govern nor direct, but are good
helpers. These characters I have often seen in different places
in the Church of God.
2. In three several places in this chapter the apostle sums up
the gifts of the Spirit. Dr. Lightfoot thinks they answer to each
other in the following order, which the reader will take on his
authority.
Ephesians 4:11
He gave some, apostles—He established several offices in his

Church; furnished these with the proper officers; and, to
qualify them for their work, gave them the proper gifts. For a
full illustration of this verse, the reader is requested to refer
to the notes on 1 Corinthians 12:6-10 (note), 12:28-30 (note);
and to the concluding observations at the end of that chapter.
91
92
Chapter Seven
Western Esotericism
Western esotericism (also Western Hermetic Tradition,

Western mysticism, Western Inner Tradition, Western occult
tradition, and Western mystery tradition) is a broad spectrum
of spiritual traditions found in Western society, or refers to the
collection of the mystical, esoteric knowledge of the Western
world. This often includes, but is not limited to, philosophy
and meditation, herbalism and alchemy, astrology and
divination, and various forms of ritual magic. The tradition has
no one source or unifying text, nor does it hold any specific
dogma, instead placing emphasis on spiritual "knowledge" or
Gnosis and the rejection of blind faith. Although the
protosciences were widespread in the ancient world, the rise
of modern science was born from occult varieties of Western
Esotericism reinterpreted in the "Age of Enlightenment" and
is documented within the field known as the "History of
Science". Various groups including Hermeticists, Neopagans,
Thelemites, Theosophists and others still continue to practice
modern variants of traditional Western esoteric philosophies.
The roots of the Western mystery tradition are in occult
movements of Late Antiquity, Roman-Hellenistic religions
which in turn claimed to originate in ancient Egypt, Chaldea,
93
Persia or other parts of the ancient world. The Catholic

Encyclopedia sums up its origins thus:
Its beginnings have long been a matter of controversy and are
still largely a subject of research. The more these origins are
studied, the farther they seem to recede in the past.[1]
To make an accurate assumption of the tradition's origin (and
therefore age) it would be necessary to study the origin of the
various systems which have come to make up the tradition. Of
these systems the Egyptian and Hellenic Mystery religions, the
Hebrew Kabbalah, Gnosticism and Hermeticism are generally
considered the oldest, though at no stage prior to the
1880s[clarification needed] were these doctrines ever
synthesized into one whole.
Due to their relative geographic restrictions they were
regarded very much as separate disciplines. It appears that for
the most part the specific teachings were preserved via oral
tradition (though not in all cases, the Nag Hammadi Library for
example) passed from teacher to initiate. However, even in
the ancient climates in which they flourished, the Esoteric
Philosophies were still highly elusive. Manly P. Hall writes:
In all cities of the ancient world were temples for public
worship and offering. In every community also were
philosophers and mystics, deeply versed in Nature's lore.
These individuals were usually banded together, forming
seclusive philosophic and religious schools. The more
important of these groups were known as the Mysteries.
Many of the great minds of antiquity were initiated into these
secret fraternities by strange and mysterious rites, some of
which were extremely cruel. Alexander Wilder defines the
Mysteries as "Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The
most celebrated were those of Isis, Sabazius, Cybele, and
Eleusis." After being admitted, the initiates were instructed in
the secret wisdom which had been preserved for ages. Plato,
94
an initiate of one of these sacred orders, was severely

criticized because in his writings he revealed to the public
many of the secret philosophic principles of the Mysteries.
Every pagan nation had (and has) not only its state religion,
but another into which the philosophic elect alone have
gained entrance.[2]
Middle Ages[edit source | editbeta]
After the fall of Rome, alchemy and philosophy and other
aspects of the tradition were largely preserved in the Arab and
Near Eastern world and introduced into Western Europe by
Jews and by the cultural contact between Christians and
Muslims that occurred due to the Crusades and the
Reconquista. The 12th century saw the development of the
Kabbalah in medieval Spain. The medieval period also saw the
publication of grimoires which offered often elaborate
formulas for theurgy and thaumaturgy. Many of the grimoires
seem to have kabbalistic influence. Figures in alchemy from
this period seem to also have authored or used grimoires.
Early Modern Europe[edit source | editbeta]
The Renaissance saw a revival of classical learning, and a
revival of ancient and medieval occult practices in particular.
Renaissance magic revived the "occultist boom" of Late
Antiquity, recovering texts treating Greco-Roman magic and
Hermeticism as well as its continuations beyond antiquity in
the form of the Kabbalah, alchemy and the medieval
grimoires. Renaissance scholarship gave rise to a Christian
Kabbalah and later (in the Baroque period) to the Rosicrucian
Brotherhood. The witch trials in Early Modern Europe are at
least indirectly related to this revival of scholarly interest in
the occult.[citation needed]
1720s to 1850s[edit source | editbeta]
The Enlightenment saw another occult revival, perhaps
spurred by growing rejection of mainstream religion and
95
increased democracy and freedom of conscience. The period

saw the rise of occult fraternities, most notably Speculative
Freemasonry and a revived Rosicrucian Brotherhood.
Academic interest in ancient mystery cults such as those of
Mithras and Dionysus began to develop. Emanuel Swedenborg
pulled Christianity in a more mystical or occult direction, and
Franz Mesmer provided a quasi-scientific method of
thaumaturgy. While both these men had profound
contributions to the Western mystery tradition, it appears
neither was versed in it. The Count of St Germain, whose life
and legends influenced Theosophy, lived during this period.
Martinism also arose as an esoteric doctrine, as did various
Rosicrucian orders.
1850s to 1930s[edit source | editbeta]
Cover of the June 1904 edition of Lucifer-Gnosis, by Rudolf

Steiner
The late 19th century saw a radical split in the Western
mystery tradition. Helena Blavatsky was the main instrument
of this, by reinventing the tradition in a system called
Theosophy. Theosophy largely ignored the medieval
traditions, such as alchemy, thaumaturgy and Kabbalah,
instead focusing on more ancient mystery teachings and
incorporating Eastern systems of yoga. The extant tradition
prospered alongside Theosophy, especially under the
influence of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Ordo
Templi Orientis and such teachers as Eliphas Levi, Papus,
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and Aleister Crowley. This
tradition began to see itself as a complete alternative to
Christianity, and, not surprisingly, began to emphasize
theurgy. This occult revival lasted through World War II.
Aspects of it were further revived in the 1960s. Theosophy is
96
still available through the Theosophical Society, and Western

theurgy strongly influenced the development of neo-
paganism.
World War II[edit source | editbeta]
Emergent occult and esoteric systems found increasing
popularity in the early 20th century, especially in Western
Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among
European intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned
traditional forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret
teachings and magic practices found enthusiastic adherents in
the chaos of Germany during the interwar years. Many
influential and wealthy Germans were drawn to secret
societies such as the Thule Society. Thule Society activist Karl
Harrer was one of the founders of the German Workers'
Party,[3] which later became the Nazi Party; some Nazi Party
members like Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Heß were listed as
"guests" of the Thule Society, as was Adolf Hitler's mentor
Dietrich Eckart.[4] After their rise to power, the Nazis
persecuted occultists.[5] While many Nazi Party leaders like
Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were hostile to occultism, Heinrich
Himmler used Karl Maria Wiligut as a clairvoyant "and was
regularly consulting for help in setting up the symbolic and
ceremonial aspects of the SS" but not for important political
decisions. By 1939, Wiligut was "forcibly retired from the SS"
because of his institutionalisation for insanity.[6]
Soviet Union[edit source | editbeta]
Little information is known about the status of the Western
mystery tradition in the officially atheist Soviet Union and its
"satellites" during the ruling of the Communist Party. It is
believed by some that the Soviets had a scientific interest in
subjects traditionally studied by the Western mystery
tradition, such as telepathy and astrology.
97
A number of people associated with mysticism chose to leave

the countries where Communism was installed. For example,
G.I. Gurdjieff, an influential individual from Armenia, fled to
France after the Bolsheviks overtook the ruling of Russia. The
Universal White Brotherhood of Bulgaria, founded by Peter
Deunov and extended by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, also
chose to continue its activities in France and other Western
countries after World War II and the introduction of
Communism into Bulgaria. Nicholas Roerich, founder of Agni
Yoga had also left Russia after the revolution - he and his
family first settled in Finland and India - and finally in the
United States. These three examples, although not directly
associated with the core of the Western mystery tradition,
demonstrate a pattern which supports the claim that the
Soviet-controlled states were negative not only to mainstream
religion but also to mysticism and occultism.
It is known that after the dissolution of the Soviet Union,
several mystical societies, such as the Rosicrucians, gained
profound revival in Eastern Europe and Russia which resulted
in the foundation of many new jurisdictions and lodges.
1990s to present[edit source | editbeta]
Today, the tradition is experiencing a revival in North America
and Europe, while many organizations of Western Esotericism
(or Wesotericism[citation needed]) have a presence
throughout the world. The tradition is now undergoing
reevaluation by the anthropological and archaeological
developments in the study of its root sources, namely, Ancient
Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Greco-Roman world, Druidism
and other pagan sources, as well as Abrahamic (Judeo-
Christian-Islamic) esotericism such as Manichaeism, Sufism
and Sikhism. The early incorporation of Eastern ideas began,
most notably, by the Theosophical Society in the 19th century,
98
continues increasingly today particularly from Buddhism, Bon,

Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism and especially Yoga & Tantra.
Philosophy[edit source | editbeta]
Today, Western Esotericism is a syncretism of ancient

philosophy, Paganism and Abrahamic thought and imports
from Asia and modern science. The tradition focuses on
individual spiritual progress through initiation, either personal
or into a brotherhood, on personal or group rituals, study of
philosophy and "cosmic" laws and their practical application,
and encompasses alchemy, meditation, divination, and ritual
magic.
Initiation[edit source | editbeta]
The concept of initiation plays a very important role in the
Western mystical tradition, and many people participating in
this tradition are initiated in one or more mystical
organisations. Initiatory societies existed in ancient Greece
and ancient Egypt, working as schools or colleges for the
spreading of their secret teachings to worthy individuals.
These teachings were not accessible to the general public,
symbolized by the Greek phrase "Ουδείς αγεωμέτρητος
εισείτω" (which may be translated as "no person without
knowledge of Geometry should get in") found in Plato's
Academy.
The tradition of initiation and secrecy is well preserved today,
although it is criticised by many people, mainly those related
to the New Age phenomenon, where many participants have
adopted the view that access to knowledge should be as open
as possible. However, many New Age schools and doctrines
still require a process of initiation and the private tutelage of
a guru, as with many forms of yoga) or other enlightened
master (e.g., Zen Buddhism) in order for the passing of wisdom
or knowledge to occur.
99
Variation[edit source | editbeta]

Beginning in the early to mid-Nineteenth century, and with the
incorporation of Eastern mystical concepts into the existing
traditions, the Western mystery tradition experienced a major
divergence between the esoteric Hermetic rites of the
Masonic and Rosicrucian traditions, and the Theosophical
schools (with the major divergence occurring during the life of
Madame Blavatsky). Some people considered Theosophy to
be grouped under the general rubric of New Age spirituality
although others do not agree, since they consider the New Age
as an over-simplification of several theosophical concepts and
having self-centered aims. The New Age schools preached an
openness not seen in the esoteric Hermetic fraternal
organizations, which continue to rely heavily on initiatory rites
for the dissemination of spiritual information. However,
although New Age spirituality is more open in its presentation,
it continues to rely more or less on a syncretic and esoteric
methodology in the formulation of its methods and in the
transmission of its wisdom/enlightenment.
Ethics and morality[edit source | editbeta]
With the enormous variation of beliefs and methods among
the proliferating spiritual and esoteric groups have come
concerns from some regarding the moral quality or ethical
content of certain doctrines. As a consequence, there has
been an effort by some[who?] to attempt a supposed
objective dichotomy between the ethical philosophies of
spiritual or religious groups by categorizing them under the
Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path modality. Those on the
"Right-Hand Path" are said to focus on the elevation of the
spiritual over the carnal, faith-based worship of something
greater than themselves, and the observance of strict moral
codes, all of which are supposed by their adherents to bring
humans closer to the Divine or a moral good, as opposed to
100
those on the "Left-Hand Path" who focus on the advancement

and preservation of the self, glorification of the earthly, and
the development of personal power. This usage of terms,
however, is invoked almost exclusively by proponents of
groups[who?] who consider themselves "on the Left-Hand
Path"; opponents of this terminology (groups that are almost
always described by those who subscribe to this distinction as
being on the "Right-Hand Path") argue[weasel words] either
that this distinction is invalid because it results from a
mislabeled or false dichotomy, or that much of what is called
"left-handed" is simply not "legitimate".
101
102
Chapter Eight
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (About this sound listen (help·info);

born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 January 1688[1] – 29 March
1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian,
revelator, and, in the eyes of some, Christian mystic.[2] He
termed himself a "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ" in True
Christian Religion,[3] a work he published himself.[4] He is
best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell
(1758).
Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist.

In 1741, at the age of 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in
which he began to experience dreams and visions, beginning
on Easter weekend of April 6, 1744. This culminated in a
'spiritual awakening', in which he received revelation that he
was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to
reform Christianity. According to Swedenborg’s writings the
Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes, so that from
then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with
angels, demons and other spirits; and that the Last Judgement
had already occurred, in 1757.[7] However, he tells us that at
103
this day it is very dangerous to talk with spirits, unless a person

is in true faith, and is led by the Lord.
For the remaining 28 years of his life, Swedenborg wrote 18

published theological works, and several more which were
unpublished. Some followers of Swedenborg’s writings
believe that, of his theological works, only those which
Swedenborg published himself are fully divinely inspired.
Swedenborg's father, Jesper Swedberg (1653–1735),

descended from a wealthy mining family. He travelled abroad
and studied theology, and on returning home he was eloquent
enough to impress the Swedish king, Charles XI, with his
sermons in Stockholm. Through the King's influence he would
later become professor of theology at Uppsala University and
Bishop of Skara.[11][12]
Jesper took an interest in the beliefs of the dissenting Lutheran
Pietist movement, which emphasised the virtues of
communion with God rather than relying on sheer faith (sola
fide).[13] Sola fide is a tenet of the Lutheran Church, and
Jesper was charged with being a pietist heretic. While
controversial, the beliefs were to have a major impact on his
son Emanuel's spirituality. Jesper furthermore held the
unconventional belief that angels and spirits were present in
everyday life. This also came to have a strong impact on
Emanuel.[11][12][14]
Swedenborg completed his university course at Uppsala in
1709, and in 1710 made his grand tour through the
Netherlands, France, and Germany, before reaching London,
where he would spend the next four years. It was also a
flourishing center of scientific ideas and discoveries. Emanuel
studied physics, mechanics, and philosophy, and read and
wrote poetry. According to the preface of a book by the
104
Swedish critic Olof Lagercrantz, Swedenborg wrote to his

benefactor and brother-in-law Eric Benzelius that he believed
he (Swedenborg) might be destined to be a great
scientist.[15][16]
Scientific period[edit source | editbeta]
The Flying Machine, sketched in his notebook from 1714. The

operator would sit in the middle, and paddle himself through
the air. See Smithsonian model and explanation by Dr. Paul
Garber, former Curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space
Museum, on the principle of flight of the aircraft. His
descriptions may be found in a chapter of the Söderburg
book,[17] p. 32, or on the video clip at 5:48 on its timeline.[18]
In 1715 Swedenborg returned to Sweden, where he devoted
himself to natural science and engineering projects for the
next two decades. A first step was his meeting with King
Charles XII of Sweden in the city of Lund, in 1716. The Swedish
inventor Christopher Polhem, who became a close friend of
Swedenborg, was also present. Swedenborg's purpose was to
persuade the king to fund an observatory in northern Sweden.
However, the warlike king did not consider this project
important enough, but did appoint Swedenborg assessor-
extraordinary on the Swedish Board of Mines (Bergskollegium)
in Stockholm.[19]
From 1716 to 1718, Swedenborg published a scientific
periodical entitled Daedalus Hyperboreus ("The Northern
Daedalus"), a record of mechanical and mathematical
inventions and discoveries. One notable description was that
of a flying machine, the same he had been sketching a few
years earlier (see Flying Machine (Swedenborg)).[16]
Upon the death of Charles XII, Queen Ulrika Eleonora
ennobled Swedenborg and his siblings. It was common in
Sweden during the 17th and 18th centuries for the children of
105
bishops to receive this honour as a recognition of the services

of their father. The family name was changed from Swedberg
to Swedenborg.[20]
In 1724, he was offered the chair of mathematics at Uppsala
University, but he declined and said that he had mainly dealt
with geometry, chemistry and metallurgy during his career. He
also said that he did not have the gift of eloquent speech
because of a stutter, as recognized by many acquaintances of
his; it forced him to speak slowly and carefully, and there are
no known occurrences of his speaking in public.[21] The
Swedish critic Olof Lagerkrantz proposed that Swedenborg
compensated for his impediment by extensive argumentation
in writing.[22]
New direction of studies, ahead of his time[edit source |
editbeta]
During the 1730s, Swedenborg undertook many studies of
anatomy and physiology. He had the first anticipation, as far
as known, of the neuron concept.[23] It was not until a century
later that science recognized the full significance of the nerve
cell. He also had prescient ideas about the cerebral cortex, the
hierarchical organization of the nervous system, the
localization of the cerebrospinal fluid, the functions of the
pituitary gland, the perivascular spaces, the foramen of
Magendie, the idea of somatotopic organization, and the
association of frontal brain regions with the intellect. In some
cases his conclusions have been experimentally verified in
modern times.[24][25][26][27][28]
In the 1730s Swedenborg became increasingly interested in
spiritual matters and was determined to find a theory which
would explain how matter relates to spirit. Swedenborg's
desire to understand the order and purpose of creation first
led him to investigate the structure of matter and the process
of creation itself. In the Principia he outlined his philosophical
106
method, which incorporated experience, geometry (the

means whereby the inner order of the world can be known),
and the power of reason. He also outlined his cosmology,
which included the first presentation of his Nebular
hypothesis. (There is evidence that Swedenborg may have
preceded Kant by as much as 20 years in the development of
this hypothesis.[29][30])
In Leipzig, 1735, he published a three volume work entitled
Opera philosophica et mineralis ("Philosophical and
mineralogical works"), where he tries to conjoin philosophy
and metallurgy. The work was mainly appreciated for its
chapters on the analysis of the smelting of iron and copper,
and it was this work which gave Swedenborg international
reputation.[31] The same year he also published the small
manuscript de Infinito ("On the Infinite"), where he attempted
to explain how the finite is related to the infinite, and how the
soul is connected to the body. This was the first manuscript
where he touched upon these matters. He knew that it might
clash with established theologies, since he presents the view
that the soul is based on material substances.[32][33] He also
conducted dedicated studies of the fashionable philosophers
of the time such as John Locke, Christian von Wolff, Leibniz,
and Descartes; and earlier thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle,
Plotinus and Augustine.[34]
In 1743, at the age of 55, Swedenborg requested a leave of
absence to go abroad. His purpose was to gather source
material for Regnum animale (The Animal Kingdom, or
Kingdom of Life), a subject on which books were not readily
available in Sweden. The aim of the book was to explain the
soul from an anatomical point of view. He had planned to
produce a total of seventeen volumes.[35]
Journal of Dreams[edit source | editbeta]
107
By 1744 Swedenborg had traveled to the Netherlands. Around

this time he began having strange dreams. Swedenborg
carried a travel journal with him on most of his travels, and did
so on this journey. The whereabouts of the diary were long
unknown, but it was discovered in the Royal Library in the
1850s and published in 1859 as Drömboken, or Journal of
Dreams.
Swedenborg experienced many different dreams and visions,
some greatly pleasurable, others highly disturbing.[36] The
experiences continued as he traveled to London to progress
the publication of Regnum animale. This process, which one
biographer has proposed as cathartic and comparable to the
Catholic concept of Purgatory,[37] continued for six months.
He also proposed that what Swedenborg was recording in his
Journal of Dreams was a battle between the love of his self
and the love of God.[38]
Visions and spiritual insights[edit source | editbeta]
In the last entry of the journal from October 26–27, 1744,
Swedenborg appears to be clear as to which path to follow. He
felt he should drop his current project, and write a new book
about the worship of God. He soon began working on De cultu
et amore Dei, or The Worship and Love of God. It was never
fully completed, but Swedenborg still had it published in
London in June 1745.[39]
One explanation why the work was never finished is given in a
well-known and often referenced story. In April 1745,
Swedenborg was dining in a private room at a tavern in
London. By the end of the meal, a darkness fell upon his eyes,
and the room shifted character. Suddenly he saw a person
sitting at a corner of the room, telling Swedenborg: "Do not
eat too much!". Swedenborg, scared, hurried home. Later that
night, the same man appeared in his dreams. The man told
Swedenborg that He was the Lord, that He had appointed
108
Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and

that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. The same
night, the spiritual world was opened to Swedenborg.[40]
However, the Robsahm transcriptions on which this story is
based were second hand, despite Robsahm's presenting them
in the first person[41] and accuracy cannot be achieved since
there are several versions of this story, in whole or part
[42][43][44] differing in important respects, e.g. Lord figure
seen in corner vs. close by, conditions of dimness or darkness
vs. bright light and date of 1744 vs. 1745. However,
Swedenborg did not publish any of these documents himself
so the doctrinal aspects are not authoritative.[45]
Scriptural commentary and writings[edit source | editbeta]
Arcana Cœlestia, first edition (1749), title page

In June 1747, Swedenborg resigned his post as assessor of the
board of mines. He explained that he was obliged to complete
a work he had begun and requested to receive half his salary
as a pension.[46] He took up afresh his study of Hebrew and
began to work on the spiritual interpretation of the Bible with
the goal of interpreting the spiritual meaning of every verse.
From sometime between 1746 and 1747, and for ten years
henceforth, he devoted his energy to this task. Usually
abbreviated as Arcana Cœlestia and under the Latin variant
Arcana Caelestia[47] (translated as Heavenly Arcana,
Heavenly Mysteries, or Secrets of Heaven depending on
modern English-language editions), the book became his
magnum opus and the basis of his further theological
works.[48]
The work was anonymous and Swedenborg was not identified
as the author until the late 1750s. It consisted of eight
109
volumes, published between 1749 and 1756. It attracted little

attention, as few people could penetrate its meaning.[49][50]
His life from 1747 until his death in 1772 was spent in
Stockholm, Holland, and London. During these 25 years he
wrote another 14 works of a spiritual nature of which most
were published during his lifetime.
The Last Judgment and Second Coming of Christ[edit source |
editbeta]
One of Swedenborg's lesser known works presents a startling
claim, that the Last Judgment had begun in the previous year
(1757) and was completed by the end of that year[51] and that
he had witnessed the whole thing.[52] According to
Swedenborg, the Last Judgment took place, not in the physical
world, but in the World of Spirits, which is located half-way
between heaven and hell, and which everyone passes through
on their way to heaven or hell.[53] The Judgment took place
because the Christian church had lost its charity and faith,
resulting in a loss of spiritual free will that threatened the
equilibrium between heaven and hell in everyone’s
life[54][55]
Swedenborg’s writings also teach that the Last Judgement was
followed by the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which
occurred, not by Christ in person, but by a revelation from Him
through the inner, spiritual sense of the Word[56] through
Swedenborg.[57]
In another of his theological works, Swedenborg wrote that
eating meat, regarded in itself, "is something profane," and
was not practiced in the early days of the human race.
However, he said, meat-eating today is a matter of conscience
and no one is condemned for doing it.[58] Nonetheless, the
early-days ideal appears to have given rise to the idea that
Swedenborg was a vegetarian. This conclusion may have been
reinforced by the fact that a number of Swedenborg's early
110
followers were part of the vegetarian movement that arose in

Great Britain in the 19th century.[59] However, the only
reports on Swedenborg himself are contradictory. His landlord
in London, Shearsmith, said he ate no meat but his maid, who
served Swedenborg, said that he ate eels and pigeon pie.[60]
In Earths in the Universe, it is stated that he conversed with
spirits from Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, the Moon,
as well as spirits from planets beyond our solar system.[61]
From these 'encounters' he concluded that the planets of our
solar system are inhabited, and that such an enormous
undertaking as the universe could not have been created for
just one race of people; nor one 'heaven' derived from
it.[62][63] He argued: “What would this be to God, Who is
infinite, and to whom a thousand or tens of thousands of
planets, and all of them full of inhabitants, would be scarcely
anything!”.[64] Swedenborg and the life on other planets
question has been extensively reviewed elsewhere.[65]
Swedenborg published his work in London or Holland due to
the freedom of the press unique to those countries.[66][67]
Swedenborg's crypt in Uppsala Cathedral

In July 1770, at the age of 82, he traveled to Amsterdam to
complete the publication of his last work. The book, Vera
Christiana Religio (The True Christian Religion), was published
in Amsterdam in 1771 and was one of the most appreciated of
his works. Designed to explain his teachings to Lutheran
Christians, it was the most concrete of his works.[68]
In the summer of 1771, he traveled to London. Shortly before
Christmas he suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed and
confined to bed. His health improved somewhat, but he died
on March 29, 1772. There are several accounts of his last
months, made by those he stayed with, and by Arvid Ferelius,
111
a pastor of the Swedish Church in London, who visited him

several times.[69]
There is evidence that Swedenborg wrote a letter to John
Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in February, saying he
(Swedenborg) had been told in the world of spirits that Wesley
wanted to speak with him.[70] Wesley, startled, since he had
not told anyone of his interest in Swedenborg, replied that he
was going on a journey for six months and would contact
Swedenborg on his return. Swedenborg replied that that
would be too late since he (Swedenborg) would be going to
the spiritual world for the last time on March 29.[71] (Wesley
later read and commented extensively on Swedenborg's
work.)[72] Swedenborg's landlord's servant girl, Elizabeth
Reynolds, also said Swedenborg had predicted this date, and
that Swedenborg was as happy about it as if was "going on
holiday or to some merrymaking".[73]
In Swedenborg's final hours, his friend, Pastor Ferelius, told
him some people thought he had written his theology just to
make a name for himself and asked Swedenborg if he would
like to recant. Raising himself up on his bed, his hand on his
heart, Swedenborg earnestly replied, "As truly as you see me
before your eyes, so true is everything that I have written; and
I could have said more had it been permitted. When you enter
eternity you will see everything, and then you and I shall have
much to talk about".[74] He then died, in the afternoon, on
the date he had predicted, March 29.[74]
Swedenborg House, London

He was buried in the Swedish Church in Shadwell, London. On
the 140th anniversary of his death, in 1912/1913, his earthly
remains were transferred to Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden,
112
where they now rest close to the grave of the botanist Carolus
Linnaeus. In 1917, the Swedish Church in Shadwell was
demolished and the Swedish community that had grown
around the parish moved to West London. In 1938 the site of
the former church where he had been buried in London was
redeveloped, and in his honor the local road was renamed
Swedenborg Gardens. In 1997, a garden, play area and
memorial near the road were created in his
memory.[75][76][77]
Note: There are a list of biographies of Swedenborg available
at “The Biographies” section of the Swedenborg Digital
Library. [78] Further reviews of Swedenborg and his thought
are available at online encyclopedias: [79][80] [81] [82]
Veracity[edit source | editbeta]
Swedenborg's transition from scientist to revelator or mystic

has fascinated many people ever since it occurred (see list of
some of the people involved above, in introduction).
Swedenborg has had a variety of biographers, favorable and
critical.[83] Some propose that he did not in fact have a
revelation at all, but rather developed his theological ideas
from sources ranging from his father to earlier figures in the
history of thought, notably Plotinus.This position was first and
most notably taken by the Swedish writer Martin Lamm, who
wrote a biography of Swedenborg in 1915, which is still in
print.[84][85] Olof Lagercrantz, the Swedish critic and
publicist, had a similar point of view, calling Swedenborg's
theological writing "a poem about a foreign country with
peculiar laws and customs".[86]
Swedenborg's approach to demonstrating the veracity of his
theological teachings was to find and use voluminous
quotations from the Old Testament and New Testament to
demonstrate agreement between the Bible or Word of God
113
and his theological teachings. The demonstration of this

agreement is found throughout his theological writings, since
he rejected blind faith and declared true faith is an internal
acknowledgment of the truth. The vast and consistent use of
Biblical confirmations in Swedenborg's theological writings led
a Swedish Royal Council in 1771, examining the heresy charges
of 1770 against two Swedish supporters of his theological
writings, to declare "there is much that is true and useful in
Swedenborg's writings."[87]
Beginning in the 20th century, the medical community[who?]
began to notice similarities between the accounts of
Swedenborg concerning the afterlife and the experiences of
those who were revived after their heart had
stopped.[88][self-published source?][89][not in citation given]
Among hundreds and then later thousands of witness
accounts,[citation needed] the experiences of these people
shared common traits which eventually became known as the
"Near Death Experience" (NDE). Raymond Moody, a
psychologist and medical doctor who first coined the term for
NDE, observed that similar to these accounts, Swedenborg
described death as a pulling away from the physical body,
followed by encounters with departed ones and a life review
drawn from the person's memory.[90] Many of these
witnesses describe encountering a supreme Being of Light, or
a light at the end of a tunnel, which Swedenborg had
described as the Sun of heaven in which the Lord
resided.[91][original research?] These experiences are still
being studied by various researchers.[who?]
Scientific beliefs[edit source | editbeta]
Swedenborg proposed many scientific ideas during his

lifetime. In his youth, he wanted to present a new idea every
day, as he wrote to his brother-in-law Erik Benzelius in 1718.
114
Around 1730, he had changed his mind, and instead believed

that higher knowledge is not something that can be acquired,
but that it is based on intuition. After 1745, he instead
considered himself receiving scientific knowledge in a
spontaneous manner from angels.[92]
From 1745, when he considered himself to have entered a
spiritual state, he tended to phrase his "experiences" in
empirical terms, claiming to report accurately things he had
experienced on his spiritual journeys.
One of his ideas that is considered most crucial for the
understanding of his theology is his notion of
correspondences. But in fact, he first presented the theory of
correspondences in 1744, in the first volume of Regnum
Animale dealing with the human soul.[16]
The basis of the correspondence theory is that there is a
relationship between the natural ("physical"), the spiritual,
and the divine worlds. The foundations of this theory can be
traced to Neoplatonism and the philosopher Plotinus in
particular. With the aid of this scenario, Swedenborg now
interpreted the Bible in a different light, claiming that even the
most apparently trivial sentences could hold a profound
spiritual meaning.[93] Swedenborg argued that it is the
presence of that spiritual sense which makes the Word
Divine.[94]
Prophetic accounts[edit source | editbeta]
Four incidents of purported psychic ability of Swedenborg

exist in the literature.[95] There are several versions of each
story.
Fire anecdotes[edit source | editbeta]
On Thursday, July 19, 1759 a great and well-documented fire
broke out in Stockholm, Sweden.[96][97][98][99] In the high
115
and increasing wind it spread very fast, consuming about 300

houses and making 2000 people homeless.[97]
When the fire broke out Swedenborg was at a dinner with
friends in Gothenburg, about 400 km from Stockholm. He
became agitated and told the party at six o'clock that there
was a fire in Stockholm, that it had consumed his neighbor’s
home and was threatening his own. Two hours later, he
exclaimed with relief that the fire had stopped three doors
from his home. In the excitement following his report, word
even reached the ears of the provincial governor, who
summoned Swedenborg that same evening and asked for a
detailed recounting.
At that time, it took two to three days for news from
Stockholm to reach Gothenburg by courier, so that is the
shortest duration in which the news of the fire could reach
Gothenburg. The first messenger from Stockholm with news
of the fire was from the Board of Trade who arrived Monday
evening. The second messenger was a royal courier, who
arrived on Tuesday. Both of these reports confirmed every
statement to the precise hour that Swedenborg first
expressed the information. The accounts are fully described in
Bergquist, pp. 312–313 and in Chapter 31 of The Swedenborg
Epic.[100][101]
(Bergquist states, but does not document, that Swedenborg
confirmed his vision of the fire incident to his good friend,
Consul Christopher Springer, "one of the pillars of the church,
… "a man of enviable reputation for virtue and
intelligence",[102] "and that Swedenborg's innkeeper, Erik
Bergström, heard Swedenborg affirming the story.[103])
It seems unlikely that the many witnesses to Swedenborg’s
distress during the fire, and his immediate report of it to the
provincial governor,[104][105] would have left room for doubt
in the public eye of Swedenborg’s report. If Swedenborg had
116
only received news of the fire by the normal methods there

would have been no issue of psychic perception recorded for
history. Instead, “when the news of Swedenborg's
extraordinary vision of the fire reached the capital, public
curiosity about him was very much aroused.”< ref>Sigstedt,
Chapter 35</ref>
In a second fire anecdote, similar to the first one, but less

cited, is the incident of the mill owner Bolander. Swedenborg
warned him, again abruptly, of an incipient fire in one of his
mills.[106]
Queen of Sweden[edit source | editbeta]
The third event was in 1758 when Swedenborg visited Queen
Louisa Ulrika of Sweden, who asked him to tell her something
about her deceased brother Prince Augustus William of
Prussia. The next day, Swedenborg whispered something in
her ear that turned the Queen pale and she explained that this
was something only she and her brother could know
about.[107][108]
Lost document[edit source | editbeta]
The fourth incident involved a woman who had lost an
important document, and came to Swedenborg asking if a
recently deceased person could tell him where it was, which
he (in some sources) was said to have done the following
night.[109]
Although not typically cited along with these three episodes,
there was one further piece of evidence: Swedenborg was
noted by the seamen of the ships that he sailed between
Stockholm and London to always have excellent sailing
conditions.[110] When asked about this by a friend,
Swedenborg played down the matter, saying he was surprised
by this experience himself and that he was certainly not able
to do miracles.[110]
117
Kant on Swedenborg[edit source | editbeta]
In 1763, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), then at the beginning of

his career, was impressed by these accounts and made
inquiries to find out if they were true. He also ordered all eight
volumes of the expensive Arcana Cœlestia (Heavenly Arcana
or Heavenly Mysteries). One Charlotte von Knobloch wrote
Kant asking his opinion of Swedenborg’s psychic
experiences.[111][112] Kant wrote a very affirmative reply,
referring to Swedenborg's "miraculous" gift, and
characterizing him as "reasonable, agreeable, remarkable and
sincere" and "a scholar", in one of his letters to
Mendelssohn,[113] and expressing regret that he (Kant) had
never met Swedenborg.[114][115] An English friend who
investigated the matter for Kant, including visiting
Swedenborg’s home, found Swedenborg to be a "sensible,
pleasant and openhearted" man and, here again, a
scholar.[116]
However, three years later, in 1766, Kant wrote and
anonymously published a small book entitled Träume eines
Geistersehers (Dreams of a Spirit-Seer)[117] that was a
scathing critique of Swedenborg and his writings. He termed
Swedenborg a "spook hunter"[118] "without official office or
occupation".[119] As rationale for his critique Kant said that
he wanted to stop "ceaseless questioning”[120] and inquiries
about Dreams from "inquisitive" persons, “both known and
unknown",[121] and "importunate appeals from known and
unknown friends",[122] as well as from "moon calves".[122]
He also said he did not want to expose himself to
”mockery.”[123] More significantly, he became concerned
about being seen as an apologist for both Swedenborg and for
Spiritism in the guise of the interest in Swedenborg,[124]
which might have damaged his career.[125] Dreams was
118
intended as a refutation of all such thinking.[126] This left Kant

in the ironic or hypocritical position of trying to free himself of
ridicule while at the same time applying ridicule to
Swedenborg.[124]
However, there has long been a suspicion among some
scholars that, despite Dreams, Kant actually had a behind-the-
scenes respect for Swedenborg.[127] Certainly there were
inconsistencies in Kant's handling of this issue. For instance,
(1) Kant's writing style was usually "complex, labored, dry
...and earnest"[128] but in Dreams was often “playful, ironic
and humorous".[128]
(2) While he mocked Swedenborg in print, in the preserved
notes of Kant's lectures on metaphysics taken by a student
named Herder, Kant treated Swedenborg with respect, "not to
be sneezed at".[129][130] At one point, Herder’s notes term
Swedenborg's visions as "quite sublime".[131]
(3) Kant's friend Moses Mendelssohn thought there was a
"joking pensiveness" in Dreams that sometimes left the reader
in doubt as to whether Dreams was meant to make
"metaphysics laughable or spirit-seeking credible".[132]
(4) In a one of his letters to Mendelssohn, Kant refers to
Dreams less-than-enthusiastically as a "desultory little
essay".[133]
For more examples of these discrepancies, see Heron's list in
the original[134] and with the Dole corrections.[135][136]
Finally, a case has been made that Kant wrote Dreams before,
not after, the Knobloch letter and that this was accomplished
by accidentally or deliberately falsifying the dates of the
documents involved, notably that of the Knobloch letter.[137]
This alteration, if true, would strengthen the case for
Swedenborg’s work being viewed by Kant, in the last analysis,
positively. However, the fact of the matter is difficult to
119
determine since the key date involved is that of the original of

the Knobloch letter, which is lost.[137]
Theology[edit source | editbeta]
According to the Doctrine of the New Church the teachings of

the Second Coming of Jesus Christ were revealed to and
published by Emanuel Swedenborg.[138]
Swedenborg considered his theology a revelation of the true
Christian religion that had become obfuscated through
centuries of theology. However, he did not refer to his writings
as theology since he considered it based on actual
experiences, unlike theology,[16] except in the title of his last
work. Neither did he wish to compare it to philosophy, a
discipline he discarded in 1748 because it "darkens the mind,
blinds us, and wholly rejects the faith".[139]
The foundation of Swedenborg's theology was laid down in
Arcana Cœlestia (Heavenly Mysteries), published in eight Latin
volumes from 1749 to 1756. In a significant portion of that
work, he interprets the Biblical passages of Genesis and
Exodus. He reviews what he says is the inner spiritual sense of
these two works of the Word of God. (He later made a similar
review of the inner sense of the book of Revelation in
Apocalypse Revealed.[140]) Most of all, he was convinced that
the Bible describes a human's transformation from a
materialistic to a spiritual being, which he calls rebirth or
regeneration. He begins this work by outlining how the
creation myth was not an account of the creation of Earth, but
an account of man's rebirth or regeneration in six steps
represented by the six days of creation. Everything related to
mankind in the Bible could also be related to Jesus Christ, and
how Christ freed himself from materialistic boundaries
through the glorification of his human presence by making it
120
Divine. Swedenborg examines this idea in his exposition of

Genesis and Exodus.[141]
Marriage[edit source | editbeta]
One aspect of Swedenborg's writing that is often discussed is
his ideas on marriage. Swedenborg himself remained a
bachelor all his life, but that did not hinder him from writing
voluminously on the subject. His work on Marriage Love
(Conjugial Love in older translations) (1768) was dedicated to
this purpose.[142][143]
A central question with regard to marriage is whether it stops
at death or continues into heaven. The question arises due to
a statement of Jesus’ that apparently says there is no marriage
in heaven (Luke 20:27-38, Matthew 22:23-32, and Mark 12:18-
27). For a detailed analysis of what He actually meant, see The
Lord God Jesus Christ on Marriage In Heaven. [144]
The quality of the relationship between husband and wife
resumes in the spiritual world in whatever state it was at their
death in this world. Thus, a couple in true marriage love
remain together in that state in heaven into eternity. A couple
lacking in that love by one or both partners, however, will
separate after death and each will be given a compatible new
partner if they wish. A partner is also given to a person who
loved the ideal of marriage but never found a true partner in
this world. The exception in both cases is a person who hates
chaste marriage and thus cannot receive such a partner.[145]
Swedenborg saw creation as a series of pairings, descending
from the Divine love and wisdom[146] that define God and are
the basis of creation. This duality can be seen in the pairing of
good and truth,[147] charity and faith,[148] God and the
church,[149] and husband and wife.[150] In each case, the
goal for these pairs is to achieve conjunction between the two
component parts. In the case of marriage, the object is to bring
about the joining together of the two partners at the spiritual
121
and physical levels, and the happiness that comes as a

consequence.
Trinity[edit source | editbeta]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please

help improve this article by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(August 2013)
Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of
the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught
in the early Christian church. There was, for instance, no
mention in the Apostolic writings of any "Son from
eternity".[151] Instead he explained in his theological writings
how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, which he said is taught in Colossians 2:9.
(See also 1 John 5:20, Matthew 28:18 and Acts 20:21)
According to Swedenborg, Jesus, the Son of God, came into
the world due to the spread of evil
here.[152][153][154][155][156] The hells were over-running
the World of Spirits, which is midway between Heaven and
Hell, and parts of Heaven as well, threatening the whole
human race with damnation. God needed to correct this
situation to preserve the spiritual freedom of all people.
Swedenborg tells us God corrected this situation by
redeeming the human race. But God as He is in Himself could
not come in direct contact with any evil spirit, which would
destroy that spirit (Exodus 33:20). So God impregnated a
human woman from the Holy Spirit (Luke 1), thereby creating
a person – Jesus Christ – Who had a Divine soul in a material
body. The human body from Mary provided Jesus access to
the evil heredity of the human race.
He then set up two cyclical processes, one of redemption and
one of glorification. In the redemption process the human part
122
of Jesus was tempted by different hells, and He conquered

them one by one (Matthew 4). In that way God and evil spirits
could engage each other. At the same time Jesus went through
the glorification process, in which He successively united His
human external with His Divine humanity from God
(Colossians 2:9). In this way the Human Jesus became one with
the Divine Humanity of His Father and was then no longer the
son of Mary. The glorification process involved alternation
between a state of humiliation (or “emptying out”, as in Isaiah
53:12), when Jesus was only aware of His human from Mary,
and a state of glorification, or union, with Jehovah. When
Jesus was in the humiliation state He prayed to the Father as
someone other than Himself. At times when Jesus was in the
glorification state He spoke with the Father as Himself. The
passion of the cross was Jesus’ final combat with and victory
over the hells, in which He completely conquered them and
glorified His Human form.
Jesus put off the human taken from the mother, and put on
the Human from the Divine in Himself, as is evident from the
fact that whenever He addressed His mother directly He called
her “Woman,” not “Mother.” (John 2:3,4, 19:26, 27). Once he
did not recognize her as His mother. (Luke 8:20, 21) In other
places Mary is called His mother, but not by Jesus (e.g. Luke
1:43, 2:34).
That Jesus became fully Divine is also illustrated by the fact
that He rose bodily out of the tomb (Matthew 28) and entered
a closed room (John 20).
Swedenborg spoke in virtually all his works against what he
regarded as the incomprehensible Trinity of Persons concept.
He said that people of other religions opposed Christianity
because of its doctrine of a Trinity of Persons. He considered
the separation of the Trinity into three separate Persons to
have originated with the First Council of Nicaea and the
123
Athanasian Creed. According to Swedenborg the Athanasian

Creed is true, however, if by a trinity is understood to mean a
trinity in one person and that person is in the Lord God Jesus
Christ.
Swedenborg's theological teachings about the Trinity being in
the One Person Jesus Christ is labeled by some as modalism
because it identifies three aspects (not persons) of One God,
a unitarian God.
Sola Fide (Faith Alone)[edit source | editbeta]
Swedenborg’s writings reject the concept of salvation through
faith alone (sola fide in the original Latin), since he considered
both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without
the other, whereas the Reformers taught that faith alone
procured justification, although it must be a faith which
resulted in obedience. The purpose of faith, according to
Swedenborg’s writings, is to lead a person to a life according
to the truths of faith, which is charity, as is taught in 1
Corinthians 13:13 and James 2:20.
In other words, Swedenborg spoke sharply against faith alone,
or that justification based upon imputed righteousness before
God is achievable by a gift of God's grace (sola gratia), through
faith alone, not on the basis of the person's deeds in life. Sola
fide was a doctrine averred by Martin Luther, John Calvin,
Ulrich Zwingli and others during the Protestant Reformation,
and was a core belief especially in the theology of the Lutheran
reformers Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. Although
the sola fide of the Reformers also emphasized that saving
faith was one that effected works[157] (by faith alone, but not
by a faith which is alone), Swedenborg protested against faith
alone being the instrument of justification, and held that
salvation is only possible through the conjunction of faith and
charity in a person, and that the purpose of faith is to lead a
person to live according to the truths of faith, which is charity.
124
He further states that faith and charity must be exercised by

doing good out of willing good whenever possible, which are
good works or good uses or the conjunction perishes. In one
section he wrote:
It is very evident from their Epistles that it never entered the
mind of any of the apostles that the church of this day would
separate faith from charity by teaching that faith alone
justifies and saves apart from the works of the law, and that
charity therefore cannot be conjoined with faith, since faith is
from God, and charity, so far as it is expressed in works, is from
man. But this separation and division were introduced into the
Christian church when it divided God into three persons, and
ascribed to each equal Divinity.
— True Christian Religion, section 355[158]
Later History[edit source | editbeta]
Swedenborg made no attempt to found a church.[159][160] A

few years after his death – 15 by one estimate[161] – for the
most part in England, small reading groups formed to study
the truth they saw in his teachings.[162] As one scholar states,
Swedenborg’s writings particularly appealed to the various
dissenting groups that sprang up in the first half of the 18th
century who were "surfeited with revivalism and narrow-
mindedness" and found his optimism and comprehensive
explanations appealing.[163]
A variety of important cultural figures, both writers and artists,
were influenced by Swedenborg's writings, including Johnny
Appleseed, William Blake, Jorge Luis Borges, Daniel Burnham,
Arthur Conan Doyle,[164] Ralph Waldo Emerson,[165] John
Flaxman, George Inness, Henry James Sr., Carl Jung,[166]
Immanuel Kant, Honoré de Balzac, Helen Keller, Czesław
125
Miłosz, August Strindberg, D. T. Suzuki, and W. B. Yeats. His

philosophy had a great impact on the Duke of Södermanland,
later King Carl XIII, who as the Grand Master of Swedish
Freemasonry (Svenska Frimurare Orden) built its unique
system of degrees and wrote its rituals. In contrast, one of the
most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan
Henric Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool".[167]
A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against
Swedenborg writings and two men who promoted them.[168]
In the two and a half centuries since Swedenborg's death,
various interpretations of his theology have been made, and
he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological
studies.[169][170] Of note is that, just as Jesus Christ, with his
new teachings, was considered insane by some (John 10:20,
Mark 3:21), so Swedenborg, with his claimed new
dispensation, has been considered by some to suffer from
mental illness.[171][172][173] “While the insanity explanation
was not uncommon during Swedenborg's own time, it is
mitigated by his activity in the Swedish Riddarhuset (The
House of the Nobility), the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament),
and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Additionally, the
system of thought in his theological writings is considered by
some to be remarkably coherent.[174] Furthermore, he was
characterized by his contemporaries as a "kind and warm-
hearted man", "amiable in his meeting with the public",
speaking "easily and naturally of his spiritual
experiences",[175][176][177] with pleasant and interesting
conversation.... An English friend of Kant's who visited
Swedenborg at Kant's behest described Swedenborg as a
"reasonable, pleasant and candid man and scholar".[178] Of
note here is Swedenborg's statement that he was commanded
by the Lord to publish his writings and "Do not believe that
without this express command I would have thought of
126
publishing things which I knew in advance would make me

look ridiculous and many people would think lies..."[179]
Works[edit source | editbeta]
Copies of the original Latin version in which Swedenborg

wrote his revelation are available from the following
sources:[180][181]
List of referenced works by Swedenborg and the year they
were first published.[182][183]
Within parenthesis is the common name used in a New Church
listing[184] Then follows the title in its original publication. All
the titles listed were published by Swedenborg, except one,
The Spiritual Diary, which was not.[185] Various minor reports
and tracts have been omitted from the list.
1716–1718, (Daedalus Hyperboreus) Swedish: Daedalus
Hyperboreus, eller några nya mathematiska och physicaliska
försök. (English: The Northern inventor, or some new
experiments in mathematics and physics)
1721, (Principles of Chemistry) Latin: Prodromus principiorum
rerum naturalium: sive novorum tentaminum chymiam et
physicam experimenta geometrice explicandi
1722, (Miscellaneous Observations) Latin: Miscellanea de
Rebus Naturalibus
1734, (Principia) Latin: Opera Philosophica et Mineralia
(English: Philosophical and Mineralogical Works), three
volumes
(Principia, Volume I) Latin: Tomus I. Principia rerum naturlium
sive novorum tentaminum phaenomena mundi elementaris
philosophice explicandi
(Principia, Volume II) Latin: Tomus II. Regnum subterraneum
sive minerale de ferro
(Principia, Volume III) Latin: Tomus III. Regnum subterraneum
sive minerale de cupro et orichalco
127
1734, (The Infinite and Final Cause of Creation) Latin:

Prodromus Philosophiz Ratiocinantis de Infinito, et Causa
Finali Creationis; deque Mechanismo Operationis Animae et
Corporis.
1744–1745, (The Animal Kingdom) Latin: Regnum animale, 3
volumes
1745, (The Worship and Love of God) Latin: De Cultu et Amore
Dei, 2 volumes
1749–1756, (Arcana Cœlestia (or Caelestia) (Heavenly
Mysteries) Latin: Arcana Cœlestia, quae in Scriptura Sacra seu
Verbo Domini sunt, detecta, 8 volumes
1758, (Heaven and Hell) Latin: De Caelo et Ejus Mirabilibus et
de inferno. Ex Auditis et Visis.
1758, (The Last Judgment) Latin: De Ultimo Judicio
1758, (The White Horse) Latin: De Equo Albo de quo in
Apocalypsi Cap.XIX.
1758, (Earths in the Universe) Latin: De Telluribus in Mundo
Nostro Solari, quæ vocantur planetæ: et de telluribus in coelo
astrifero: deque illarum incolis; tum de spiritibus & angelis ibi;
ex auditis & visis.
1758, (The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine) Latin: De
Nova Hierosolyma et Ejus Doctrina Coelesti
1763, (Doctrine of the Lord) Latin:Doctrina Novæ
Hierosolymæ de Domino.
1763, (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture) Latin: Doctrina Novæ
Hierosolymæ de Scriptura Sacra.
1763, (Doctrine of Life) Latin: Doctrina Vitæ pro Nova
Hierosolyma ex præceptis Decalogi.
1763, (Doctrine of Faith) Latin: Doctrina Novæ Hierosolymæ
de Fide.
1763, (Continuation of The Last Judgement) Latin: Continuatio
De Ultimo Judicio: et de mundo spirituali.
128
1763, (Divine Love and Wisdom) Latin: Sapientia Angelica de

Divino Amore et de Divina Sapientia. Sapientia Angelica de
Divina Providentia.
1764, (Divine Providence) Latin: Sapientia Angelica de Divina
Providentia.
1766, (Apocalypse Revealed) Latin: Apocalypsis Revelata, in
quae detegunter Arcana quae ibi preedicta sunt.
1768, (Conjugial Love, or Marriage Love) Latin: Deliciae
Sapientiae de Amore Conjugiali; post quas sequumtur
voluptates insaniae de amore scortatorio.
1769, (Brief Exposition) Latin: Summaria Expositio Doctrinæ
Novæ Ecclesiæ, quæ per Novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi
intelligitur.
1769, (Interaction of the Soul and the Body) Latin: De
Commercio Animæ & Corporis.
1771, (True Christian Religion) Latin: Vera Christiana Religio,
continens Universam Theologiam Novae Ecclesiae
1859, Drömboken, Journalanteckningar(Journal of Dreams),
1743–1744
1983–1997, (Spiritual Diary) Latin: Diarum, Ubi Memorantur
Experientiae Spirituales.
129
130
Chapter Nine
Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill (6 December 1875 – 15 June 1941) was an

English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her
numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in
particular Christian mysticism.
In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely
read writers on such matters in the first half of the 20th
century. No other book of its type—until the appearance in
1946 of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy—met with
success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism,
published in 1911.
Underhill was born in Wolverhampton. She was a poet and
novelist, as well as a pacifist and mystic. An only child, she
described her early mystical insights as "abrupt experiences of
the peaceful, undifferentiated plane of reality—like the "still
desert" of the mystic—in which there was no multiplicity nor
need of explanation."[2] The meaning of these experiences
became a lifelong quest and a source of private angst,
provoking her to research and write.
Both her father and her husband were writers (on the law),
London barristers and yachtsmen. She and her husband,
131
Hubert Stuart Moore, grew up together and were married on

3 July 1907. The couple had no children. She travelled regularly
within Europe, primarily Switzerland, France and Italy where
she pursued her interests in art and Catholicism, visiting
numerous churches and monasteries. Neither her husband (a
Protestant) nor her parents shared her interest in spiritual
matters.
Underhill was called simply "Mrs Moore" by many of her
friends, but was not without her detractors. She was a prolific
author and published over 30 books either under her maiden
name, Underhill, or under the pseudonym "John Cordelier", as
was the case for the 1912 book The Spiral Way. Initially an
agnostic, she gradually began to acquire an interest in
Neoplatonism and from there became increasingly drawn to
Catholicism against the objections of her husband, becoming
eventually a prominent Anglo-Catholic. Her spiritual mentor
from 1921 to 1924 was Baron Friedrich von Hügel, who was
appreciative of her writing yet concerned with her focus on
mysticism and who encouraged her to adopt a much more
Christocentric view as opposed to the theistic and intellectual
one she had previously held. She described him as "the most
wonderful personality. ..so saintly, truthful, sane and tolerant"
(Cropper, p. 44) and was influenced toward more charitable,
down-to-earth activities. After his death in 1925, her writings
became more focused on the Holy Spirit and she became
prominent in the Anglican Church as a lay leader of spiritual
retreats, a spiritual director for hundreds of individuals, guest
speaker, radio lecturer and proponent of contemplative
prayer.
Underhill came of age in the Edwardian era, at the turn of the
20th century and like most of her contemporaries had a
decided romantic bent. The enormous excitement in those
days was mysteriously compounded of the psychic, the
132
psychological, the occult, the mystical, the medieval, the

advance of science, the apotheosis of art, the re-discovery of
the feminine and an unashamedly sensuous and the most
ethereally "spiritual". Anglicanism seemed to her out-of-key
with this, her world. She sought the centre of life as she and
many of her generation conceived it, not in the state religion,
but in experience and the heart. This age of "the soul" was one
of those periods when a sudden easing of social taboos brings
on a great sense of personal emancipation and desire for an El
Dorado despised by an older, more morose and insensitive
generation.[1]
As an only child she was devoted to her parents, and later to
her husband. She was fully engaged in the life of a barrister's
daughter and wife, including the entertainment and charitable
work that entailed, and pursued a daily regimen that included
writing, research, worship, prayer and meditation. It was a
fundamental axiom of hers that all of life was sacred, as that
was what "incarnation" was about.
She was a cousin of Francis Underhill, Bishop of Bath and
Wells.
Education[edit source | editbeta]
Underhill was educated at home, except for three years at a
private school in Folkestone, and subsequently read history
and botany at King's College London. She was conferred with
an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Aberdeen University
and made a fellow of King's College. She was the first woman
to lecture to the clergy in the Church of England as well as the
first woman to officially conduct spiritual retreats for the
Church. She was also the first woman to establish ecumenical
links between churches and one of the first woman
theologians to lecture in English colleges and universities,
which she did frequently. Underhill was an award-winning
bookbinder, studying with the most renowned masters of the
133
time. She was schooled in the classics, well read in Western

spirituality, well informed (in addition to theology) in the
philosophy, psychology, and physics of her day, and acquired
the prestigious post of editor of The Spectator.
Early work[edit source | editbeta]
Before undertaking many of her better known expository
works on mysticism, she first published a small book of
satirical poems on legal dilemmas, The Bar-Lamb's Ballad
Book, which received a favorable welcome. Underhill then
wrote three highly unconventional though profoundly
spiritual novels. Like Charles Williams and later, Susan
Howatch, Underhill uses her narratives to explore the
sacramental intersection of the physical with the spiritual. She
then uses that sacramental framework very effectively to
illustrate the unfolding of a human drama. Her novels are
entitled The Grey World (1904), The Lost Word (1907), and
The Column of Dust (1909). In her first novel, The Grey World,
described by one reviewer as an extremely interesting
psychological study, the hero's mystical journey begins with
death, and then moves through reincarnation, beyond the
grey world, and into the choice of a simple life devoted to
beauty, reflecting Underhill's own serious perspective as a
young woman.
"It seems so much easier in these days to live morally than to
live beautifully. Lots of us manage to exist for years without
ever sinning against society, but we sin against loveliness
every hour of the day."[3]
The Lost Word and The Column of Dust are also concerned
with the problem of living in two worlds and reflect the
writer's own spiritual challenges. In the 1909 novel, her
heroine encounters a rift in the solid stuff of her universe:
She had seen, abruptly, the insecurity of those defences which
protect our illusions and ward off the horrors of truth. She had
134
found a little hole in the wall of appearances; and peeping

through, had caught a glimpse of that seething pot of spiritual
forces whence, now and then, a bubble rises to the surface of
things. .[4]
Underhill's novels suggest that perhaps for the mystic, two
worlds may be better than one. For her, mystical experience
seems inseparable from some kind of enhancement of
consciousness or expansion of perceptual and aesthetic
horizons—to see things as they are, in their meanness and
insignificance when viewed in opposition to the divine reality,
but in their luminosity and grandeur when seen bathed in
divine radiance. But at this stage the mystic's mind is subject
to fear and insecurity, its powers undeveloped. The first novel
takes us only to this point. Further stages demand suffering,
because mysticism is more than merely vision or cultivating a
latent potentiality of the soul in cosy isolation. According to
Underhill's view, the subsequent pain and tension, and final
loss of the private painful ego-centered life for the sake of
regaining one's true self, has little to do with the first beatific
vision. Her two later novels are built on the ideal of total self-
surrender even to the apparent sacrifice of the vision itself, as
necessary for the fullest possible integration of human life.
This was for her the equivalent of working out within, the
metaphorical intent of the life story of Jesus. One is reunited
with the original vision—no longer as mere spectator but as
part of it. This dimension of self-loss and resurrection is
worked out in The Lost Word, but there is some doubt as to its
general inevitability. In The Column of Dust, the heroine's
physical death reinforces dramatically the mystical death to
which she has already surrendered to. Two lives are better
than one but only on the condition that a process of painful
re-integration intervenes to re-establish unity between Self
and Reality.[1]
135
All her characters derive their interest from the theological

meaning and value which they represent and it is her
ingenious handling of so much difficult symbolic material that
makes her work psychologically interesting as a forerunner of
such 20th-century writers as Susan Howatch, whose
successful novels also embody the psychological value of
religious metaphor and the traditions of Christian mysticism.
Her first novel received critical acclaim, but her last was
generally derided. However, her novels give remarkable
insight into what we may assume was her decision to avoid
what St. Augustine described as the temptation of fuga in
solitudinem ("the flight into solitude"), but instead
acquiescing to a loving, positive acceptance of this world. Not
looking back, by this time she was already working on her
magnum opus.
Writings on religion[edit source | editbeta]
Mysticism (1911)[edit source | editbeta]

Underhill's greatest book, Mysticism: A Study of the Nature
and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness, was
published in 1911, and is distinguished by the very qualities
which make it inappropriate as a straightforward textbook.
The spirit of the book is romantic, engaged, and theoretical
rather than historical or scientific. Underhill has little use for
theoretical explanations and the traditional religious
experience, formal classifications or analysis. She dismisses
William James' pioneering study, The Varieties of Religious
Experience (1902), and his "four marks of the mystic state"
(ineffability, noetic quality, transcience, and passivity). James
had admitted that his own constitution shut him off almost
entirely from the enjoyment of mystical states thus his
treatment was purely objective. Underhill substituted (1)
mysticism is practical, not theoretical, (2) mysticism is an
136
entirely spiritual activity, (3) The business and method of

mysticism is love. (4) mysticism entails a definite psychological
experience. Her insistence on the psychological approach was
that it was the glamorous science of the pre-war period,
offering the potential key to the secrets of human advances in
intelligence, creativity, and genius, and already psychological
findings were being applied in theology (i.e., William Sanday's
Christologies Ancient and Modern).[1]
She divided her subject into two parts; the first, an
introduction, and the second, a detailed study of the nature
and development of human consciousness. In the first section,
in order to free the subject of mysticism from confusion and
misapprehension, she approached it from the point of view of
the psychologist, the symbolist and the theologian. To
separate mysticism from its most dubious connection she
included a chapter on mysticism and magic. At the time, and
still today, mysticism is associated with the occult, magic,
secret rites, and fanaticism, while she knew the mystics
throughout history to be the world's spiritual pioneers.
She divided her map of "the way" into five stages: the first was
the "Awakening of Self." She quotes Henry Suso (disciple of
Meister Eckhart):
"That which the Servitor saw had no form neither any manner
of being; yet he had of it a joy such as he might have known in
the seeing of shapes and substances of all joyful things. His
heart was hungry, yet satisfied, his soul was full of
contentment and joy: his prayers and his hopes were fulfilled."
(Cropper p. 46)
Underhill tells how Suso's description of how the abstract
truth (related to each soul's true nature and purpose), once
remembered, contains the power of fulfilment became the
starting point of her own path. The second stage she presents
as psychological "Purgation of Self," quoting the Theologia
137
Germanica (14th century, anonymous) regarding the

transcendence of ego (Underhill's "little self"):
"We must cast all things from us and strip ourselves of them
and refrain from claiming anything for our own."
The third stage she titles "Illumination" and quotes William
Law:
"Everything in ...nature, is descended out that which is eternal,
and stands as a. ..visible outbirth of it, so when we know how
to separate out the grossness, death, and darkness. ..from it,
we find. ..it in its eternal state."
The fourth stage she describes as the "Dark Night of the Soul"
(which her correspondence leads us to believe she struggled
with throughout her life) where one is deprived of all that has
been valuable to the lower self, and quoting Mechthild of
Magdeburg:
"...since Thou hast taken from me all that I had of Thee, yet of
Thy grace leave me the gift which every dog has by nature:
that of being true to Thee in my distress, when I am deprived
of all consolation. This I desire more fervently than Thy
heavenly Kingdom."
And last she devotes a chapter to the unitive life, the sum of
the mystic way:
"When love has carried us above all things into the Divine
Dark, there we are transformed by the Eternal Word Who is
the image of the Father; and as the air is penetrated by the
sun, thus we receive in peace the Incomprehensible Light,
enfolding us, and penetrating us.' (Ruysbroech)
Where Underhill struck new ground was in her insistence that
this state of union produced a glorious and fruitful
creativeness, so that the mystic who attains this final
perfectness is the most active doer - not the reclusive
dreaming lover of God.
138
We are all the kindred of the mystics. ..Strange and far away
from us though they seem, they are not cut off from us by
some impassable abyss. They belong to us; the giants, the
heroes of our race. As the achievement of genius belongs not
to itself only but also to the society that brought it forth;...the
supernal accomplishment of the mystics is ours also. ..our
guarantee of the end to which immanent love, the hidden
steersman. ..is moving. ..us on the path toward the Real. They
come back to us from an encounter with life's most august
secret. ..filled with amazing tidings which they can hardly tell.
We, longing for some assurance. ..urge them to pass on their
revelation. ..the old demand of the dim-sighted and
incredulous. ..But they cannot. ..only fragments of the
Symbolic Vision. According to their strength and passion,
these lovers of the Absolute. ..have not shrunk from the
suffering. ..Beauty and agony have called. ..have awakened a
heroic response. For them the winter is over. ..Life new,
unquenchable and lovely comes to meet them with the
dawn."(Cropper, p.47)
The book ends with an extremely valuable appendix, a kind of
who's who of mysticism, which shows its persistence and
interconnection from century to century.
Ruysbroeck (1914)[edit source | editbeta]
A work on the 14th-century Flemish mystic, Jan van Ruusbroec
or Ruysbroeck (1293–1381), published in London in 1914.[5]
She had discussed him from several different perspectives
during the course of her earlier book on Mysticism in 1911.
I. Life. She starts with a biography, drawn mainly from two
works on his life written by fellow monastics, Pomerius[6] and
Gerard Naghel.[7]
His childhood was spent in the village of Ruysbroeck. [page 7]
At eleven he ran away to Brussels, where he began to live with
his uncle, John Hinckaert, a Canon at the Cathedral of St.
139
Gudule, and a younger Canon, Francis van Coudenberg. [10]

At twenty-four he was ordained a priest and became a
prebend at St. Gudule. [12] At his first mass he envisioned his
mother's spirit released from Purgatory and entering Heaven.
[15] From age 26 to 50 Ruysbroeck was a cathedral chaplain at
St. Gudule. [15] Although he "seemed a nobody to those who
did not know him," he was developing a strong spiritual life, "a
penetrating intellect, a fearless heart, deep knowledge of
human nature, remarkable powers of expression". [17] At one
point he wrote strong pamphlets and led a campaign against
a heretical group, the Brethren of the Free Spirit led by
Bloemardinne, who practiced a self-indulgent "mysticality".
[18-20] Later, with the two now elderly Canons, he moved into
the countryside at Groenendael ("Green Valley"). [21-22]
Pomerius writes that he retired not to hide his light "but that
he might tend it better" [22]. Five years later their community
became a Priory under the Augustinian Canons. [23]
Many of his works were written during this period, often
drawing lessons from nature. [24] He had a favorite tree under
which he would sit and write what the 'Spirit' gave to him. [25]
He solemnly affirmed that his works were composed under
the "domination of an inspiring power," she writes. [26]
Pomerius says that Ruysbroeck could enter a state of
contemplation in which he appeared surrounded by radiant
light. [26-27] Alongside his spiritual ascent, Naghel says, he
cultivated the friendship of those around him, enriching their
lives. [27-28] He also worked in the garden of the priory, and
sought to help out creatures of the forest. [29-30] He moved
from the senses to the transcendent without frontiers or
cleavage, she writes, these being for him "but two moods
within the mind of God". [30] He counseled many who came
to him, including Gerard Groot of the Brothers of the Common
Life. [31] His advice would plumb the "purity and direction" of
140
the seeker's will, and love. [32] There, at Groenendael he

finally "leap to a more abundant life". [34] In The Sparkling
Stone Ruysbroec wrote about coming to know the love "which
giveth more than one can take, and asketh more than one can
pay." [34]
II. Works. Next, she gives a bibliography of his eleven
admittedly authentic works, providing details concerning each
work's origin, nature, and contents, as well as their place in his
writings. 1. The Spiritual Tabernacle; 2. The Twelve Points of
True Faith; 3. The Book of the Four Temptations; 4. The Book
of the Kingdom of God's Lovers; 5. The Adornment of the
Spiritual Marriage; 6. The Mirror of Eternal Salvation or Book
of the Blessed Sacraments; 7. The Seven Cloisters; 8. The
Seven Degrees of the Ladder of Love; 9. The Book of the
Sparkling Stone; 10. The Book of the Supreme Truth; 11. The
Twelve Béguines.
III. Doctrine of God. Several types of mystics are described. The
first (e.g., St. Teresa) deals with personal psychological
experiences and emotional reactions, leaving the nature of
God to existing theology. [page 52] The second (e.g., Plotinus)
has passion sprung from the vision of a philosopher; the
intellect often is more active than the heart, yet like a poet
such a mystic strives to sketch his vision of the Ultimate. [53]
The greatest mystics (e.g., St. Augustine) embrace at once "the
infinite and the intimate" so that "God is both near and far,
and the paradox of transcendent-immanent Reality is a self-
evident if an inexpressible truth." Such mystics "give us by
turns a subjective and psychological, an objective and
metaphysical, reading of spiritual experience." Here is
Ruysbroeck. [53-54]
An apostolic mystic [55] represents humanity in its quest to
discern the Divine Reality, being like "the artist extending our
universe, the pioneer cutting our path, the hunter winning
141
food for our souls." [56] Yet, although his experience is

personal, his language is often drawn from tradition, [57] but
the words may "enchant rather than inform the soul" so
ineffable is the nature of God. [58] Ruysbroeck goes venturing
"to hover over that Abyss which is 'beyond Reason,'
stammering and breaking into wild poetry in the desperate
attempt to seize the unseizable truth." [55] "[T]he One is
'neither This nor That'." [61]
"God as known by man" is the Absolute One who combines
and resolves the contradictory natures of time and eternity,
becoming and being; who is both transcendent and
immanent, abstract and personal, work and rest, the unmoved
mover and movement itself. God is above the storm, yet
inspires the flux. [59-60] The "omnipotent and ever-active
Creator" who is "perpetually breathing forth His energetic Life
in new births of being and new floods of grace." [60] Yet the
soul may pierce beyond this fruitful[8] nature to the simple
essence of God. There we humans would find that "absolute
and abiding Reality, which seems to man Eternal Rest, the
'Deep Quiet of the Godhead,' the 'Abyss,' the 'Dim Silence';
and which we can taste indeed but never know. There, 'all
lovers lose themselves'." [60]
The Trinity, according the Ruysbroeck, works in living
distinctions, "the fruitful nature of the Persons." [61] Yet the
Trinity in itself is Unity of the Three Persons, which is the
Godhead. [60-61][9] Beyond and within the Trinity, or the
Godhead, then, is the "fathomless Abyss" [60] that is the
"Simple Being of God" that is "an Eternal Rest of God and of all
created things." [61][10]
The Father is the unconditioned Origin, Strength and Power,
of all things. [62] The Son is the Eternal Word and Wisdom that
shines forth in the world of conditions. [62] The Holy Spirit is
Love and Generosity emanating from the mutual
142
contemplation of Father and Son. [62][11] The Three Persons

"exist in an eternal distinction [emphasis added] for that world
of conditions wherein the human soul is immersed". [63] By
the acts of the Three Persons all created things are born; by
the incarnation and crucifixion we human souls are adorned
with love, and so to be drawn back to our Source. "This is the
circling course of the Divine life-process." [63]
But beyond and above this eternal distinction lies "the
superessential world, transcending all conditions, inaccessible
to thought-- 'the measureless solitude of the Godhead, where
God possesses Himself in joy.' This is the ultimate world of the
mystic." [63-64] There, she continues, quoting Ruysbroeck:
"we can speak no more of Father, Son and Holy Spirit nor of
any creature; but only of one Being, which is the very
substance of the Divine Persons. There were we all one before
our creation; for this is our superessence... . There the
Godhead is, in simple essence, without activity; Eternal Rest,
Unconditioned Dark, the Nameless Being, the Superessence of
all created things, and the simple and infinite Bliss of God and
of all the Saints." [64][12] "The simple light of this Being...
embraces the unity of the Divine Persons" as well as envelopes
and irradiates the ground and fruition of human souls in the
Divine life-process. "And this is the union of God and the souls
that love Him." [64-65][13]
IV. Doctrine of Humankind. For Ruysbroeck, "God is the 'Living
Pattern of Creation' who has impressed His image on each
soul, and in every adult spirit the character of that image must
be brought from the hiddenness and realized." [66][14] The
pattern is trinitarian; there are three properties of the human
soul. First, resembling the Father, "the bare, still place to
which consciousness retreats in introversion... ." [67] Second,
following the Son, "the power of knowing Divine things by
intuitive comprehension: man's fragmentary share in the
143
character of the Logos, or Wisdom of God." [67-68] "The third

property we call the spark of the soul. It is the inward and
natural tendency of the soul towards its Source; and here do
we receive the Holy Spirit, the Charity of God." [68].[15] So will
God work within the human being; in later spiritual
development we may form with God a Union, and eventually
a Unity. [70-71][16]
The mighty force of Love is the 'very self-hood of God' in this
mysterious communion. [72, 73] "As we lay hold upon the
Divine Life, devour and assimilate it, so in that very act the
Divine Life devours us, and knits us up into the mysical Body,"
she writes. "It is the nature of love," says Ruysbroeck, "ever to
give and to take, to love and be loved, and these two things
meet in whomsoever loves. Thus the love of Christ is both avid
and generous... as He devours us, so He would feed us. If He
absorbs us utterly into Himself, in return He gives us His very
self again." [75-76][17] "Hungry love," "generous love,"
"stormy love" touches the human soul with its Divine creative
energy and, once we become conscious of it, evokes in us an
answering storm of love. "The whole of our human growth
within the spiritual order is conditioned by the quality of this
response; by the will, the industry, the courage, with which
[we accept our] part in the Divine give-and-take." [74] As
Ruysbroeck puts it:
"That measureless Love which is God Himself, dwells in the
pure deeps of our spirit, like a burning brazier of coal. And it
throws forth brilliant and fiery sparks which stir and enkindle
heart and senses, will and desire, and all the powers of the
soul, with a fire of love; a storm, a rage, a measureless fury of
love. These be the weapons with which we fight against the
terrible and immense Love of God, who would consume all
loving spirits and swallow them in Himself. Love arms us with
its own gifts, and clarifies our reason, and commands,
144
counsels and advises us to oppose Him, to fight against Him,

and to maintain against Him our right to love, so long as we
may." [74-75][18]
The drama of this giving and receiving Love constitutes a single
act, for God is as an "ocean which ebbs and flows" or as an
"inbreathing and outbreathing". [75, 76] "Love is a unifying
power, manifested in motion itself, 'an outgoing attraction,
which drags us out of ourselves and calls us to be melted and
naughted in the Unity'." [76][19]
Next, the spiritual development of the soul is addressed. [76-
88] Ruysbroeck adumbrates how one may progress from the
Active life, to the Interior life, to the Superessential life; these
correspond to the three natural orders of Becoming, Being,
and God, or to the three rôles of the Servant, the Friend, and
the "hidden child" of God. [77, 85] The Active life focuses on
ethics, on conforming the self's daily life to the Will of God,
and takes place in the world of the senses, "by means". [78]
The Interior life embraces a vision of spiritual reality, where
the self's contacts with the Divine take place "without means".
[78] The Superessential life transcends the intellectual plane,
whereby the self does not merely behold, but rather has
fruition of the Godhead in life and in love, at work and at rest,
in union and in bliss. [78, 86, 87][20] The analogy with the
traditional threefold way of Purgation, Illumination, and
Union, is not exact. The Interior life of Ruysbroeck contains
aspects of the traditional Union also, while the Superessential
life "takes the soul to heights of fruition which few amongst
even the greatest unitive mystics have attained or described."
[78-79][21]
V, VI, VII, VIII. In her last four chapters, Evelynn Underhill
continues the discussion concerning the Active life [94-114],
the Interior life [115-163], and the Superessential or glorious
life [164-185].
145
"The Mysticism of Plotinus" (1919)[edit source | editbeta]

An essay originally published in The Quarterly Review
(1919),[22] and later collected in The Essentials of Mysticism
and other essays (London: J.M.Dent 1920) at 116-140.[23]
Underhill here addresses Plotinus (204-270) of Alexandria and
later of Rome.
A Neoplatonist as well as a spiritual guide, Plotinus writes
regarding both formal philosophy and hands-on, personal,
inner experience. Underhill makes the distinction between the
geographer who draws maps of the mind, and the seeker who
actually travels in the realms of spirit. [page 118] She observes
that usually mystics do not follow the mere maps of
metaphysicians. [page 117]
In the Enneads Plotinus presents the Divine as an unequal
triune, in descending order: (a) the One, perfection, having
nothing, seeking nothing, needing nothing, yet it overflows
creatively, the source of being; [121] (b) the emitted Nous or
Spirit, with intelligence, wisdom, poetic intuition, the "Father
and Companion" of the soul; [121-122] and, (c) the emitted
Soul or Life, the vital essence of the world, which aspires to
communion with the Spirit above, while also directly engaged
with the physical world beneath. [123]
People "come forth from God" and will find happiness once re-
united, first with the Nous, later with the One. [125] Such
might be the merely logical outcome for the metaphysician,
yet Plotinus the seeker also presents this return to the Divine
as a series of moral purgations and a shedding of irrational
delusions, leading eventually to entry into the intuitively
beautiful. [126] This intellectual and moral path toward a life
aesthetic will progressively disclose an invisible source, the
Nous, the forms of Beauty. [127] Love is the prevailing
inspiration, although the One is impersonal. [128] The mystic
will pass through stages of purification, and of enlightenment,
146
resulting in a shift in the center of our being "from sense to

soul, from soul to spirit," in preparation for an ultimate
transformation of consciousness. [125, 127] Upon our arrival,
we shall know ectasy and "no longer sing out of tune, but form
a divine chorus round the One." [129]
St. Augustine (354-430) criticizes such Neoplatonism as
neglecting the needs of struggling and imperfect human
beings. The One of Plotinus may act as a magnet for the
human soul, but it cannot be said to show mercy, nor to help,
or love, or redeem the individual on earth. [130] Other
western mystics writing on the Neoplatonists mention this
lack of "mutual attraction" between humanity and the
unconscious, unknowable One. [130-131] In this regard Julian
of Norwich (1342–1416) would write, "Our natural will is to
have God, and the good-will of God is to have us." [130]
Plotinus leaves the problem of evil unresolved, but having no
place in the blissful life; here, the social, ethical side of religion
seems to be shorted. His philosophy does not include qualities
comparable to the Gospel's divine "transfiguration of pain"
through Jesus. [131] Plotinus "the self-sufficient sage" does
not teach us charity, writes St. Augustine. [132]
Nonetheless, Underhill notes, Plotinus and Neoplatonism
were very influential among the mystics of Christianity (and
Islam). St. Augustine the Church Father was himself deeply
affected by Plotinus, and through him the western Church.
[133-135, 137] So, too, was Dionysius (5th century, Syria),
whose writings would also prove very influential. [133, 135] As
well were others, e.g., Erigena [135], Dante [136], Ruysbroeck
[136, 138], Eckhart [138], and Boehme [139].
Worship (1936)[edit source | editbeta]
The chapter headings give an indication of its contents.
Part I: 1. The Nature of Worship, 2. Ritual and Symbol, 3.
Sacrament and Sacrifice, 4. The Character of Christian
147
Worship, 5. Principles of Corporate Worship, 6. Liturgical

Elements in Worship, 7. The Holy Eucharist: Its Nature, 8. The
Holy Eucharist: Its Significance, 9. The Principles of Personal
Worship.
Part II: 10. Jewish Worship, 11. The Beginnings of Christian
Worship, 12. Catholic Worship: Western and Eastern, 13.
Worship in the Reformed Churches, 14. Free Church Worship,
15. The Anglican Tradition. Conclusion.
Influences[edit source | editbeta]
Underhill's life was greatly affected by her husband's

resistance to her joining the Catholic Church to which she was
powerfully drawn. At first she believed it to be only a delay in
her decision, but it proved to be lifelong. He was, however, a
writer himself and was supportive of her writing both before
and after their marriage in 1907, though he did not share her
spiritual affinities. Her fiction was written in the six years
between 1903–1909 and represents her four major interests
of that general period: philosophy (neoplatonism),
theism/mysticism, the Roman Catholic liturgy, and human
love/compassion.[24] In her earlier writings Underhill often
wrote using the terms "mysticism" and "mystics" but later
began to adopt the terms "spirituality" and "saints" because
she felt they were less threatening. She was often criticized for
believing that the mystical life should be accessible to the
average person.
Her fiction was also influenced by the literary creed
expounded by her close friend Arthur Machen, mainly his
Hieroglyphics of 1902, summarised by his biographer:
There are certain truths about the universe and its
constitution - as distinct from the particular things in it that
come before our observation - which cannot be grasped by
human reason or expressed in precise words: but they can be
148
apprehended by some people at least, in a semi-mystical

experience, called ecstasy, and a work of art is great insofar as
this experience is caught and expressed in it. Because,
however, the truths concerned transcend a language attuned
to the description of material objects, the expression can only
be through hieroglyphics, and it is of such hieroglyphics that
literature consists.
In Underhill's case the quest for psychological realism is
subordinate to larger metaphysical considerations which she
shared with Arthur Machen. Incorporating the Holy Grail into
their fiction (stimulated perhaps by their association with
Arthur Waite and his affiliation with the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn), for Machen the Holy Grail was perhaps "the"
hieroglyph, "the" crystallisation in one sacred emblem of all
man's transcendental yearning, "the" gateway to vision and
lasting appeasement of his discontents, while for her it was
the center of atonement-linked meanings as she pointed out
to Margaret Robinson in a letter responding to Robinson's
criticism of Underhill's last novel:
"Don't marvel at your own temerity in criticising. Why should
you? Of course, this thing wasn't written for you - I never write
for anyone at all, except in letters of direction! But, I take leave
to think the doctrine contained in it is one you'll have to
assimilate sooner or later and which won't do you any harm.
It's not "mine" you know. You will find it all in Eckhart. ... They
all know, as Richard of St Victor said, that the Fire of Love
"burns." We have not fulfilled our destiny when we have sat
down at a safe distance from it, purring like overfed cats,
'suffering is the ancient law of love' - and its highest pleasure
into the bargain, oddly enough. ... A sponge cake and milk
religion is neither true to this world nor to the next. As for the
Christ being too august a word for our little hardships - I think
it is truer that it is "so" august as to give our little hardships a
149
tincture of Royalty once we try them up into it. I don't think a

Pattern which was 'meek & lowly' is likely to fail of application
to very humble and ordinary things. For most of us don't get a
chance "but" the humble and ordinary: and He came that we
might all have life more abundantly, according to our
measure. There that's all![25]
Two contemporary philosophical writers dominated
Underhill's thinking at the time she wrote "Mysticism": Rudolf
Eucken and Henri Bergson. While neither displayed an interest
in mysticism, both seemed to their disciples to advance a
spiritual explanation of the universe. Also, she describes the
fashionable creed of the time as "vitalism" and the term
adequately sums up the prevailing worship of life in all its
exuberance, variety and limitless possibility which pervaded
pre-war culture and society. For her, Eucken and Bergson
confirmed the deepest intuitions of the mystics. (Armstrong,
Evelyn Underhill)
Among the mystics, Ruysbroeck was to her the most
influential and satisfying of all the medieval mystics, and she
found herself very much at one with him in the years when he
was working as an unknown priest in Brussels, for she herself
had also a hidden side.
His career which covers the greater part of the fourteenth
century, that golden age of Christian Mysticism, seems to
exhibit within the circle of a single personality, and carry up to
a higher term than ever before, all the best attainments of the
Middle Ages in the realm of Eternal life. The central doctrine
of the Divine Fatherhood, and of the soul's power to become
the Son of God, it is this raised to the nth degree of
intensity...and demonstrated with the exactitude of the
mathematician, and the passion of a poet, which Ruysbroeck
gives us...the ninth and tenth chapters of The Sparkling Stone
the high water mark of mystical literature. Nowhere else do
150
we find such a combination of soaring vision with the most

delicate and intimate psychological analysis. The old Mystic
sitting under his tree, seems here to be gazing at and reporting
to us the final secrets of that Eternal World... (Cropper, p. 57)
One of her most significant influences and important
collaborations was with the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath
Tagore, the Indian mystic, author, and world traveler. They
published a major translation of the work of Kabir (100 Poems
of Kabir) together in 1915, to which she wrote the
introduction. He introduced her to the spiritual genius of India
which she expressed enthusiastically in a letter:
This is the first time I have had the privilege of being with one
who is a Master in the things I care so much about but know
so little of as yet: & I understand now something of what your
writers mean when they insist on the necessity and value of
the personal teacher and the fact that he gives something
which the learner cannot get in any other way. It has been like
hearing the language of which I barely know the alphabet,
spoken perfectly.(Letters)
They did not keep up their correspondence in later years. Both
suffered debilitating illnesses in the last year of life and died in
the summer of 1941, greatly distressed by the outbreak of
World War II.
Evelyn in 1921 was to all outward appearances, in an assured
and enviable position. She had been asked by the University
of Oxford to give the first of a new series of lectures on
religion, and she was the first woman to have such an honour.
She was an authority on her own subject of mysticism and
respected for her research and scholarship. Her writing was in
demand, and she had an interesting and notable set of friends,
devoted readers, a happy marriage and affectionate and loyal
parents. At the same time she felt that her foundations were
151
insecure and that her zeal for Reality was resting on a basis
that was too fragile.
By 1939, she was a member of the Anglican Pacifist
Fellowship, writing a number of important tracts expressing
her anti-war sentiment.
After returning to the Anglican Church, and perhaps
overwhelmed by her knowledge of the achievements of the
mystics and their perilous heights, her ten year friendship with
Catholic philosopher and writer Baron Friedrich von Hugel
turned into one of spiritual direction. Charles Williams wrote
in his introduction to her Letters: 'The equal swaying level of
devotion and scepticism (related to the church) which is, for
some souls, as much the Way as continuous simple faith is to
others, was a distress to her...She wanted to be "sure." Writing
to Von Hugel of the darkness she struggled with:
What ought I to do?...being naturally self-indulgent and at
present unfortunately professionally very prosperous and
petted, nothing will get done unless I make a Rule. Neither
intellectual work nor religion give me any real discipline
because I have a strong attachment to both. ..it is useless
advising anything people could notice or that would look
pious. That is beyond me. In my lucid moments I see only too
clearly that the only possible end of this road is complete,
unconditional self-consecration, and for this I have not the
nerve, the character or the depth. There has been some sort
of mistake. My soul is too small for it and yet it is at bottom
the only thing that I really want. It feels sometimes as if, whilst
still a jumble of conflicting impulses and violent faults I were
being pushed from behind towards an edge I dare not jump
over."[26]
In a later letter of 12 July the Baron's practical concerns for
signs of strain in Evelyn's spiritual state are expressed. His
comments give insight into her struggles:
152
"I do not at all like this craving for absolute certainty that this
or that experience of yours, is what it seems to yourself. And I
am assuredly not going to declare that I am absolutely certain
of the final and evidential worth of any of those experiences.
They are not articles of faith. .. You are at times tempted to
scepticism and so you long to have some, if only one direct
personal experience which shall be beyond the reach of all
reasonable doubt. But such an escape. ..would ...possibly be a
most dangerous one, and would only weaken you, or shrivel
you, or puff you up. By all means...believe them, if and when
they humble and yet brace you, to be probably from God. But
do not build your faith upon them; do not make them an end
when they exist only to be a means...I am not sure that God
does want a marked preponderance of this or that work or
virtue in our life - that would feed still further your natural
temperament, already too vehement. (Cropper biography)
Although Underhill continued to struggle to the end, craving
certainty that her beatific visions were purposeful, suffering as
only a pacifist can from the devastating onslaught of World
War II and the Church's powerlessness to affect events, she
may well have played a powerful part in the survival of her
country through the influence of her words and the impact of
her teachings on thousands regarding the power of prayer.
Surviving the London Blitz of 1940, her health disintegrated
further and she died in the following year. She is buried with
her husband in the churchyard extension at St John-at-
Hampstead in London.[27]
More than any other person, she was responsible for
introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic
spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of
eastern mystics to the English speaking world. As a frequent
guest on radio, her 1936 work The Spiritual Life was especially
influential as transcribed from a series of broadcasts given as
153
a sequel to those by Dom Bernard Clements on the subject of

prayer. Fellow theologian Charles Williams wrote the
introduction to her published Letters in 1943, which reveal
much about this prodigious woman. Upon her death, The
Times reported that on the subject of theology, she was
"unmatched by any of the professional teachers of her day."
Veneration[edit source | editbeta]
Since 2000 the Church of England commemorates her

liturgically on 15 June.
Underhill is honoured with a feast day on the liturgical
calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 15 June.
154
155
Chapter Ten
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from gnostikos, "learned", from Ancient Greek:

γνῶσις ‹See Tfd›gnōsis, knowledge; Arabic: ‫‹ ال غ نو ص ية‬See
Tfd›al-ġnūṣīh) is the belief that the material world created by
the demiurge should be shunned[citation needed] and the
spiritual world should be embraced (God's world). Gnostic
ideas influenced many ancient religions[1] which teach that
gnosis (variously interpreted as knowledge, enlightenment,
salvation, emancipation or 'oneness with God') may be
reached by practicing philanthropy to the point of personal
poverty, sexual abstinence (as far as possible for hearers, total
for initiates) and diligently searching for wisdom by helping
others.[2] However, practices vary. In Gnosticism, the world of
the demiurge is represented by the lower world which is
associated to the matter, to flesh, to time, to molecules and
more particularly to an imperfect world and an ephemeral
world. The world of God is represented by the upper world,
and is associated with the soul and perfection. The world of
God is eternal and not part of the physical. It is impalpable,
and time there doesn't exist. To rise to God, the Gnostic must
reach the "knowledge" which mixes philosophy, metaphysics,
curiosity, culture, knowledge, and secrets of history and
universe. [3][4]
Gnosticism was primarily defined in a Christian context.[5][6]
Some scholars have claimed that gnosticism predated
Christianity. Such discussions have included pre-Christian
156
religious beliefs and spiritual practices argued to be common

to early Christianity, Neoplatonism, Hellenistic Judaism,
Greco-Roman mystery religions, and Zoroastrianism
(especially Zurvanism). The discussion of gnosticism changed
radically with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and
led to revision of older assumptions.
The Egyptian Gnostic Basilideans referred to a figure called
Abraxas who was at the head of 365 spiritual beings (Irenaeus,
Adversus Haereses, I.24); it is unclear what to make of
Irenaeus' use of the term "Archon", which may simply mean
"ruler" in this context. The role and function of Abraxas for
Basilideans is not clear.
The word Abraxas was engraved on certain antique
gemstones, called on that account Abraxas stones, which may
have been used as amulets or charms by Gnostic groups. In
popular culture, Abraxas is sometimes considered the name of
a god who incorporated both Good and evil (god and
demiurge) in one entity, and therefore representing the
monotheistic god, singular, but (unlike, for example, the
Christian God) not omnibenevolent. (See Hermann Hesse's
Demian, and Carl Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead.) Opinions
abound on Abraxas, who in recent centuries has been claimed
to be both an Egyptian god and a demon, sometimes even
being associated with the dual nature of Satan/Lucifer.
The above information relates to interpretations of ancient
amulets and to reports of Christian heresy hunters which are
not always clear.
Actual ancient Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi Library,
such as the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, refer to Abraxas as
an Aeon dwelling with Sophia and other Aeons of the Spiritual
Fullness in the light of the luminary Eleleth. In several texts,
the luminary Eleleth is the last of the luminaries (Spiritual
Lights) that come forward, and it is the Aeon Sophia,
157
associated with Eleleth, who encounters darkness and

becomes involved in the chain of events that leads to the
Demiurge and Archon's rule of this world, and the salvage
effort that ensues. As such, the role of Aeons of Eleleth,
including Abraxas, Sophia, and others, pertains to this outer
border of the Divine Fullness that encounters the ignorance of
the world of Lack and interacts to rectify the error of ignorance
in the world of materiality.
Words like or similar to Abraxas or Abrasax also appear in the
Greek Magical Papyri. There are similarities and differences
between such figures in reports about Basiledes' teaching, in
the larger magical traditions of the Graeco-Roman world, in
the classic ancient Gnostic texts such as the Gospel of the
Egyptians, and in later magical and esoteric writings.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung wrote a short Gnostic treatise
in 1916 called Seven Sermons to the Dead, which called
Abraxas a God higher than the Christian God and Devil, that
combines all opposites into one Being.
Aeon
Main article: Aeon (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, the æons are the various
emanations of the superior God, who is also known by such
names as the One, the Monad, Aion teleos (Greek: "The
Complete Æon"),[citation needed] Bythos (Greek: Βυθος,
'Depth' or 'profundity'), Proarkhe (Greek: προαρχη, "Before
the Beginning'), HE Arkhe (Greek: ἡ ἀρχή, 'The Beginning'),
Ennoia (Greek: "Thought") of the Light[7] or Sige (Greek: Σιγη,
"Silence").[8] From this first being, also an æon, a series of
different emanations occur, beginning in certain Gnostic texts
with the hermaphroditic Barbelo,[9][10][11] from which
successive pairs of aeons emanate, often in male-female
pairings called syzygies;[12] the numbers of these pairings
varied from text to text, though some identify their number as
158
being thirty.[13] The aeons as a totality constitute the

pleroma, the "region of light". The lowest regions of the
pleroma are closest to the darkness; that is, the physical
world.[citation needed]
Two of the most commonly paired æons were Jesus and
Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Jesus as her
"consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.[14] Sophia, emanating
without her partner, resulting in the production of the
Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"),[15] who is also
referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some
Gnostic texts.[9] This creature is concealed outside the
Pleroma;[9] in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates
materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The
demiurge is responsible for the creation of mankind; trapping
elements of the Pleroma stolen from Sophia inside human
bodies.[9][16] In response, the Godhead emanates two savior
æons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then embodies itself in
the form of Jesus, in order to be able to teach man how to
achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the Pleroma.[17]
Archon
Main article: Archon#Gnostic archons
In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term
Archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge.[16] In this
context they may be seen as having the roles of the angels and
demons of the Old Testament.
According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites
posited the existence of seven archons, beginning with
Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao,
Sabaoth, Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos and Horaios.[18]
Similarly to the Mithraic Kronos and Vedic Narasimha, a form
of Vishnu, Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[9][19][20]
Demiurge
Main article: Demiurge
159
A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de

Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures
may be a depiction of the Demiurge; however, cf. Mithraic
Zervan Akarana [21]
The term Demiurge derives from the Latinized form of the
Greek term dēmiourgos, δημιουργός (literally "public or
skilled worker"), and refers to an entity responsible for the
creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of
humanity. The term dēmiourgos occurs in a number of other
religious and philosophical systems, most notably Platonism.
Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group
within the broad category of Gnosticism — such judgements
usually correspond to each group's judgement of the status of
materiality as being inherently evil, or else merely flawed and
as good as its passive constituent matter will allow. In
Gnosticism the Demiurge, creator of the material world, was
not God but the Archon.[22]
As Plato does, Gnosticism presents a distinction between a
supranatural, unknowable reality and the sensible materiality
of which the demiurge is creator. However, in contrast to
Plato, several systems of Gnostic thought present the
Demiurge as antagonistic to the Supreme God: his act of
creation either in unconscious and fundamentally flawed
imitation of the divine model, or else formed with the
malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine in
materiality. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge acts as a
solution to the problem of evil. In the Apocryphon of John
(several versions of which are found in the Nag Hammadi
library), the Demiurge has the name "Yaltabaoth", and
proclaims himself as God:
160
"Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name
is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And
he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I
am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is
ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had
come."[citation needed]
"Samael", in the Judeo-Christian tradition, refers to the evil
angel of death, and corresponds to the Christian demon of
that name, one second only to Satan.[citation needed]
Literally, it can mean "blind god" or "god of the blind" in
Aramaic (Syriac sæmʻa-ʼel); another alternative title is
"Saklas", Aramaic for "fool" (Syriac sækla "the foolish one").
Gnostic myth recounts that Sophia (Greek, literally meaning
"wisdom"), the Demiurge's mother and a partial aspect of the
divine Pleroma or "Fullness", desired to create something
apart from the divine totality, and without the receipt of
divine assent. In this abortive act of separate creation, she
gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of
her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for
him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his
mother, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he
himself existed, being ignorant of the superior levels of reality
that were his birthplace.
The Gnostic myths describing these events are full of intricate
nuances portraying the declination of aspects of the divine
into human form; this process occurs through the agency of
the Demiurge who, having stolen a portion of power from his
mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation
of the superior Pleromatic realm. Thus Sophia's power
becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity,
themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal
of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this
spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the superior,
161
non-material realities which were its primal source. (See

Sethian Gnosticism.)[citation needed]
Gnosis
Main article: Gnosis
The word "Gnosticism" is a modern construction, though
based on an antiquated linguistic expression: it comes from
the Greek word meaning "knowledge", gnosis (γνῶσις).
However, gnosis itself refers to a very specialised form of
knowledge, deriving both from the exact meaning of the
original Greek term and its usage in Platonist philosophy.
Ancient Greek was capable of discerning between several
different forms of knowing. These different forms may be
described in English as being propositional knowledge,
indicative of knowledge acquired indirectly through the
reports of others or otherwise by inference (such as "I know
of George Bush" or "I know Berlin is in Germany"), and
empirical knowledge acquired by direct participation or
acquaintance (such as "I know George Bush personally" or "I
know Berlin, having visited").
Gnosis (γνῶσις) refers to knowledge of the second kind.
Therefore, in a religious context, to be "Gnostic" should be
understood as being reliant not on knowledge in a general
sense, but as being specially receptive to mystical or esoteric
experiences of direct participation with the divine. Indeed, in
most Gnostic systems the sufficient cause of salvation is this
"knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. This is
commonly identified with a process of inward "knowing" or
self-exploration, comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus
(c. 205 – 270 AD). This is what helps separate Gnosticism from
proto-orthodox views, where the orthodox views are
considered to be superficial.[23] The inadequate take then
requires a correct form of interpretation. With "gnosis" comes
a fuller insight that is considered to be more spiritual. Greater
162
recognition of the deeper spiritual meanings of doctrines,

scriptures, and rituals are obtained with this insight. However,
as may be seen, the term "gnostic" also had precedent usage
in several ancient philosophical traditions, which must also be
weighed in considering the very subtle implications of its
appellation to a set of ancient religious groups.
Monad
Main article: Monad (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems (and heresiologies), God is known as
the Monad, the One, The Absolute, Aion teleos (The Perfect
Æon), Bythos (Depth or Profundity, Βυθος), Proarkhe (Before
the Beginning, προαρχη), and HE Arkhe (The Beginning, ἡ
ἀρχή). God is the high source of the pleroma, the region of
light. The various emanations of God are called æons.
Within certain variations of Gnosticism, especially those
inspired by Monoimus, the Monad was the highest God which
created lesser gods, or elements (similar to æons).
According to Hippolytus, this view was inspired by the
Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into
existence the Monad, which begat the dyad, which begat the
numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc. This was
also clarified in the writings of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus.
This teaching being largely Neopythagorean via Numenius as
well.
This Monad is the spiritual source of everything which
emanates the pleroma, and could be contrasted to the dark
Demiurge (Yaldabaoth) that controls matter.
The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the
Apocryphon ("Secret book") of John describes an unknown
God, very similar to the orthodox apophatic theology,
although very different from the orthodox credal teachings
that there is one such god who is identified also as creator of
heaven and earth. In describing the nature of a creator god
163
associated with Biblical texts, orthodox theologians often

attempt to define God through a series of explicit positive
statements, themselves universal but in the divine taken to
their superlative degrees: he is omniscient, omnipotent and
truly benevolent. The Sethian conception of the most hidden
transcendent God is, by contrast, defined through negative
theology: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable;
commonly, "he" is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent
symbol for being, as it were, "all-containing". In the
Apocryphon of John, this god is good in that it bestows
goodness. After the apophatic statements, the process of the
Divine in action are used to describe the effect of such a god.
An apophatic approach to discussing the Divine is found
throughout gnosticism, Vedanta, and Platonic and Aristotelian
theology as well. It is also found in some Judaic sources.
Pleroma
Main article: Pleroma
Pleroma (Greek πληρωμα) generally refers to the totality of
God's powers. The term means fullness, and is used in
Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally,
and in Colossians 2:9.
Gnosticism holds that the world is controlled by evil archons,
one of whom is the demiurge, the deity of the Old Testament
who holds the human spirit captive.
The heavenly pleroma is the center of divine life, a region of
light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our
world, occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal
beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as an
intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with
whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the
divine origins of humanity. The term is thus a central element
of Gnostic cosmology.
164
Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language and is used

by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form since the
word appears under the book of Colossians. Proponents of the
view that Paul was actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels of
Princeton University, view the reference in Colossians as
something that was to be interpreted in the gnostic sense.
Sophia
Main article: Sophia (wisdom)
In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Σoφíα, Greek for
"wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation of God. In
most if not all versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia births the
demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality.
The positive or negative depiction of materiality thus resides a
great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is
occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of
Achamoth (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the
Valentinian gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on
Sophia was active by 90.[citation needed]
Almost all gnostic systems of the Syrian or Egyptian type
taught that the universe began with an original, unknowable
God, referred to as the Parent or Bythos, as the Monad by
Monoimus, or the first Aeon by still other traditions. From this
initial unitary beginning, the One spontaneously emanated
further Aeons, pairs of progressively "lesser" beings in
sequence. The lowest of these pairs were Sophia and Christ.
The Aeons together made up the Pleroma, or fullness, of God,
and thus should not be seen as distinct from the divine, but
symbolic abstractions of the divine nature.
Nature and structure[edit source | editbeta]
Common characteristics[edit source | editbeta]

A common characteristic of some of these groups was the
teaching that the realisation of Gnosis (esoteric or intuitive
165
knowledge) is the way to salvation of the soul from the

material world. They saw the material world as created
through an intermediary being (demiurge) rather than directly
by God. In most of the systems, this demiurge was seen as
imperfect, in others even as evil. Different gnostic schools
sometimes identified the demiurge as Ahriman, El, Saklas,
Samael, Satan, Yaldabaoth, or Yahweh.
Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the
supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the
earth.[17] Others adamantly deny that the supreme being
came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who
attained divinity through gnosis and taught his disciples to do
the same.[citation needed] Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was
considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted
the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[24] Still
other traditions identify Mani and Seth, third son of Adam and
Eve, as salvific figures.[25]
The Christian groups first called "gnostic" a branch of
Christianity, however Joseph Jacobs and Ludwig Blau (Jewish
Encyclopedia, 1911) note that much of the terminology
employed is Jewish and note that this "proves at least that the
principal elements of gnosticism were derived from Jewish
speculation, while it does not preclude the possibility of new
wine having been poured into old bottles."[26] The movement
spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian
Goths,[27] and the Persian Empire; it continued to develop in
the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd
and 3rd centuries. Conversion to Islam and the Albigensian
Crusade (1209–1229) greatly reduced the remaining number
of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few
Mandaean communities still exist. Gnostic and pseudo-gnostic
ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of
various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th
166
centuries in Europe and North America, including some that

explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations
of earlier gnostic groups.
The main features[edit source | editbeta]
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality

standards. The specific problem is: poorly integrated side-
notes, inconsistent list format, change of subject. Please help
improve this section if you can. (July 2011)
Gnostic systems (particularly the Syrian-Egyptian
schools[which?]) are typically marked out by:
"And the Sophia of the Epinoia [...] brought forth. And [...]
something came out of her which was imperfect and different
from her appearance, because she had created it without her
consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for
it has another form.
"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it
changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were
like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her,
outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see
it, for she had created it in ignorance."
From The Secret Book of John (long version), Nag Hammadi
Library, Codex II, trans. Frederik Wisse.[9]
The notion of a remote, supreme monadic divinity, source —
this figure is known under a variety of names, including
"Pleroma" (fullness, totality) and "Bythos" (depth, profundity);
The introduction by emanation of further divine beings known
as Aeons, which are nevertheless identifiable as aspects of the
God from which they proceeded; the progressive emanations
are often conceived metaphorically as a gradual and
progressive distancing from the ultimate source, which brings
about an instability in the fabric of the divine nature;
167
The introduction of a distinct creator god or demiurge, which

is an illusion and a later emanation from the single monad or
source. This second god is a lesser and inferior or false god.
This creator god is commonly referred to as the demiourgós (a
technical term literally denoting a public worker the Latinized
form of Greek dēmiourgos, δημιουργός, hence "ergon or
energy", "public god or skilled worker" "false god" or "god of
the masses"), used in the Platonist tradition.[28]
The gnostic demiurge bears resemblance to figures in Plato's
Timaeus and Republic. In the former, the demiourgós is a
central figure, a benevolent creator of the universe who works
to make the universe as benevolent as the limitations of
matter will allow; in the latter, the description of the
leontomorphic "desire" in Socrates' model of the psyche bears
a resemblance to descriptions of the demiurge as being in the
shape of the lion; the relevant passage of The Republic was
found within a major gnostic library discovered at Nag
Hammadi,[29] wherein a text existed describing the demiurge
as a "lion-faced serpent".[9]
Elsewhere, this figure is called "Ialdabaoth",[9] "Samael"
(Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind god") or "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla,
"the foolish one"), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior
god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is
correspondingly malevolent.
The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named
"Archons", who preside over the material realm and, in some
cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it;[9]
[The demiurge] is blind; because of his power and his
ignorance and his arrogance he said, with his power, "It is I
who am God; there is none apart from me." When he said this,
he sinned against the entirety. And this speech got up to
incorruptibility; then there was a voice that came forth from
168
incorruptibility, saying, "You are mistaken, Samael" — which

is, "god of the blind."
From The Hypostasis of the Archons or The Reality of the
Rulers, Nag Hammadi Library, Codex II, trans. Bentley
Layton.[16]
The estimation of the world, owing to the above, as flawed or
a production of "error" but possibly good as its constituent
material might allow.[30] This world is typically an inferior
simulacrum of a higher-level reality or consciousness. The
inferiority may be compared to the technical inferiority of a
painting, sculpture, or other handicraft to the thing(s) of which
those crafts are supposed to be a representation. In certain
other cases it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view
material existence, negatively. Which then becomes more
extreme when materiality, and the human body, is perceived
as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants;
The explanation of this state through the use of a complex
mythological-cosmological drama in which a divine element
"falls" into the material realm and lodges itself within certain
human beings; from here, it may be returned to the divine
realm through a process of awakening (leading towards
salvation). The salvation of the individual thus mirrors a
concurrent restoration of the divine nature; a central Gnostic
innovation was to elevate individual redemption to the level
of a cosmically significant event.
The model limits itself to describing characteristics of the
Syrian-Egyptian school of Gnosticism. This is for the reason
that the greatest expressions of the Persian gnostic school —
Manicheanism and Mandaeanism — are typically conceived of
as religious traditions in their own right; indeed, the typical
usage of "Gnosticism" is to refer to the Syrian-Egyptian schools
alone, while "Manichean" describes the movements of the
Persia school.
169
This conception of Gnosticism has in recent times come to be

challenged (see below). Despite this, the understanding
presented above remains the most common and is useful in
aiding meaningful discussion of the phenomena that compose
Gnosticism. Above all, the central idea of gnōsis, a knowledge
superior to and independent of faith made it welcome to
many who were half-converted from paganism to Christianity.
The Valentinians, for example, considered pistis (Greek:
"faith") as consisting of accepting a body of teaching as true,
being principally intellectual or emotional in character.[31]
The age of the Gnostics was highly diverse, they seem to have
originated in Alexandria and coexisted with the early
Christians until the 4th century AD and due to there being no
fixed church authority, syncretism with pre-existing belief
systems as well as new religions were often embraced.
According to Clement of Alexandria, "... In the times of the
Emperor Hadrian appeared those who devised heresies, and
they continued until the age of the elder Antoninus."[32]
Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, much of
what we know today about gnosticism was preserved only in
the summaries and assessments of early church fathers.
Irenaeus declares in his treatise "Against Heresies"[33] that
Gnostic movements subjected all morality to the caprice of the
individual, and made any fixed rule of faith impossible. The
whim of the individual being a subject that is of concern when
discussing heresy and orthodoxy in relation to spiritual
mysticism, such as the mysticism of Henry Corbin,[34]
Thelema, and even in fiction such as The Theologians by Jorge
Luis Borges in Labyrinths.[35] According to Irenaeus, a certain
sect known as the "Cainites" professed to impart a knowledge
"greater and more sublime" than the ordinary doctrine of
Christians, and believed that Cain derived his power from the
superior Godhead.[36] Although a Christian who valued
170
gnosis, Clement of Alexandria, a 2nd-century church father

and the first notable member of the Church of Alexandria,
raised a criticism against the followers of Basilides and
Valentinus in his Stromata: in his view it annulled the efficacy
of baptism, in that it held no value faith, the gift conferred in
that sacrament.[37]
Dualism and monism[edit source | editbeta]
Typically, Gnostic systems are loosely described as being
"dualistic" in nature, meaning that they have the view that the
world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities.
Hans Jonas writes: "The cardinal feature of gnostic thought is
the radical dualism that governs the relation of God and world,
and correspondingly that of man and world."[38] Within this
definition, they run the gamut from the "radical dualist"
systems of Manicheanism to the "mitigated dualism" of classic
gnostic movements; Valentinian developments arguably
approach a form of monism, expressed in terms previously
used in a dualistic manner.
Radical Dualism — or absolute Dualism which posits two co-
equal divine forces. Manichaeism conceives of two previously
coexistent realms of light and darkness which become
embroiled in conflict, owing to the chaotic actions of the
latter. Subsequently, certain elements of the light became
entrapped within darkness; the purpose of material creation
is to enact the slow process of extraction of these individual
elements, at the end of which the kingdom of light will prevail
over darkness. Manicheanism inherits[39][40] this dualistic
mythology from Zurvanist Zoroastrianism,[41] in which the
eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra
Mainyu; the two are engaged in a cosmic struggle, the
conclusion of which will likewise see Ahura Mazda triumphant.
The Mandaean creation myth witnesses the progressive
emanations of Supreme Being of Light, with each emanation
171
bringing about a progressive corruption resulting in the

eventual emergence of Ptahil, a demiurge who had a hand in
creating and henceforward rules the material realm.
Additionally, general Gnostic thought (specifically to be found
in Iranian groups; for instance, see "The Hymn of the Pearl")
commonly included the belief that the material world
corresponds to some sort of malevolent intoxication brought
about by the powers of darkness to keep elements of the light
trapped inside it, or literally to keep them "in the dark", or
ignorant; in a state of drunken distraction.[citation needed]
Mitigated Dualism — where one of the two principles is in
some way inferior to the other. Such classical Gnostic
movements as the Sethians conceived of the material world as
being created by a lesser divinity than the true God that was
the object of their devotion. The spiritual world is conceived
of as being radically different from the material world, co-
extensive with the true God, and the true home of certain
enlightened members of humanity; thus, these systems were
expressive of a feeling of acute alienation within the world,
and their resultant aim was to allow the soul to escape the
constraints presented by the physical realm.[citation needed]
Qualified Monism — where it is arguable whether or not the
second entity is divine or semi-divine. Elements of Valentinian
versions of Gnostic myth suggest to some that its
understanding of the universe may have been monistic rather
than a dualistic one. Elaine Pagels states that "Valentinian
gnosticism [...] differs essentially from dualism";[42] while,
according to Schoedel "a standard element in the
interpretation of Valentinianism and similar forms of
Gnosticism is the recognition that they are fundamentally
monistic".[43] In these myths, the malevolence of the
demiurge is mitigated; his creation of a flawed materiality is
not due to any moral failing on his part, but due to his
172
imperfection by contrast to the superior entities of which he

is unaware.[30] As such, Valentinians already have less cause
to treat physical reality with contempt than might a Sethian
Gnostic
The Valentinian tradition conceives of materiality, rather than
as being a separate substance from the divine, as attributable
to an error of perception, which become symbolized
mythopoetically as the act of material creation.[30]
Moral and ritual practice[edit source | editbeta]
Numerous early Christian Fathers accused some Gnostic
teachers of claiming to eschew the physical realm, while
simultaneously freely indulging their physical appetites;
however, there is reason to question the accuracy of these
claims. Evidence in the source texts indicates Gnostic moral
behaviour as being generally ascetic in basis, expressed most
fluently in their sexual and dietary practice.[44] Many monks
would deprive themselves of food, water, or necessary needs
for living. This presented a problem for the heresiologists
writing on gnostic movements: this mode of behaviour was
one which they themselves favoured and supported, so the
Church Fathers, some modern-day Gnostic apologist presume,
would be required perforce to offer support to the practices
of their theological opponents. In order to avoid this, a
common heresiological approach was to avoid the issue
completely by resorting to slanderous (and, in some cases,
excessive) allegations of libertinism (see the Cainites), or to
explain Gnostic asceticism as being based on incorrect
interpretations of scripture, or simply duplicitous in nature.
Epiphanius provides an example when he writes of the
"Archontics": "Some of them ruin their bodies by dissipation,
but others feign ostensible fasts and deceive simple people
while they pride themselves with a sort of abstinence, under
the disguise of monks" (Panarion, 40.1.4).
173
In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously

ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct
behaviour. Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora lays out a project of
general asceticism in which the basis of action is the moral
inclination of the individual:
"External physical fasting is observed even among our
followers, for it can be of some benefit to the soul if it is
engaged on with reason (logos), whenever it is done neither
by way of limiting others, nor out of habit, nor because of the
day, as if it had been specially appointed for that purpose."
—Ptolemy, Letter to Flora
This extract marks a definite shift away from the position of
orthodoxy, that the correct behaviour for Christians is best
administered and prescribed by the central authority of the
Church, as transmitted through the Apostles to the Church's
bishops. Instead, the internalised inclination of the individual
assumes paramount importance; there is the recognition that
ritualistic behaviour, though well-intentioned, possesses no
significance or effectiveness unless its external prescription is
matched by a personal, internal motivation.
Charges of Gnostic libertinism find their source in the works of
Irenaeus. According to this writer, Simon Magus (whom he has
identified as the prototypical source of Gnosticism, and who
had previously tried to buy sacramental authority of
ordination from St. Peter the Apostle) founded the school of
moral freedom ('amoralism'). Irenaeus reports that Simon's
argument was that those who put their trust in him and his
consort Helen need trouble themselves no further with the
biblical prophets or their moral exhortations and are free "to
do what they wish", as men are saved by his (Simon's) grace
and not by their "righteous works" (Adversus Haereses[45]).
Simon is not known for any libertinistic practice, save for his
curious attachment to Helen, typically reputed to be a
174
prostitute. There is, however, clear evidence in the Testimony

of Truth that followers of Simon did, in fact, get married and
beget children, so a general tendency to asceticism can
likewise be ruled out.
Irenaeus reports of the Valentinians, whom he characterizes
as eventual inheritors of Simon, that they eat food "offered to
idols" (idol-worship), are sexually promiscuous
("immoderately given over to the desires of the flesh") and are
guilty of taking wives under the pretence of living with them
as adopted "sisters". In the latter case, Michael Allen Williams
has argued plausibly that Irenaeus was here broadly correct in
the behaviour described, but not in his apprehension of its
causes. Williams argues that members of a cult might live
together as "brother" and "sister": intimate, yet not sexually
active. Over time, however, the self-denial required of such an
endeavour becomes harder and harder to maintain, leading to
the state of affairs Irenaeus criticizes.
Irenaeus also makes reference to the Valentinian practise of
the Bridal Chamber, a ritualistic sacrament in which sexual
union is seen as analogous to the activities of the paired
syzygies that constitute the Valentinian Pleroma. Though it is
known that Valentinus had a more relaxed approach to
sexuality than much of the Catholic Church (he allowed
women to hold positions of ordination in his community), it is
not known whether the Bridal Chamber was a ritual involving
actual intercourse, or whether human sexuality is here simply
being used in a metaphorical sense.
Of the Carpocratians Irenaeus makes much the same report:
they "are so abandoned in their recklessness that they claim
to have in their power and be able to practise anything
whatsoever that is ungodly (irreligious) and impious ... they
say that conduct is only good or evil in the eyes of man".[46]
Once again a differentiation might be detected between a
175
man's actions and the grace he has received through his

adherence to a system of gnosis; whether this is due to a
common sharing of such an attitude amongst Gnostic circles,
or whether this is simply a blanket-charge used by Irenaeus is
open to conjecture.
On the whole, it would seem that Gnostic behaviour tended
towards the ascetic. This said, the heresiological accusation of
duplicity in such practises should not be taken at face value;
nor should similar accusations of amoral libertinism. The Nag
Hammadi library itself is full of passages which appear to
encourage abstinence over indulgence. Fundamentally,
however, gnostic movements appear to take the "ancient
schema of the two ways, which leaves the decision to do what
is right to human endeavour and promises a reward for those
who make the effort, and punishment for those who are
negligent" (Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis:The Nature and History of
Gnosticism, 262).
Major Gnostic movements[edit source | editbeta]
Schools of Gnosticism can be defined according to one

classification system as being a member of two broad
categories. These are the "Eastern"/"Persian" school, and a
"Syrian-Egyptic" school. The former possesses more
demonstrably dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence
from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. Among
the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they spawned
are a typically more Monist view. Notable exceptions include
relatively modern movements which seem to include
elements of both categories, namely: the Cathars, Bogomils,
and Carpocratians which are included in their own section.
Persian Gnosticism[edit source | editbeta]
The Persian Schools, which appeared in the western Persian
province of Babylonia (in particular, within the Sassanid
176
province of Asuristan), and whose writings were originally

produced in the Aramaic dialects spoken in Babylonia at the
time, are representative of what is believed to be among the
oldest of the Gnostic thought forms. These movements are
considered by most to be religions in their own right, and are
not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.
Mandaeanism is still practiced in small numbers, in parts of
southern Iraq and the Iranian province of Khuzestan. The
name of the group derives from the term Mandā d-Heyyi,
which roughly means "Knowledge of Life." Although the exact
chronological origins of this movement are not known, John
the Baptist eventually would come to be a key figure in the
religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs.
As with Manichaeism, despite certain ties with
Christianity,[47] Mandaeans do not believe in Moses, Jesus, or
Mohammed. Their beliefs and practices likewise have little
overlap with the religions that manifested from those religious
figures and the two should not be confused. Significant
amounts of original Mandaean Scripture, written in
Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The primary
source text is known as the Genzā Rabbā and has portions
identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 2nd
century AD. There is also the Qolastā, or Canonical Book of
Prayer and The Book of John the Baptist (sidra ḏ-iahia).
Manichaeism which represented an entire independent
religious heritage, but is now extinct, was founded by the
Prophet Mani (216 - 276 AD). The original writings were
written in Syriac Aramaic, in a unique Manichaean script.
Although most of the literature/scripture of the Manichaeans
was believed lost, the discovery of an original series of
documents have helped to shed new light on the subject. Now
housed in Cologne Germany, a Manichaean religious work
written in Greek, the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis, contains
177
mainly biographical information on the prophet and details on

his claims and teachings. Before the discovery of these
authentic Manichaean texts, scholars had to rely on anti-
Manichaean polemical works, such as the Christian anti-
Manichaean Acta Archelai (also written in Greek), which has
Mani saying, for example, "The true God has nothing to do
with the material world or cosmos", and, "It is the Prince of
Darkness who spoke with Moses, the Jews and their priests.
Thus the Christians, the Jews, and the Pagans are involved in
the same error when they worship this God. For he leads them
astray in the lusts he taught them."[48][49]
Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism[edit source | editbeta]
The Syrian-Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from
Platonist influences. Typically, it depicts creation in a series of
emanations from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in
the creation of the material universe. As a result, there is a
tendency in these schools to view evil in terms of matter which
is markedly inferior to goodness, evil as lacking spiritual insight
and goodness, rather than to emphasize portrayals of evil as
an equal force. These schools of gnosticism may be said to use
the terms "evil" and "good" as being relative descriptive
terms, as they refer to the relative plight of human existence
caught between such realities and confused in its orientation,
with "evil" indicating the extremes of distance from the
principle and source of goodness, without necessarily
emphasizing an inherent negativity. As can be seen below,
many of these movements included source material related to
Christianity, with some identifying themselves as specifically
Christian (albeit quite different from the Orthodox or Roman
Catholic forms). Most of the literature from this category is
known to us through the Library discovered at Nag Hammadi.
178
179
180
181
Chapter Eleven
Origen Adamantius
Origen (/ˈɒrɪdʒən/; Greek: Ὠριγένης Ōrigénēs), or Origen

Adamantius (184/185 – 253/254),[1] was a scholar, early
Christian theologian and Church Father,[2] who was born and
spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific
writer in multiple branches of theology, including textual
criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, philosophical
theology, preaching, and spirituality. Some of his reputed
teachings, such as the pre-existence of souls, the final
reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil
(the apokatastasis),[3] and the subordination of the Son of
God to God the Father, later became controversial among
Christian theologians. A later group of Egyptian monks who
came to be known as Origenists, and who believed in the
preexistence of souls and the apokatastasis, were declared
anathema in 553 AD. This condemnation is attributed to the
Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, though it does
not appear in the council's official minutes.[4] For this reason
Origen was and is not called a "saint" in either the Catholic or
Orthodox churches.
Origen was born in Alexandria to Christian parents. He was

educated by his father, Leonides of Alexandria, who gave him
a standard Hellenistic education, but also had him study the
Christian Scriptures. The name of his mother is unknown.
In 202, Origen's father was martyred in the outbreak of the
persecution during the reign of Septimius Severus. A story
reported by Eusebius has it that Origen wished to follow him
182
in martyrdom, but was prevented only by his mother hiding

his clothes. The death of Leonides left the family of nine
impoverished when their property was confiscated. Origen,
however, was taken under the protection of a woman of
wealth and standing; but as her household already included a
heretic named Paul, the strictly orthodox Origen seems to
have remained with her only a short time.
Origen allegedly studied under Clement of Alexandria and was

influenced by his thought.
Eusebius, our chief witness to Origen's life, says that in 203
Origen revived the Catechetical School of Alexandria where
Clement of Alexandria had once taught but had apparently
been driven out during the persecution under Severus.[6]
Many modern scholars,[7] however, doubt that Clement's
school had been an official ecclesiastical institution as Origen's
was and thus deny continuity between the two. But the
persecution still raged, and the young teacher visited
imprisoned Christians, attended the courts, and comforted
the condemned, himself preserved from persecution because
the persecution was probably limited only to converts to
Christianity. His fame and the number of his pupils increased
rapidly, so that Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, made him
restrict himself to instruction in Christian doctrine alone.
Asceticism and Castration[edit source | editbeta]
Origen, to be entirely independent, sold his library for a sum
which netted him a daily income of 4 obols, on which he lived
by exercising the utmost frugality.[8] Teaching throughout the
day, he devoted the greater part of the night to the study of
the Bible and lived a life of rigid asceticism.[8]
Eusebius reported that Origen, following Matthew 19:12
literally, castrated himself.[9] This story was accepted during
183
the Middle Ages and was cited by Peter Abelard in his letters
to Heloise.[10] Edward Gibbon, in his work The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, also accepts this story
as true.[11] During the past century, scholars have often
questioned this, surmising that this may have been a rumor
circulated by his detractors.[12][13] Henry Chadwick points
out that, while the story may be true, it seems unlikely, given
that Origen's exposition of Matthew 19:12 "strongly deplored
any literal interpretation of the words".[14] However, many
noted historians, such as Peter Brown and William Placher,
continue to find no reason to deny the truth of Eusebius'
claims.[15]
Travels[edit source | editbeta]
During the reign of emperor Caracalla, about 211-212, Origen
paid a brief visit to Rome, but the relative laxity during the
pontificate of Zephyrinus seems to have disillusioned him, and
on his return to Alexandria he resumed his teaching with zeal
increased by the contrast. But the school had far outgrown the
strength of a single man; the catechumens pressed eagerly for
elementary instruction, and the baptized sought for
interpretation of the Bible. Under these circumstances, Origen
entrusted the teaching of the catechumens to Heraclas, the
brother of the martyr Plutarch, his first pupil.
His own interests became more and more centered in
exegesis, and he accordingly studied Hebrew, though there is
no certain knowledge concerning his instructor in that
language. From about this period (212-213) dates Origen's
acquaintance with Ambrose of Alexandria, whom he was
instrumental in converting from Valentinianism to orthodoxy.
Later (about 218) Ambrose, a man of wealth, made a formal
agreement with Origen to promulgate his writings, and all the
subsequent works of Origen (except his sermons, which were
184
not expressly prepared for publication) were dedicated to

Ambrose.
In 213 or 214, Origen visited Arabia at the request of the
prefect, who wished to have an interview with him; and
Origen accordingly spent a brief time in Petra, after which he
returned to Alexandria. In the following year, a popular
uprising at Alexandria caused Caracalla to let his soldiers
plunder the city, shut the schools, and expel all foreigners. The
latter measure caused Ambrose to take refuge in Caesarea,
where he seems to have made his permanent home; and
Origen left Egypt, apparently going with Ambrose to Caesarea,
where he spent some time. Here, in conformity with local
usage based on Jewish custom, Origen, though not ordained,
preached and interpreted the Scriptures at the request of the
bishops Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea.
When, however, the confusion in Alexandria subsided,
Demetrius recalled Origen, probably in 216.
Of Origen's activity during the next decade little is known, but
it was probably devoted to teaching and writing. The latter
was rendered the more easy for him by Ambrose, who
provided him with more than seven stenographers to take
dictation in relays, as many scribes to prepare long-hand
copies, and a number of girls to multiply the copies. At the
request of Ambrose, he now began a huge commentary on the
Bible, beginning with John, and continuing with Genesis,
Psalms 1-25, and Lamentations, besides brief exegeses of
selected texts (forming the ten books of his Stromateis), two
books on the resurrection, and the work On First Principles.
Conflict with Demetrius and removal to Caesarea[edit source
| editbeta]
Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, at first supported Origen
but later opposed him, disputing his ordination in another
diocese (Caesarea Maritima in Palestine).[16] This
185
ecclesiastical turmoil eventually caused Origen to relocate to

Caesarea, a move which he characterized as divine deliverance
from Egypt akin to that the ancient Hebrews received. About
230, Origen entered on the fateful journey which was to
compel him to give up his work at Alexandria and embittered
the next years of his life. Sent to Greece on some ecclesiastical
mission, he paid a visit to Caesarea, where he was heartily
welcomed and was ordained a priest, that no further cause for
criticism might be given Demetrius, who had strongly
disapproved his preaching before ordination while at
Caesarea. But Demetrius, taking this well-meant act as an
infringement of his rights, was furious, for not only was Origen
under his jurisdiction as bishop of Alexandria, but, if Eastern
sources may be believed, Demetrius had been the first to
introduce episcopal ordination in Egypt. The metropolitan
accordingly convened a synod of bishops and presbyters
which banished Origen from Alexandria, while a second synod
declared his ordination invalid.
Origen accordingly fled from Alexandria in 231-2, and made
his permanent home in Caesarea in Palestine, where his friend
Theoctistus was bishop.[17] A series of attacks on him seems
to have emanated from Alexandria, whether for his self-
castration (a capital crime in Roman law) or for alleged
heterodoxy is unknown; but at all events these fulminations
were heeded only at Rome, while Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia,
and Achaia paid no attention to them. At Alexandria, Heraclas
became head of Origen's school, and shortly afterward, on the
death of Demetrius, was consecrated bishop.
During this time at Caesarea in Palestine (232-5), he resumed
work on the Commentary on John, composing at least books
6-10, wrote the treatise On Prayer, and, some time in the first
half of the year 235, composed his Exhortation to
Martyrdom.[18] Approximately three years after his arrival in
186
Caesarea in Palestine, Origen's life as a scholar was again

interrupted by the persecution of Maximinus Thrax(AD235-8).
He took refuge at Caesarea in Cappadocia. At Caesarea, Origen
was joyfully received, was the guest of Firmilian, bishop of
Caesarea in Cappadocia, and perhaps also of the empress-
dowager Julia Avita Mamaea.[19]
After the death of Maximinus, Origen resumed his life in
Caesarea of Palestine. Little is known of the last twenty years
of Origen's life. He founded a school where Gregory
Thaumaturgus, later bishop of Pontus, was one of the pupils.
He preached regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and later
daily. He taught dialectics, physics, ethics, and metaphysics.
He evidently, however, developed an extraordinary literary
productivity, broken by occasional journeys; one of which, to
Athens during some unknown year, was of sufficient length to
allow him time for research.
After his return from Athens, he succeeded in converting
Beryllus, bishop of Bostra, from his adoptionistic (i.e., belief
that Jesus was born human and only became divine after his
baptism) views to the orthodox faith; yet in these very years
(about 240) probably occurred the attacks on Origen's own
orthodoxy which compelled him to defend himself in writing
to Pope Fabian and many bishops. Neither the source nor the
object of these attacks is known, though the latter may have
been connected with Novatianism (a strict refusal to accept
Christians who had denied their faith under persecution).
After his conversion of Beryllus, however, his aid was
frequently invoked against heresies. Thus, when the doctrine
was promulgated in Arabia that the soul died and decayed
with the body, being restored to life only at the resurrection
(see soul sleep), appeal was made to Origen, who journeyed
to Arabia, and successfully battled this doctrine.
187
There was second outbreak of the Antonine Plague, which at

its height in 251 to 266 took the lives of 5,000 a day in Rome.
This time it was called the Plague of Cyprian. Emperor Decius,
believing the plague to be a product of magic, caused by the
failure of Christians to recognize him as Divine, began
Christian persecutions.[20] This time Origen did not
escape[21] the Decian persecution. Eusebius recounted[22]
how Origen suffered "bodily tortures and torments under the
iron collar and in the dungeon; and how for many days with
his feet stretched four spaces in the stocks"[23] Though he did
not die while being tortured, he died three years later due to
injuries sustained at the age of 69.[24] A later legend,
recounted by Jerome and numerous itineraries, places his
death and burial at Tyre, but to this little value can be
attached.[25]
Works[edit source | editbeta]

(May 2007)
This section possibly contains original research. Please

improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline
citations. Statements consisting only of original research may
be removed. (May 2007)
Origen, Illustration from "Les Vrais Portraits Et Vies Des

Hommes Illustres" by André Thévet
Origen excelled in multiple branches of theological
scholarship. For instance, he was the greatest textual critic of
188
the early Church, directing the production of the massive

Hexapla ("Sixfold"), an Old Testament in six columns: Hebrew,
Hebrew in Greek characters, the Septuagint, and the Greek
versions of Theodotion, Aquila of Sinope, and Symmachus. He
was one of the greatest biblical scholars of the early Church,
having written commentaries on most of the books of the
Bible, though few are extant. He interpreted scripture both
literally and allegorically. Origen was largely responsible for
the collection of usage information regarding the texts which
became the New Testament. The information used to create
the late-fourth-century Easter Letter, which declared
accepted Christian writings, was probably based on the
Ecclesiastical History [HE] of Eusebius of Caesarea, wherein he
uses the information passed on to him by Origen to create
both his list at HE 3:25 and Origen’s list at HE 6:25. Eusebius
got his information about what texts were accepted by the
third-century churches throughout the known world, a great
deal of which Origen knew of firsthand from his extensive
travels, from the library and writings of Origen.[26] In fact,
Origen would have possibly included in his list of “inspired
writings” other texts which were kept out by the likes of
Eusebius, including the Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of
Hermas, and 1 Clement. "Origen is not the originator of the
idea of biblical canon, but he certainly gives the philosophical
and literary-interpretative underpinnings for the whole
notion."[27] As a theologian, in De principiis (On First
Principles), he articulated one of the first philosophical
expositions of Christian doctrine. Having been educated in
classical and philosophical studies, some of his teachings were
influenced by and engaged with aspects of Neo-Pythagorean,
Neo-Platonist, and other strains of contemporary
philosophical thought. An ordained priest in Palestine, he has
left posterity numerous homilies on various books of the Bible.
189
Finally, he has also been regarded as a spiritual master for such

works as An Exhortation to Martyrdom and On Prayer.
In 2012, 29 unpublished homilies by Origen were discovered
in the Bavarian State Library.[28]
Exegetical writings[edit source | editbeta]
According to Epiphanius,[29] Origen wrote about 6,000 works
(i.e., rolls or chapters). A list was given by Eusebius in his lost
Life of Pamphilus,[30] which was apparently known to
Jerome.[31] These fall into four classes: textual criticism;
exegesis; systematic, practical, and apologetic theology; and
letters; besides certain spurious works.
By far the most important work of Origen on textual criticism
was the Hexapla, a comparative study of various translations
of the Old Testament.
The full text of the Hexapla is no longer extant. Some portions
were discovered in Milan indicating that at least some
individual parts existed much longer than was previously
thought. The Hexapla has been referred to by later
manuscripts and authors, and represented the precursor to
the parallel bible.
The Tetrapla was an abbreviation of the Hexapla in which
Origen placed only the translations (Aquila, Symmachus,
Theodotion, and the Septuagint) in parallels.
He was likewise keenly conscious of the textual difficulties in
the manuscripts of the New Testament, although he never
wrote definitely on this subject. In his exegetical writings he
frequently alludes to the variant readings, but his habit of
making rough citations in his dictation, the verification being
left to the scribes, renders it impossible to deduce his text
from his commentaries. Eusebius in Ecclesiastical History
6.25.7 strongly implies Origen disputed the authenticity of the
Letters of Paul when he wrote that Paul did not write to all the
churches that he taught and even to the ones he wrote he only
190
sent a few lines. However, Origen's own writings refer often

to the words of Paul.
The exegetical writings of Origen fall into three classes:
scholia, or brief summaries of the meaning of difficult
passages
homilies
"books", or commentaries in the strict sense of the term.
Jerome states that there were scholia on Leviticus, Psalms i.-
xv., Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and part of John. The Stromateis were
of a similar character, and the margin of Codex Athous Laura,
184, contains citations from this work on Rom. 9:23; I Cor.
6:14, 7:31, 34, 9:20-21, 10:9, besides a few other fragments.
Homilies on almost the entire Bible were prepared by Origen.
There are 205, and possibly 279, homilies of Origen that are
extant either in Greek or in Latin translations.[32] The homilies
preserved are on Genesis (16), Exodus (13), Leviticus (16),
Numbers (28), Joshua (26), Judges (9), I Sam. (2), Psalms 36-38
(9),[33] Canticles (2), Isaiah (9), Jeremiah (7 Greek, 2 Latin, 12
Greek and Latin), Ezekiel (14), and Luke (39). The homilies
were preached in the church at Caesarea, with the exception
of the two on 1 Samuel which were delivered in Jerusalem.
Nautin has argued that they were all preached in a three-year
liturgical cycle some time between 238 and 244, preceding the
Commentary on the Song of Songs, where Origen refers to
homilies on Judges, Exodus, Numbers, and a work on
Leviticus.[34]
It is not improbable that Origen gave no attention to
supervising the publication of his homilies, for only by such a
hypothesis can the numerous evidences of carelessness in
diction be explained. The exegesis of the homilies was simpler
than that of the scientific commentaries, but nevertheless
demanded no mean degree of intelligence from the auditor.
Origen's chief aim was the practical exposition of the text,
191
verse by verse; and while in such barren books as Leviticus and

Numbers he sought to allegorize, the wealth of material in the
prophets seldom rendered it necessary for him to seek
meanings deeper than the surface afforded.
On June 11, 2012, the Bavarian National Library announced
the discovery by philologist Marina Molin Pradel of unknown
original texts of homilies by Origenes in a twelfth-century
Greek manuscript.[2] The attribution to Origen has been
confirmed by experts like Prof. Lorenzo Perrone of the
Bologna University. [3]
Extant commentaries of Origen[edit source | editbeta]
The object of Origen's commentaries was to give an exegesis
that discriminated strictly against historical significance, in
favour of a "hidden" spiritual truth. At the same time, he
neglected neither philological nor geographical, historical nor
antiquarian material, to all of which he devoted numerous
excursuses.
In his commentary on John he constantly considered the
exegesis of the Valentinian Heracleon (probably at the
insistence of Ambrose), and in many other places he implied
or expressly cited Gnostic views and refuted them.[35]
Unfortunately, only meagre fragments of the commentaries
have survived. Three commentaries on New Testament books
survive in large measure. Of the 32 books in the Commentary
on John, only nine have been preserved.[36] The Commentary
on Romans is extant only in the abbreviated Latin translation
of Rufinus, though some Greek fragments also exist.[37] The
eight books preserved of the Commentary on Matthew (Books
10-17) cover Matthew 13.36-22.33. There also exists a Latin
translation of the commentary by an unknown translator
which covers Matthew 16.13-27.66[38] One commentary on a
book of the Old Testament, the Commentary on the Song of
192
Songs, has also been preserved in part, in a Latin translation of

Rufinus.[39]
Fragments of some other commentaries survive. Citations in
Origen's Philocalia include fragments of the third book of the
commentary on Genesis. There is also Ps. i, iv.1, the small
commentary on Canticles, and the second book of the large
commentary on the same, the twentieth book of the
commentary on Ezekiel,[40] and the commentary on Hosea.
Of the non-extant commentaries, there is limited evidence of
their arrangement.[41]
Dogmatic, practical, and apologetic writings[edit source |
editbeta]
Study of On First Principles has occupied centre stage in
studies of Origen since the fourth century. It is perhaps written
for his more advanced pupils at Alexandria and probably
composed between 212 and 215. It is extant only in the free
translation of Rufinus of 397,[42] except for fragments (books
3.1 and 4.1-3) preserved in Origen's Philocalia, and smaller
citations in Justinian's letter to Mennas.
In the first book the author considers God, the Logos, the Holy
Ghost, reason, and the angels; in the second the world and
man (including the incarnation of the Logos, the soul, free will,
and eschatology); in the third, the doctrine of sin and
redemption; and in the fourth, the Scriptures; the whole being
concluded with a résumé of the entire system. The work is
noteworthy as the first endeavor to present Christianity as a
complete theory of the universe, and was designed to remove
the difficulties felt by many Christians concerning the essential
basis of their faith.
Between 232-235, while in Caesarea in Palestine, Origen
wrote On Prayer. This is preserved entire in Greek. After an
introduction on the object, necessity, and advantage of
prayer, ends with an exegesis of the Lord's Prayer, concluding
193
with remarks on the position, place, and attitude to be

assumed during prayer, as well as on the classes of prayer.
On Martyrdom, or the Exhortation to Martyrdom, also
preserved entire in Greek, was written some time after the
beginning of the persecution of Maximinus in the first half of
235. In it, Origen warns against any trifling with idolatry and
emphasizes the duty of suffering martyrdom manfully; while
in the second part he explains the meaning of martyrdom.
Against Celsus, preserved entire in Greek, was Origen's last
treatise, written about 248. Ambrose had requested that
Origen provide an answer to a book entitled The True Doctrine
which attacked Christianity, and had been written some time
in the second century by an unknown Middle Platonic
philosopher named Celsus.[43] In Against Celsus, Origen drew
freely on the Greek philosophers and poets as well as the Bible
to provide a rational basis for holding the Christian faith.[44]
The papyri discovered at Tura in 1941 contained the Greek
text of two previously unknown works of Origen. Neither work
can be dated precisely, though both were probably written
after the persecution of Maximinus in 235. One is On the
Pascha. The other is Dialogue of Origen with Heraclides and
the Bishops with him concerning the Father and the Son and
the soul.[45][46]
Lost works include two books on the resurrection, written
before On First Principles, and also two dialogues on the same
theme dedicated to Ambrose.
Eusebius had a collection of more than one hundred letters of
Origen,[47] and the list of Jerome speaks of several books of
his epistles. Except for a few fragments, only three letters have
been preserved. The first, partly preserved in the Latin
translation of Rufinus, is addressed to friends in
Alexandria.[48] The second is a short letter to Gregory
Thaumaturgus, preserved in the Philocalia. The third is an
194
epistle to Sextus Julius Africanus, extant in Greek, replying to

a letter from Africanus (also extant), and defending the
authenticity of the Greek additions to the book of Daniel.
Forgeries of the writings of Origen made in his lifetime are
discussed by Rufinus in De adulteratione librorum Origenis.
The Dialogus de recta in Deum fide, the Philosophumena of
Hippolytus of Rome, and the Commentary on Job by Julian of
Halicarnassus have also been ascribed to him.
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195
Origen, allegedly trained in the school of Clement and by his

father, has long been considered essentially a Platonist with
occasional traces of Stoic philosophy. Patristic scholar Mark J
Edwards has argued that many of Origen's positions are more
properly Aristotelian than strictly Platonic (for instance, his
philosophical anthropology). Nonetheless, he was thus a
pronounced idealist, as one regarding all things temporal and
material as insignificant and indifferent, the only real and
eternal things being comprised in the idea. He therefore
regards as the purely ideal center of this spiritual and eternal
world, God, the pure reason, whose creative powers call into
being the world with matter as the necessary substratum.
Origen's cosmology is complicated and controverted, but he
seems to have held to a hypothesis of the preexistence of
souls, before the world we know was created by God, God
created a great number of spiritual intelligences. At first
devoted to the contemplation and love of their creator, almost
all of these intelligences eventually grew bored of
contemplating God, their love for him cooling off. Those
whose love for God diminished the most became demons.
Those whose love diminished moderately became human
souls, eventually to be incarnated in fleshly bodies. Those
whose love diminished the least became angels. One,
however, who remained perfectly devoted to God became,
through love, one with the Word (Logos) of God. The Logos
eventually took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary,
becoming the God-man Jesus Christ. The diverse conditions in
which human beings are born is actually dependent upon
what their souls did in this pre-existent state. Thus what seems
unfair, some being born poor and others wealthy, some sick
and others healthy, and so forth, is, Origen insists, actually in
a by-product of the free-will of souls. Thus, material creation
is at least implicitly of a lesser ontological category than the
196
immaterial, or spiritual, and the heavy material bodies that

man assumes after the fall will eventually be cast off. Origen,
however, still insisted on a bodily resurrection, but in contrast
to Athenagoras, who believed that earthly bodies would be
precisely reconstituted in the hereafter, Origen argued that
Paul's notion of a flourishing spiritual body is more
appropriate.
He was, indeed, a rigid adherent of the Bible, making no
statement without adducing some Scriptural basis. To him the
Bible was divinely inspired, as was proved both by the
fulfilment of prophecy and by the immediate impression
which the Scriptures made on those who read them. Since the
divine Logos spoke in the Scriptures, they were an organic
whole and on every occasion he combatted the Gnostic tenet
of the inferiority of the Old Testament.
In his exegesis, Origen sought to discover the deeper meaning
implied in the Scriptures. One of his chief methods was the
translation of proper names, which enabled him, like Philo, to
find a deep meaning even in every event of history (see
hermeneutics), but at the same time he insisted on an exact
grammatical interpretation of the text as the basis of all
exegesis.
A strict adherent of the Church, Origen yet distinguished
sharply between the ideal and the empirical Church,
representing "a double church of men and angels",[49] or, in
Platonic phraseology, the lower church and its celestial ideal.
The ideal Church alone was the Church of Christ, scattered
over all the earth; the other provided also a shelter for sinners.
Holding that the Church, as being in possession of the
mysteries, affords the only means of salvation, he was
indifferent to her external organization,[49] although he
spoke sometimes of the office-bearers as the pillars of the
Church, and of their heavy duties and responsibilities.
197
More important to him was the idea borrowed from Plato of

the grand division between the great human multitude,
capable of sensual vision only, and those who know how to
comprehend the hidden meaning of Scripture and the diverse
mysteries, church organization being for the former only.[49]
It is doubtful whether Origen possessed an obligatory creed;
at any rate, such a confession of faith was not a norm like the
inspired word of Scripture. The reason, illumined by the divine
Logos, which is able to search the secret depths of the divine
nature, remains as the only source of knowledge.[49]
Theological and dogmatic[edit source | editbeta]
Origen's conception of God is apophatic—God is a perfect
unity, invisible and incorporeal, transcending all things
material, and therefore inconceivable and incomprehensible.
He is likewise unchangeable, and transcends space and time.
But his power is limited by his goodness, justice, and wisdom;
and, though entirely free from necessity, his goodness and
omnipotence constrained him to reveal himself.
This revelation, the external self-emanation of God, is
expressed by Origen in various ways, the Logos being only one
of many. Revelation was the first creation of God (cf. Prov. viii.
22), in order to afford creative mediation between God and
the world, such mediation being necessary, because God, as
changeless unity, could not be the source of a multitudinous
creation.
The Logos is the rational creative principle that permeates the
universe. Since God eternally manifests himself, the Logos is
likewise eternal. He forms a bridge between the created and
uncreated, and only through him, as the visible representative
of divine wisdom, can the inconceivable and incorporeal God
be known. Creation came into existence only through the
Logos, and God's nearest approach to the world is the
command to create. While the Logos is substantially a unity,
198
he comprehends a multiplicity of concepts, so that Origen

terms him, in Platonic fashion, "essence of essences" and
"idea of ideas".
The defense of the unity of God against the Gnostics led
Origen to maintain the subordination of the Logos to God, and
the doctrine of the eternal generation is later.[50] Origen
distinctly emphasised the independence of the Logos as well
as the distinction from the being and substance of God. The
term "of the same substance with the Father" was not
employed. The Logos (and the Holy Spirit also) however, does
share in the divinity of God. He is an image, a reflex of God, in
which God communicates his divinity, as light radiating from
the sun.
The Logos doctrine and cosmology[edit source | editbeta]
The activity of the Logos was conceived by Origen in Platonic
fashion, as the world soul, wherein God manifested his
omnipotence. His first creative act was the divine spirit, as an
independent existence; and partial reflexes of the Logos were
the created rational beings, who, as they had to revert to the
perfect God as their background, must likewise be perfect; yet
their perfection, unlike in kind with that of God, the Logos, and
the divine spirit, had to be attained. The freedom of the will is
an essential fact of the reason, notwithstanding the
foreknowledge of God. The Logos, eternally creative, forms an
endless series of finite, comprehensible worlds, which are
mutually alternative. Combining the Stoic doctrine of a
universe without beginning with the Biblical doctrine of the
beginning and the end of the world, he conceived of the visible
world as the stages of an eternal cosmic process, affording
also an explanation of the diversity of human fortunes,
rewards, and punishments. The material world, which at first
had no place in this eternal spiritual progression, was due to
the fall of the spirits from God, the first being the serpent, who
199
was imprisoned in matter and body. The ultimate aim of God

in the creation of matter out of nothing was not punishment,
but the upraising of the fallen spirits. Man's accidental being
is rooted in transitory matter, but his higher nature is formed
in the image of the Creator. The soul is divided into the
rational and the irrational, the latter being material and
transitory, while the former, incorporeal and immaterial,
possesses freedom of the will and the power to reascend to
purer life. The strong ethical import of this cosmic process can
not remain unnoticed. The return to original being through
divine reason is the object of the entire cosmic process.
Through the worlds which follow each other in eternal
succession, the spirits are able to return to Paradise. God so
ordered the universe that all individual acts work together
toward one cosmic end which culminates in himself. Likewise
as to Origen's anthropology, man conceived in the image of
God is able by imitating God in good works to become like
God, if he first recognizes his own weakness and trusts all to
the divine goodness. He is aided by guardian angels, but more
especially by the Logos who operates through saints and
prophets in proportion to the constitution of these and man's
capacity.
Christology[edit source | editbeta]
The culmination of this gradual revelation is the universal
revelation of Christ. In Christ, God, hitherto manifest only as
the Lord, appeared as the Father. The incarnation of the Logos,
moreover, was necessary since otherwise he would not be
intelligible to sensual man; but the indwelling of the Logos
remained a mystery, which could be represented only by the
analogy of his indwelling in the saints; nor could Origen fully
explain it. He speaks of a "remarkable body", and in his opinion
that the mortal body of Jesus was transformed by God into an
ethereal and divine body, Origen approximated the Docetism
200
that he otherwise abhorred. His concept of the soul of Jesus is

likewise uncertain and wavering. He proposes the question
whether it was not originally perfect with God but, emanating
from him, at his command assumed a material body. As he
conceived matter as merely the universal limit of created
spirits, so would it be impossible to state in what form the two
were combined. He dismissed the solution by referring it to
the mystery of the divine governance of the universe. More
logically did he declare the material nature of the world to be
merely an episode in the spiritual process of development,
whose end should be the annihilation of all matter and return
to God, who should again be all in all. The doctrine of the
resurrection of the body he upholds by the explanation that
the Logos maintains the unity of man's existence by ever
changing his body into new forms, thus preserving the unity
and identity of personality in harmony with the tenet of an
endless cosmic process. Origen's concept of the Logos allowed
him to make no definite statement on the redemptive work of
Jesus. Since sin was ultimately only negative as a lack of pure
knowledge, the activity of Jesus was essentially example and
instruction, and his human life was only incidental as
contrasted with the immanent cosmic activity of the Logos.
Origen regarded the death of Jesus as a sacrifice, paralleling it
with other cases of self-sacrifice for the general good. On this,
Origen's accord with the teachings of the Church was merely
superficial.[citation needed]
Eschatology[edit source | editbeta]
His idealizing tendency to consider the spiritual alone as real,
fundamental to his entire system, led him to combat the
"rude"[51] or "crude"[52] Chiliasm (see Christian eschatology)
of a sensual beyond. His position on the literal resurrection of
physical bodies is difficult, but in both the Contra Celsum and
On First Principles, Origen affirms some form of bodily
201
resurrection, but eschews the notion that earthly bodies will

be raised, on account of their gross materiality.[53] Yet he
constrained himself from breaking entirely with the distinct
celestial hopes and representations of Paradise prevalent in
the Church. He represents a progressive purification of souls,
until, cleansed of all clouds of evil, they should know the truth
and God as the Son knew him, see God face to face, and attain
a full possession of the Holy Spirit and union with God. The
means of attainment of this end were described by Origen in
different ways, the most important of which was his concept
of a purifying fire which should cleanse the world of evil and
thus lead to cosmic renovation. By a further spiritualization
Origen could call God himself this consuming fire. In
proportion as the souls were freed from sin and ignorance, the
material world was to pass away, until, after endless eons, at
the final end, God should be all in all, and the worlds and spirits
should return to a knowledge of God; in Greek this is called
Apokatastasis.
Character[edit source | editbeta]
In Origen the Christian Church had its first theologian.[54] His

teaching was not merely theoretical, but was also imbued with
an intense ethical power. To the multitude to whom his
instruction was beyond grasp, he left mediating images and
symbols, as well as the final goal of attainment. In Origen
Christianity blended with the pagan philosophy in which lived
the desire for truth and the longing after God. Origen had
many admirers and followers, one in particular, Dionysius of
Alexandria, who caused controversy throughout Libya in 259
due to his theology in regards to the unity of the trinity.[55]
Three centuries later his very name was stricken from the
books of the Church; yet in the monasteries of the Greeks his
202
influence still lived on, as the spiritual father of Greek

monasticism.
Origen's influence on the later church[edit source | editbeta]
Anathemas (544, 553)[edit source | editbeta]

Patriarch Mennas of Constantinople condemned Origen and a
form of apocatastasis at the Synod of Constantinople (543);
the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 ratified the condemnation.
Many heteroclite views became associated with Origen, and
the 15 anathemas attributed to the council condemn a form
of apocatastasis along with the pre-existence of the soul,
animism (a heterodox Christology), and a denial of real and
lasting resurrection of the body.[4] Some authorities believe
these anathemas belong to an earlier local synod.[56] The
anathema against Origen in his person, declaring him (among
others) a heretic, reads as follows:
If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius,
Macedonius, Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, as
well as their impious writings, as also all other heretics already
condemned and anathematized by the Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church, and by the aforesaid four Holy Synods and
[if anyone does not equally anathematize] all those who have
held and hold or who in their impiety persist in holding to the
end the same opinion as those heretics just mentioned: let
him be anathema.[57]
As a result of this condemnation, the writings of Origen
supporting his teachings in these areas were destroyed. They
were either destroyed outright, or translated with the
appropriate adjustments to eliminate conflict with orthodox
Christian doctrine. Therefore, little direct evidence remains to
fully confirm or disprove Origen's support of the nine points of
anathema against him.
203
The Fifth Ecumenical Council addressed what was called "The

Three Chapters"[58] and opposed a form of Origenism which
truly had nothing to do with Origen and Origenist views. In
fact, Popes Vigilius (537-555), Pelagius I (556-61), Pelagius II
(579-90), and Gregory the Great (590-604) were only aware
that the Fifth Council specifically dealt with the Three Chapters
and make no mention of Origenism or Universalism, nor spoke
as if they knew of its condemnation - even though Gregory the
Great opposed the belief of universalism.[13]
The Emperor Justinian denied[clarification needed]
apocatastasis.[59]
Origen in the 1970s[edit source | editbeta]
The book Reincarnation in Christianity, by the theosophist
Geddes MacGregor (1978) asserted that Origen believed in
reincarnation. MacGregor is convinced that Origen believed in
and taught about reincarnation but that his texts written
about the subject have been destroyed. He admits that there
is no extant proof for that position.[60] The allegation was also
repeated by Shirley MacLaine in her book Out On a
Limb.[citation needed]
He wrote about the Greeks' transmigration of the soul, with
which he did not agree.[61] This can be confirmed from the
extant writings of Origen. He was cognizant of the concept of
transmigration (metensomatosis transformation, and loses
what it once was, the human soul will not be what it was[62] )
from Greek philosophy, but it is repeatedly stated that this
concept is not a part of the Christian teaching or scripture. In
his Comment on the Gospel of Matthew, which stems from a
6th-century Latin translation, it is written: "In this place [when
Jesus said Elijah was come and referred to John the Baptist] it
does not appear to me that by Elijah the soul is spoken of, lest
I fall into the doctrine of transmigration, which is foreign to
the Church of God, and not handed down by the apostles, nor
204
anywhere set forth in the scriptures" (ibid., 13:1:46–53 [63]).

Conversely, in Against Celsus, Origen says:
. . . .but we know that the soul, which is immaterial and
invisible in its nature, exists in no material place, without
having a body suited to the nature of that place. Accordingly,
it at one time puts off one body which was necessary before,
but which is no longer adequate in its changed state, and it
exchanges it for a second; and at another time it assumes
another in addition to the former, which is needed as a better
covering, suited to the purer ethereal regions of heaven.
When it comes into the world at birth, it casts off the
integuments which it needed in the womb; and before doing
this, it puts on another body suited for its life upon earth.
205
Chapter Twelve
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed tradition or the Reformed

faith) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the
theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John
Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. Calvinists
broke with the Roman Catholic church but differed with
Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Lord's supper,
theories of worship, and the use of God's law for believers,
among other things.[1][2]
Calvinism can be a misleading term because the religious
tradition it denotes is and has always been diverse, with a wide
range of influences rather than a single founder. The
206
movement was first called "Calvinism" by Lutherans who

opposed it, and many within the tradition would prefer to use
the word Reformed.[3][4] Since the Arminian controversy, the
Reformed (as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from
Lutheranism) are divided into Arminians and Calvinists,
however it is now rare to call Arminians Reformed, as many
see these two schools of thought as opposed, making the
terms Calvinist and Reformed synonymous.[5][6]
While the Reformed theological tradition addresses all of the
traditional topics of Christian theology, the word Calvinism is
sometimes used to refer to particular Calvinist views on
soteriology and predestination, which are summarized in part
by the five points of Calvinism. Some have also argued that
Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in
all things – in salvation but also in all of life.
Early influential Reformed theologians include John Calvin,
Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr
Vermigli, Theodor Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth
century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B. Warfield,
Karl Barth, and Cornelius Van Til were influential, while
contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I. Packer, R. C.
Sproul, David F. Wells, and Michael Horton.
A 2011 report of the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life
estimated that members of Presbyterian or Reformed
churches make up 7% of the 801 million Protestants globally,
or approximately 56 million people.
First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych
Zwingli (1484–1531), Martin Bucer (1491–1551), Wolfgang
Capito (1478–1541), John Oecolampadius (1482–1531), and
Guillaume Farel (1489–1565). These reformers came from
diverse academic backgrounds, but later distinctives of
Reformed theology can already be detected in their thought,
especially the priority of scripture as a source of authority.
207
Scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a

covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another
Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their
denial of the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper.
Each of these theologians also understood salvation to be by
grace alone, and affirmed a doctrine of particular election (the
teaching that some people are chosen by God for salvation).
Martin Luther and his successor Phillip Melanchthon were
undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, and
to a larger extent later Reformed theologians. The doctrine of
justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from
Luther.[8]
John Calvin (1509–64), Heinrich Bullinger (1504–75),
Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563), Peter Martyr Vermigli
(1500-62), and Andreas Hyperius (1511–64) belong to the
second generation of Reformed theologians. Calvin's
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536–59) was one of the
most influential theologies of the era.[9] Toward the middle of
the 16th century, the Reformed began to commit their beliefs
to confessions of faith, which would shape the future
definition of the Reformed faith. The 1549 Consensus
Tigurinus brought together those who followed Zwingli and
Bullinger's memorialist theology of the Lord's supper, which
taught that the supper simply serves as a reminder of Christ's
death, and Calvin's view that the supper serves as a means of
grace with Christ actually present, though spiritually rather
than bodily. The document demonstrates the diversity as well
as unity in early Reformed theology. The remainder of the
16th century saw an explosion of confessional activity. The
stability and breadth of Reformed theology during this period
stand in marked contrast to the bitter controversy
208
experienced by Lutherans prior to the 1579 Formula of

Concord.[10]
Due to Calvin's missionary work in France, his programme of
reform eventually reached the French-speaking provinces of
the Netherlands. Calvinism was adopted in the Electorate of
the Palatinate under Frederick III, which led to the formulation
of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563. This and the Belgic
Confession were adopted as confessional standards in the first
synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1571. Leading divines,
either Calvinist or those sympathetic to Calvinism, settled in
England (Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Jan Laski) and
Scotland (John Knox). During the English Civil War, the
Calvinistic Puritans produced the Westminster Confession,
which became the confessional standard for Presbyterians in
the English-speaking world. Having established itself in
Europe, the movement continued to spread to other parts of
the world including North America, South Africa, and
Korea.[11]
Calvin did not live to see the foundation of his work grow into
an international movement; but his death allowed his ideas to
break out of their city of origin, to succeed far beyond their
borders, and to establish their own distinct character.[12]
Spread[edit source | editbeta]
Calvinism has been known at times for its simple, unadorned

churches and lifestyles, as depicted in this painting by
Emmanuel de Witte c.1661
Although much of Calvin's work was in Geneva, his
publications spread his ideas of a "correctly" reformed church
to many parts of Europe. Calvinism became the theological
system of the majority in Scotland (see John Knox), the
Netherlands, with men such as William Ames, T. J.
209
Frelinghuysen and Wilhelmus à Brakel and parts of Germany

(especially those adjacent to the Netherlands) with the likes of
Olevianus and his colleague Zacharias Ursinus. It was
influential in France, Hungary, then-independent
Transylvania, Lithuania and Poland. Calvinism gained some
popularity in Scandinavia, especially Sweden, but was rejected
in favor of Lutheranism after the Synod of Uppsala in 1593.[13]
Most settlers in the American Mid-Atlantic and New England
were Calvinists, including the English Puritans, the French
Huguenot and Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (New York),
and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Appalachian back
country. Dutch Calvinist settlers were also the first successful
European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th
century, who became known as Boers or Afrikaners.
Sierra Leone was largely colonized by Calvinist settlers from
Nova Scotia, who were largely Black Loyalists, blacks who had
fought for the British during the American War of
Independence. John Marrant had organized a congregation
there under the auspices of the Huntingdon Connection. Some
of the largest Calvinist communions were started by 19th and
20th century missionaries. Especially large are those in
Indonesia, Korea and Nigeria.[citation needed]
A 2011 report of the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life
estimated that members of Presbyterian or Reformed
churches make up 7% of the 801 million Protestants globally,
or approximately 56 million people.[7] Today, the World
Communion of Reformed Churches, which includes some
United Churches, has 80 million believers.[14]
Scripture[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Sola scriptura
210
The Geneva Bible was popular among early Calvinists,

especially Puritans
Calvinists believe that the Bible (not including the
Deuterocanonicals) is the infallible Word of God, and contains
all the revelations of God which he designed to be a rule of
faith and practice for his Church. The Calvinist doctrine of
perspicuity teaches that everything necessary for salvation is
taught in the Scriptures plainly enough that special training is
not required for interpretation. Church officers are given the
authority to preach what is contained within the Scriptures,
but this does not permit them to bind Christians to their own
interpretation. Christians are to compare interpretations with
one another, and even give deference to other Christians and
especially the officers ordained above them, but they are
always free to personally interpret Scripture.[15]
Law and Gospel[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Law and Gospel
Following Lutheran theologians, the Reformed sharply
contrast the law and gospel as "the chief and general divisions
of the holy scriptures." The law contains the moral
requirements of God, and is equated with the decalogue,
while the gospel is the free offer of forgiveness of sin.[16]
While there may be subtle differences between the Reformed
and Lutheran presentations of this doctrine, it has a prominent
place in Reformed theology.[17]
The law is given three uses: the political or civil use which is a
restraint on sin and stands apart from the work of salvation,
the elenctical or pedagogical use which confronts sin and
points one to Christ for forgiveness of sin, and the didactic use
which teaches believers the way of righteousness, but does
not have any power to condemn.[2] Lutheran and Reformed
theologians differed primarily on the way in which the third
211
use functions for believers. The Reformed emphasized the

third use (tertius usus legis) because the redeemed are
expected to bear good works. Some Lutherans saw here the
danger of works-righteousness, and argued that the third use
should always return believers to the second use and again to
Christ rather than being the ultimate norm.[2]
Covenant theology[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Covenant theology
Although the doctrines of grace have generally received the
greater focus in contemporary Calvinism, covenant theology is
the historic superstructure that unifies the entire system of
doctrine.[18]
Calvinists take God's transcendence to mean that the
relationship between God and his creation must be by
voluntary condescension on God's part. This relationship he
establishes is covenantal: the terms of the relationship are
unchangeably decreed by God alone.[19]
Reformed writings commonly refer to an intra-Trinitarian
covenant of redemption. The greater focus is the relationship
between God and man, which in historic Calvinism is seen as
bi-covenantal, reflecting the early Reformation distinction
between Law and Gospel. The covenant of works
encompasses the moral and natural law, dictating the terms
of creation. By its terms, man would enjoy eternal life and
blessedness based on his continued personal and perfect
righteousness. With the fall of man, this covenant continues
to operate, but only to condemn sinful man.[20] The covenant
of grace is instituted at the fall, and administered through
successive historic covenants seen in Scripture for the purpose
of redemption. By its terms, salvation comes not by any
personal performance, but by promise. Peace with God comes
only through a mediator, the fulfillment of which is found in
the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ is seen as the
212
federal head of his elect people, and thus the covenant is the
basis of the doctrines of the substitutionary atonement and
the imputation of the active obedience of Christ.[21][22]
Salvation[edit source | editbeta]
Sovereign grace[edit source | editbeta]
Calvinism teaches that people are totally depraved or totally
inadequate in their ethical nature, necessitating the sovereign
grace of God for salvation. It states that fallen people are
morally and spiritually incapable of following God or
redeeming themselves.[23] They see redemption as the work
of God; God changes their unwilling hearts from rebellion to
eager obedience.
In this view people are at the complete and total mercy of God,
who would be just in condemning all people for their sins,
though God has chosen to show mercy to some, not all. Some
are saved while others are condemned, not because of
inclination, faith or any other virtue in people but because God
chooses to have mercy on them (Romans 9:16-17) according
to his own purpose which is unknown (Romans 8:28).[24] A
person must believe the gospel and repent to be saved, this
compliance of faith is a gift from God, and thus God
completely and sovereignly achieves the salvation of sinners.
Many Reformed theologians teach that people are
predestinated to damnation (as the doctrine of reprobation).
There is less agreement among the Reformed regarding
reprobation than predestination to salvation (the doctrine of
election).
In practice, Calvinists teach sovereign grace mostly for
encouragement of the church because Calvinists believe the
doctrine validates the extent of God's love for saving those
who are not able to follow him, or choose not to do so, as well
as defeating pride and self-reliance and stressing Christians'
total need for and dependence on the grace of God. In a
213
similar way, sanctification in the Calvinist view involves a

frequent dependence on God to eliminate the Christian's
immoral heart and their sinful nature, to extend the Christian's
joy in their new nature.[25]
Five points of Calvinism[edit source | editbeta]
The Five Points
of Calvinism
A "Page Polka" tulip
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints
vte
Most objections to and attacks on Calvinism focus on the "five
points of Calvinism," also called the doctrines of grace, and
remembered by the mnemonic "TULIP."[26] The five points
are popularly said to summarize the Canons of Dort,[27]
however there is no historical relationship between them, and
some scholars argue that their language distorts the meaning
of the Canons, Calvin's theology, and the theology of 17th-
century Calvinistic orthodoxy, particularly in the language of
total depravity and limited atonement.[28] The five points
were popularized in the 1963 booklet The Five Points of
Calvinism Defined, Defended, Documented by David N. Steele
and Curtis C. Thomas. The origin of the five points and the
acronym is unknown, but they do not date before the 19th
century, and they were very cautiously if ever used by Calvinist
apologists and theologians before the booklet by Steele and
Thomas.[29]
The central assertion of these points is that God saves every
person upon whom he has mercy, and that his efforts are not
frustrated by the unrighteousness or inability of humans.
214
"Total depravity," also called "total inability," asserts that as a

consequence of the fall of man into sin, every person is
enslaved to sin. People are not by nature inclined to love God
but rather to serve their own interests and to reject the rule
of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are morally
unable to choose to follow God and be saved because they are
unwilling to do so out of the necessity of their own natures.
(The term "total" in this context refers to sin affecting every
part of a person, not that every person is as evil as they could
be).[30] This doctrine is derived from Augustine's explanation
of Original Sin.[31] While the phrases "totally depraved" and
"utterly perverse" were used by Calvin, what was meant was
the inability to save oneself from sin rather than being absent
of goodness. Phrases like "total depravity" cannot be found
the Canons of Dort, and the Canons as well as later Reformed
orthodox theologians arguably offer a more moderate view of
the nature of fallen humanity than Calvin.[32]
"Unconditional election" asserts that God has chosen from
eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on
foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, his
choice is unconditionally grounded in his mercy alone. God has
chosen from eternity to extend mercy to those he has chosen
and to withhold mercy from those not chosen. Those chosen
receive salvation through Christ alone. Those not chosen
receive the just wrath that is warranted for their sins against
God.[33]
"Limited atonement," also called "particular redemption" or
"definite atonement", asserts that Jesus's substitutionary
atonement was definite and certain in its purpose and in what
it accomplished. This implies that only the sins of the elect
were atoned for by Jesus's death. Calvinists do not believe,
however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power,
but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is
215
intended for some and not all. Hence, Calvinists hold that the
atonement is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect.[34]
The doctrine is driven by the Calvinistic concept of the
sovereignty of God in salvation and their understanding of the
nature of the atonement.[citation needed] At the Synod of
Dort, both sides agreed that the atonement Christ's death was
sufficient to pay for all sin and that it was only efficacious for
some (it only actually saved some). The controversy centered
on whether this limited efficacy was based on God's election
(the view of the Synod and of later Reformed theologians) or
on the choice of each person and God's foreknowledge of that
choice (the view of Arminius).[35]
"Irresistible grace," also called "efficacious grace", asserts that
the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom
he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and overcomes
their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing
them to a saving faith. This means that when God sovereignly
purposes to save someone, that individual certainly will be
saved. The doctrine holds that this purposeful influence of
God's Holy Spirit cannot be resisted, but that the Holy Spirit,
"graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to
repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ."[36][unreliable
source]
"Perseverance of the saints" (or preservation) of the saints
(the word "saints" is used to refer to all who are set apart by
God, and not of those who are exceptionally holy, canonized,
or in heaven) asserts that since God is sovereign and his will
cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom
God has called into communion with himself will continue in
faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either
never had true faith to begin with or will return to the
faith.[37]
Nature of the atonement[edit source | editbeta]
216
An additional point of disagreement with Arminianism implicit

in the five points is the Calvinist understanding of the doctrine
of Jesus's substitutionary atonement as a punishment for the
sins of the elect, which was developed by St. Augustine and
especially St. Anselm and Calvin himself. Calvinists argue that
if Christ takes the punishment in the place of a particular
sinner, that person must be saved since it would be unjust for
him then to be condemned for the same sins.[38] The
definitive and binding nature of this satisfaction model has
strong implications for each of the five TULIP points, and it has
led some Arminians to subscribe instead to the governmental
theory of atonement. Under that theory, no particular sins or
sinners are in view, but all of humanity are included in those
whose sins have been taken away. The atonement was not the
penalty of the law, but a substitute for the penalty, which
allows God to remit the penalty by his grace when any sinner
repents and believes in Jesus as the Christ.
The regulative principle of worship is a teaching shared by
some Calvinists and Anabaptists on how the Bible orders
public worship. The substance of the doctrine regarding
worship is that God institutes in the Scriptures everything he
requires for worship in the Church and that everything else is
prohibited. As the regulative principle is reflected in Calvin's
own thought, it is driven by his evident antipathy toward the
Roman Catholic Church and its worship practices, and it
associates musical instruments with icons, which he
considered violations of the Ten Commandments' prohibition
of graven images.[42]
On this basis, many early Calvinists also eschewed musical
instruments and advocated a capella exclusive psalmody in
worship,[43] though Calvin himself allowed other scriptural
songs as well as psalms,[42] and this practice typified
presbyterian worship and the worship of other Reformed
217
churches for some time. The original Lord's Day service

designed by John Calvin was a highly liturgical service with the
Creed, Alms, Confession and Absolution, the Lord's supper,
Doxologies, prayers, Psalms being sung, the Lords prayer being
sung, Benedictions. The following are Orders of Service for the
Lord's Day as designed by John Calvin (Collect is a short prayer;
Lection is a Scripture reading; Fraction and Delivery are the
breaking of the
bread and distribution thereof, respectively):[44]
Since the 19th century, however, some of the Reformed
churches have modified their understanding of the regulative
principle and make use of musical instruments, believing that
Calvin and his early followers went beyond the biblical
requirements[42] and that such things are circumstances of
worship requiring biblically-rooted wisdom, rather than an
explicit command. Despite the protestations of those who
hold to a strict view of the regulative principle, today hymns
and musical instruments are in common use, as are
contemporary worship music styles and worship bands.[45]
Sacraments[edit source | editbeta]
See also: Reformed teaching on sacraments
The Westminster Confession of Faith limits the sacraments to
baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sacraments are denoted "signs
and seals of the covenant of grace."[46] Westminster speaks
of "a sacramental relation, or a sacramental union, between
the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that
the names and effects of the one are attributed to the
other."[47] Baptism is for infant children of believers as well
as believers, as it is for all the Reformed except Baptists and
some Congregationalists. Baptism admits the baptized into
the visible church, and in it all the benefits of Christ are offered
to the baptized.[47] On the Lord's supper Westminster, takes
a position between Lutheran sacramental union and Zwinglian
218
memorialism: "the Lord's supper really and indeed, yet not

carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon
Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and
blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with,
or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually,
present to the faith of believers in that ordinance as the
elements themselves are to their outward senses."[46]
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith does not use the
term sacrament, but describes baptism and the Lord's supper
as ordinances, as do most Baptists Calvinist or otherwise.
Baptism is only for those who "actually profess repentance
towards God," and not for the children of believers.[48]
Baptists also insist on immersion or dipping, in
contradistinction to other Reformed Christians.[49] The
Baptist Confession, describes the Lord's supper as "the body
and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but
spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance,"
similarly to the Westminster Confession.[50] There is
significant latitude in Baptist congregations regarding the
Lord's supper, and many hold the Zwinglian view.
Logical order of God's decree[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Logical order of God's decree
There are two schools of regarding the logical order of God's
decree to ordain the fall of man: supralapsarianism (from the
Latin: supra, "above", here meaning "before" + lapsus, "fall")
and infralapsarianism (from the Latin: infra, "beneath", here
meaning "after" + lapsus, "fall"). The former view, sometimes
called "high Calvinism", argues that the Fall occurred partly to
facilitate God's purpose to choose some individuals for
salvation and some for damnation. Infralapsarianism,
sometimes called "low Calvinism", is the position that, while
the Fall was indeed planned, it was not planned with reference
to who would be saved.
219
Supralapsarians believe that God chose which individuals to

save logically prior to the decision to allow the race to fall and
that the Fall serves as the means of realization of that prior
decision to send some individuals to hell and others to heaven
(that is, it provides the grounds of condemnation in the
reprobate and the need for salvation in the elect). In contrast,
infralapsarians hold that God planned the race to fall logically
prior to the decision to save or damn any individuals because,
it is argued, in order to be "saved", one must first need to be
saved from something and therefore the decree of the Fall
must precede predestination to salvation or damnation.
These two views vied with each other at the Synod of Dort, an
international body representing Calvinist Christian churches
from around Europe, and the judgments that came out of that
council sided with infralapsarianism (Canons of Dort, First
Point of Doctrine, Article 7). The Westminster Confession of
Faith also teaches (in Hodge's words "clearly impl[ies]") the
infralapsarian[51] view, but is sensitive to those holding to
supralapsarianism.[52] The Lapsarian controversy has a few
vocal proponents on each side today, but overall it does not
receive much attention among modern Calvinists.
Variants[edit source | editbeta]
Four-point Calvinism[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Amyraldism
Amyraldism (or sometimes Amyraldianism, also known as the
School of Saumur, hypothetical universalism,[53] post
redemptionism,[54] moderate Calvinism,[55] or four-point
Calvinism) primarily refers to a modified form of Calvinist
theology. It rejects one of the five points of Calvinism, the
doctrine of limited atonement, in favour of an unlimited
atonement similar to that of Hugo Grotius. Simply stated,
Amyraldism holds that God has provided Christ's atonement
220
for all alike, but seeing that none would believe on their own,
he then elected those whom he will bring to faith in Christ,
thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional
election.
Named after its formulator Moses Amyraut, this doctrine is
still viewed as a variety of Calvinism in that it maintains the
particularity of sovereign grace in the application of the
atonement. However, detractors like B. B. Warfield have
termed it "an inconsistent and therefore unstable form of
Calvinism."[56]
R. C. Sproul believes there is confusion about what the
doctrine of limited atonement actually teaches. While he
considers it possible for a person to believe four points
without believing the fifth, he claims that a person who really
understands the other four points must believe in limited
atonement because of what Martin Luther called a resistless
logic.[57]
Hyper-Calvinism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Hyper-Calvinism
Hyper-Calvinism first referred to a view that appeared among
the early English Particular Baptists in the 18th century. Their
system denied that the call of the gospel to "repent and
believe" is directed to every single person and that it is the
duty of every person to trust in Christ for salvation. The term
also occasionally appears in both theological and secular
controversial contexts, where it usually connotes a negative
opinion about some variety of theological determinism,
predestination, or a version of Evangelical Christianity or
Calvinism that is deemed by the critic to be unenlightened,
harsh, or extreme.
The Westminster Confession of Faith says that the gospel is to
be freely offered to sinners, and the Larger Catechism makes
clear that the gospel is offered to the non-elect.[21][58]
221
Neo-Calvinism[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Neo-Calvinism
Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement
initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister
Abraham Kuyper. James Bratt has identified a number of
different types of Dutch Calvinism: The Seceders—split into
the Reformed Church "West" and the Confessionalists; and
the Neo-Calvinists—the Positives and the Antithetical
Calvinists. The Seceders were largely infralapsarian and the
Neo-Calvinists usually supralapsarian.[59]
Kuyper wanted to awaken the church from what he viewed as
its pietistic slumber. He declared:
No single piece of our mental world is to be sealed off from
the rest and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of
human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all,
does not cry: 'Mine!'[60]
This refrain has become something of a rallying call for Neo-
Calvinists.
Christian Reconstructionism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism is an obscure[61]
fundamentalist[62] Calvinist theonomic movement, founded
by R.J. Rushdoony, that has had an important influence on the
Christian Right in the United States.[63][64] The movement
declined in the 1990s and was declared dead in a 2008 Church
History journal article.[65] Christian Reconstructionists are
usually postmillennialists and followers of the
presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til. They tend to
support a decentralized political order resulting in laissez-faire
capitalism.[66]
New Calvinism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: New Calvinism
222
The New Calvinism is a growing perspective within

conservative Evangelicalism that embraces the fundamentals
of 16th century Calvinism while also trying to be relevant in
the present day world.[67] In March 2009, TIME magazine
described the New Calvinism as one of the "10 ideas changing
the world".[68] Some of the major figures in this area are John
Piper, Mark Driscoll, Al Mohler,[68] Mark Dever,[69] C.J.
Mahaney, Joshua Harris,[67] and Tim Keller.[70] New
Calvinists have been criticized for blending Calvinist
soteriology with popular Evangelical positions on the
sacraments and continuationism.[71]
Social and economic influences[edit source | editbeta]
Usury and capitalism[edit source | editbeta]

One school of thought attributes Calvinism with setting the
stage for the later development of capitalism in northern
Europe. In this view, elements of Calvinism represented a
revolt against the medieval condemnation of usury and,
implicitly, of profit in general.[citation needed] Such a
connection was advanced in influential works by R. H. Tawney
(1880–1962) and by Max Weber (1864–1920).
Calvin expressed himself on usury in a 1545 letter to a friend,
Claude de Sachin, in which he criticized the use of certain
passages of scripture invoked by people opposed to the
charging of interest. He reinterpreted some of these passages,
and suggested that others of them had been rendered
irrelevant by changed conditions. He also dismissed the
argument (based upon the writings of Aristotle) that it is
wrong to charge interest for money because money itself is
barren. He said that the walls and the roof of a house are
barren, too, but it is permissible to charge someone for
allowing him to use them. In the same way, money can be
made fruitful.[72]
223
He qualified his view, however, by saying that money should

be lent to people in dire need without hope of interest, while
a modest interest rate of 5% should be permitted in relation
to other borrowers.[73]
Politics and society[edit source | editbeta]
Calvin's concept of God and man contained strong elements

of freedom that were gradually put into practice after his
death, in particular in the fields of politics and society. After
the successful fight for independence from Spain (1579), the
Netherlands, under Calvinist leadership, became, besides
England, the freest country in Europe. It granted asylum to
persecuted religious minorities, e.g. French Huguenots,
English Independents (Congregationalists), and Jews from
Spain and Portugal. The ancestors of philosopher Baruch
Spinoza were Portuguese Jews. Aware of the trial against
Galileo, René Descartes lived in the Netherlands, out of reach
of the Inquisition.[74] Pierre Bayle, a Reformed Frenchman,
also felt safer in the Netherlands than in his home country. He
was the first prominent philosopher who demanded tolerance
for atheists. Hugo Grotius was able to publish a rather liberal
interpretation of the Bible and his ideas about natural
law.[75][76] Moreover, the Calvinist Dutch authorities
allowed the printing of books that could not be published
elsewhere, e.g. Galileo’s Discorsi.[77]
Even more important than the liberal development of the
Netherlands was the rise of modern democracy in England and
North America. In the Middle Ages state and church had been
closely connected. Martin Luther’s doctrine of the two
kingdoms separated state and church in principle.[78] His
doctrine of the priesthood of all believers raised the laity to
the same level as the clergy.[79] Going one step further, Calvin
included elected laymen (church elders, presbyters) in his
224
concept of church government. The Huguenots added synods

whose members were also elected by the congregations. The
other Reformed churches took over this system of church self-
government which was essentially a representative
democracy.[80] Baptists, Quakers, and Methodists are
organized in a similar way. These denominations and the
Anglican Church were influenced by Calvin’s theology in
varying degrees.[81]
Another precondition for the rise of democracy in the Anglo-
American world was the fact that Calvin favored a mixture of
democracy and aristocracy as the best form of
government(mixed government). He appreciated the
advantages of democracy.[82] The aim of his political thought
was to safeguard the rights and freedoms of ordinary men and
women. In order to minimize the misuse of political power he
suggested dividing it among several institutions in a system of
checks and balances (separation of powers). Finally, Calvin
taught that if worldly rulers rise up against God they should be
put down. In this way, he and his followers stood in the
vanguard of resistance to political absolutism and furthered
the cause of democracy.[83] The Congregationalists who
founded Plymouth Colony (1620) and Massachusetts Bay
Colony (1628) were convinced that the democratic form of
government was the will of God.[84][85] Enjoying self-rule
they practiced separation of powers.[86][87] Rhode Island,
Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, founded by Roger Williams,
Thomas Hooker, and William Penn, respectively, combined
democratic government with freedom of religion. These
colonies became safe havens for persecuted religious
minorities, including Jews.[88][89][90]
In England, Baptists Thomas Helwys and John Smyth
influenced the liberal political thought of Presbyterian poet
and politician John Milton and philosopher John Locke, who in
225
turn had both a strong impact on the political development in

their home country (English Civil War, Glorious Revolution) as
well as in North America.[91][92] The ideological basis of the
American Revolution was largely provided by the radical
Whigs, who had been inspired by Milton, Locke, James
Harrington, Algernon Sidney, and other thinkers. The Whigs’
"perceptions of politics attracted widespread support in
America because they revived the traditional concerns of a
Protestantism that had always verged on Puritanism."[93] The
United States Declaration of Independence, the United States
Constitution and (American) Bill of Rights initiated a tradition
of human and civil rights that was continued in the French
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the
constitutions of numerous countries around the world, e. g.
Latin America, Japan, Germany, and other European
countries. It is also echoed in the United Nations Charter and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[94]
In the nineteenth century, the churches that were based on
Calvin’s theology or influenced by it were deeply involved in
social reforms, e.g. the abolition of slavery (William
Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, and
others), women suffrage, and prison reforms.[95][96]
Members of these churches formed co-operatives to help the
impoverished masses.[97] Henry Dunant, a Reformed pietist,
founded the Red Cross and initiated the Geneva
Conventions.[98][99]
Throughout the world, the Reformed churches operate
hospitals, homes for handicapped or elderly people, and
educational institutions on all levels. For example, American
Congregationalists founded Harvard (1636), Yale (1701), and
about a dozen other colleges.[100] Princeton was a
Presbyterian foundation.
226
227
Chapter Thirteen
Arminianism
Arminianism is based on the theological ideas of the

previously Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius
(1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as the
Remonstrants. His teachings however, departed from the
Sovereign Grace teaching of the Reformers and as such he can
not be regarded as Reformed. Jacobus Arminius (Jacobus
Hermanszoon) was a student of Beza (successor of Calvin) at
the Theological University of Geneva. It is known as a
soteriological sect of Protestant Christianity.[1] Dutch
Arminianism was originally articulated in the Remonstrance
228
(1610), a theological statement signed by 45 ministers and

submitted to the States-General of the Netherlands. The
Synod of Dort (1618–19) was called by the States General to
consider the Five Articles of Remonstrance. They asserted
that:
election (and condemnation on the day of judgment) was
conditioned by the rational faith or nonfaith of man;
the Atonement, while qualitatively adequate for all men, is
efficacious only for the man of faith;
unaided by the Holy Spirit, no person is able to respond to
God’s will;
grace is resistible; and
believers are able to resist sin but are not beyond the
possibility of falling from grace.
Many Christian denominations have been influenced by
Arminian views, notably the Baptists (See A History of the
Baptists Third Edition by Robert G. Torbet) in the 16th century,
the Methodists, and the Universalists and Unitarians in the
18th and 19th centuries. Denominations such as the
Anabaptists (beginning in 1525), and Waldensians (pre-
Reformation), and other groups prior to the Reformation have
also held this view of the Free Will of man.
The original beliefs of Jacobus Arminius himself are commonly
defined as Arminianism, but more broadly, the term may
embrace the teachings of Hugo Grotius, John Wesley, and
others as well. Classical Arminianism, to which Arminius is the
main contributor, and Wesleyan Arminianism, to which John
Wesley is the main contributor, are the two main schools of
thought. Wesleyan Arminianism is often identical with
Methodism. Some Arminian schools of thought share certain
similarities with Semipelagianism, believing the first step of
salvation is by human will[2] but classical Arminianism holds
that the first step of salvation is the grace of God.[3]
229
The two systems share both history and many doctrines, and
the variety of the history of Christian theology. Arminianism is
related to Calvinism (or Reformed theology). However,
because of their differences over the doctrines of divine
predestination and salvation, many people view these schools
of thought as opposed to each other. In short, because
ultimately God's Sovereignty can be overruled by man's free
will in the Arminian doctrine and their synergistic system of
Salvation is not only by Grace, these differences can not be
seen as mere details.[4]
Contents [show]
History[edit source | editbeta]
Main articles: History of Calvinist–Arminian debate and Free

will in theology
Portrait of Jacobus Arminius, from Kupferstich aus Theatrum

Europaeum by Matthaeus Merian in 1662
Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch pastor and theologian in the
late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was taught by Theodore
Beza, Calvin's hand-picked successor, but after examination of
the Scriptures, he rejected his teacher's theology that it is God
who unconditionally elects some for salvation. Instead
Arminius proposed that the election of God was of believers,
thereby making it conditional on faith. Arminius's views were
challenged by the Dutch Calvinists, especially Franciscus
Gomarus, but Arminius died before a national synod could
occur.[citation needed]
Arminius's followers, not wanting to adopt their leader's
name, called themselves the Remonstrants. When Arminius
died before he could satisfy Holland's State General's request
for a 14-page paper outlining his views, the Remonstrants
230
replied in his stead crafting the Five articles of Remonstrance.

After some political maneuvering, the Dutch Calvinists were
able to convince Prince Maurice of Nassau to deal with the
situation. Maurice systematically removed Arminian
magistrates from office and called a national synod at
Dordrecht. This Synod of Dort was open primarily to Dutch
Calvinists (Arminians were excluded) with Calvinist
representatives from other countries, and in 1618 published a
condemnation of Arminius and his followers as heretics. Part
of this publication was the famous Five points of Calvinism in
response to the five articles of Remonstrance.
Arminians across Holland were removed from office,
imprisoned, banished, and sworn to silence. Twelve years later
Holland officially granted Arminianism protection as a religion,
although animosity between Arminians and Calvinists
continued.
The debate between Calvin's followers and Arminius's
followers is distinctive of post-Reformation church history.
The emerging Baptist movement in 17th-century England, for
example, was a microcosm of the historic debate between
Calvinists and Arminians. The first Baptists–called "General
Baptists" because of their confession of a "general" or
unlimited atonement, were Arminians.[5] The Baptist
movement originated with Thomas Helwys, who left his
mentor John Smyth (who had moved into shared belief and
other distinctives of the Dutch Waterlander Mennonites of
Amsterdam) and returned to London to start the first English
Baptist Church in 1611. Later General Baptists such as John
Griffith, Samuel Loveday, and Thomas Grantham defended a
Reformed Arminian theology that reflected more the
Arminianism of Arminius than that of the later Remonstrants
or the English Arminianism of Arminian Puritans like John
Goodwin or Anglican Arminians such as Jeremy Taylor and
231
Henry Hammond. The General Baptists encapsulated their

Arminian views in numerous confessions, the most influential
of which was the Standard Confession of 1660. In the 1640s
the Particular Baptists were formed, diverging strongly from
Arminian doctrine and embracing the strong Calvinism of the
Presbyterians and Independents. Their robust Calvinism was
publicized in such confessions as the London Baptist
Confession of 1644 and the Second London Confession of
1689. Interestingly, the London Confession of 1689 was later
used by Calvinistic Baptists in America (called the Philadelphia
Baptist Confession), whereas the Standard Confession of 1660
was used by the American heirs of the English General
Baptists, who soon came to be known as Free Will Baptists.
This same dynamic between Arminianism and Calvinism can
be seen in the heated discussions between friends and fellow
Methodist ministers John Wesley and George Whitefield.
Wesley was a champion of Arminian teachings, defending his
soteriology in a periodical titled The Arminian and writing
articles such as Predestination Calmly Considered. He
defended Arminianism against charges of semi-Pelagianism,
holding strongly to beliefs in original sin and total depravity.
At the same time, Wesley attacked the determinism that he
claimed characterized unconditional election and maintained
a belief in the ability to lose salvation. Wesley also clarified the
doctrine of prevenient grace and preached the ability of
Christians to attain to perfection. While Wesley freely made
use of the term "Arminian," he did not self-consciously root
his soteriology in the theology of Arminius but was highly
influenced by 17th-century English Arminianism and thinkers
such as John Goodwin, Jeremy Taylor and Henry Hammond of
the Anglican "Holy Living" school, and the Remonstrant Hugo
Grotius.
Current landscape[edit source | editbeta]
232
Advocates of both Arminianism and Calvinism find a home in

many Protestant denominations, and sometimes both exist
within the same denomination. Faiths leaning at least in part
in the Arminian direction include Methodists, Free Will
Baptists, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, General
Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Church of the Nazarene, The
Salvation Army, Conservative Mennonites, Old Order
Mennonites, Amish and Charismatics. Denominations leaning
in the Calvinist direction are grouped as the Reformed
churches and include Particular Baptists, Reformed Baptists,
Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. The majority of
Southern Baptists, including Billy Graham, accept Arminianism
with an exception allowing for a doctrine of perseverance of
the saints ("eternal security").[6][7][8] Many see Calvinism as
growing in acceptance,[9] and some prominent Reformed
Baptists, such as Albert Mohler and Mark Dever, have been
pushing for the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a more
Calvinistic orientation (it should be noted, however, that no
Baptist church is bound by any resolution adopted by the
Southern Baptist Convention). Lutherans espouse a view of
salvation and election distinct from both the Calvinist and
Arminian schools of soteriology.
The current scholarly support for Arminianism is wide and
varied. One particular thrust is a return to the teachings of
Arminius. F. Leroy Forlines, Robert Picirilli, Stephen Ashby and
Matthew Pinson (see citations) are four of the more
prominent supporters. Forlines has referred to this type of
Arminianism as "Classical Arminianism," while Picirilli, Pinson,
and Ashby have termed it "Reformation Arminianism" or
"Reformed Arminianism." Through Methodism, Wesley's
teachings also inspire a large scholarly following, with vocal
233
proponents including J. Kenneth Grider, Stanley Hauerwas,

Thomas Oden, Thomas Jay Oord, and William Willimon.
Recent influence of the New Perspective on Paul movement
has also reached Arminianism — primarily through a view of
corporate election. The New Perspective scholars propose
that the 1st century, Second Temple Judaism understood
election primarily as national (Israelites) and racial (Jews), not
as individual. Their conclusion is thus that Paul's writings on
election should be interpreted in a similar corporate light.
The Five Articles

of Remonstrance
Conditional election
Unlimited atonement
Total depravity
Prevenient grace
Conditional preservation
vte
Arminian theology usually falls into one of two groups —
Classical Arminianism, drawn from the teaching of Jacobus
Arminius — and Wesleyan Arminian, drawing primarily from
Wesley. Both groups overlap substantially.
Classical Arminianism[edit source | editbeta]
Classical Arminianism (sometimes titled Reformed
Arminianism or Reformation Arminianism) is the theological
system that was presented by Jacobus Arminius and
maintained by some of the Remonstrants;[10] its influence
serves as the foundation for all Arminian systems. A list of
beliefs is given below:
Depravity is total: Arminius states "In this [fallen] state, the
free will of man towards the true good is not only wounded,
infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned,
234
destroyed, and lost. And its powers are not only debilitated
and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no
powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine
grace."[11]
Atonement is intended for all: Jesus's death was for all people,
Jesus draws all people to himself, and all people have
opportunity for salvation through faith.[12]
Jesus's death satisfies God's justice: The penalty for the sins of
the elect is paid in full through Jesus's work on the cross. Thus
Christ's atonement is intended for all, but requires faith to be
effected. Arminius states that "Justification, when used for the
act of a Judge, is either purely the imputation of righteousness
through mercy… or that man is justified before God…
according to the rigor of justice without any forgiveness."[13]
Stephen Ashby clarifies: "Arminius allowed for only two
possible ways in which the sinner might be justified: (1) by our
absolute and perfect adherence to the law, or (2) purely by
God's imputation of Christ's righteousness."[14]
Grace is resistible: God takes initiative in the salvation process
and his grace comes to all people. This grace (often called
prevenient or pre-regenerating grace) acts on all people to
convince them of the Gospel, draw them strongly towards
salvation, and enable the possibility of sincere faith. Picirilli
states that "indeed this grace is so close to regeneration that
it inevitably leads to regeneration unless finally resisted." [15]
The offer of salvation through grace does not act irresistibly in
a purely cause-effect, deterministic method but rather in an
influence-and-response fashion that can be both freely
accepted and freely denied.[16]
Man has free will to respond or resist: Free will is limited by
God's sovereignty, but God's sovereignty allows all men the
choice to accept the Gospel of Jesus through faith,
simultaneously allowing all men to resist.
235
Election is conditional: Arminius defined election as "the

decree of God by which, of Himself, from eternity, He decreed
to justify in Christ, believers, and to accept them unto eternal
life."[17] God alone determines who will be saved and his
determination is that all who believe Jesus through faith will
be justified. According to Arminius, "God regards no one in
Christ unless they are engrafted in him by faith."[17]
God predestines the elect to a glorious future: Predestination
is not the predetermination of who will believe, but rather the
predetermination of the believer's future inheritance. The
elect are therefore predestined to sonship through adoption,
glorification, and eternal life.[18]
Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer: Justification
is sola fide. When individuals repent and believe in Christ
(saving faith), they are regenerated and brought into union
with Christ, whereby the death and righteousness of Christ are
imputed to them for their justification before God.[19]
Eternal security is also conditional: All believers have full
assurance of salvation with the condition that they remain in
Christ. Salvation is conditioned on faith, therefore
perseverance is also conditioned.[20] Apostasy (turning from
Christ) is only committed through a deliberate, willful
rejection of Jesus and renunciation of saving faith. Such
apostasy is irremediable.[21]
The Five articles of Remonstrance that Arminius's followers
formulated in 1610 state the above beliefs regarding (I)
conditional election, (II) unlimited atonement, (III) total
depravity, (IV) total depravity and resistible grace, and (V)
possibility of apostasy. Note, however, that the fifth article did
not completely deny perseverance of the saints; Arminius,
himself, said that "I never taught that a true believer can… fall
away from the faith… yet I will not conceal, that there are
passages of Scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect;
236
and those answers to them which I have been permitted to

see, are not of such as kind as to approve themselves on all
points to my understanding."[22] Further, the text of the
Articles of Remonstrance says that no believer can be plucked
from Christ's hand, and the matter of falling away, "loss of
salvation" required further study before it could be taught
with any certainty.
The core beliefs of Jacobus Arminius and the Remonstrants
are summarized as such by theologian Stephen Ashby:
Prior to being drawn and enabled, one is unable to believe…
able only to resist.
Having been drawn and enabled, but prior to regeneration,
one is able to believe… able also to resist.
After one believes, God then regenerates; one is able to
continue believing… able also to resist.
Upon resisting to the point of unbelief, one is unable again to
believe… able only to resist.[23]
Wesleyan Arminianism[edit source | editbeta]
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John Wesley has historically been the most influential
advocate for the teachings of Arminian soteriology. Wesley
237
thoroughly agreed with the vast majority of what Arminius

himself taught, maintaining strong doctrines of original sin,
total depravity, conditional election, prevenient grace,
unlimited atonement, and possibly apostasy.
Wesley departs from Classical Arminianism primarily on three
issues:
Atonement – Wesley's atonement is a hybrid of the penal
substitution theory and the governmental theory of Hugo
Grotius, a lawyer and one of the Remonstrants. Steven Harper
states "Wesley does not place the substitionary element
primarily within a legal framework...Rather [his doctrine
seeks] to bring into proper relationship the 'justice' between
God's love for persons and God's hatred of sin...it is not the
satisfaction of a legal demand for justice so much as it is an act
of mediated reconciliation." [24]
Possibility of apostasy – Wesley fully accepted the Arminian
view that genuine Christians could apostatize and lose their
salvation, as his famous sermon "A Call to Backsliders" clearly
demonstrates. Harper summarizes as follows: "the act of
committing sin is not in itself ground for the loss of
salvation...the loss of salvation is much more related to
experiences that are profound and prolonged. Wesley sees
two primary pathways that could result in a permanent fall
from grace: unconfessed sin and the actual expression of
apostasy." [25] Wesley disagrees with Arminius, however, in
maintaining that such apostasy was not final. When talking
about those who have made "shipwreck" of their faith (1 Tim
1:19), Wesley claims that "not one, or a hundred only, but I am
persuaded, several thousands...innumerable are the
instances...of those who had fallen but now stand
upright."[26]
Christian perfection – According to Wesley's teaching,
Christians could attain a state of practical perfection, meaning
238
a lack of all voluntary sin by the empowerment of the Holy

Spirit, in this life. Christian perfection (or entire sanctification),
according to Wesley, is "purity of intention, dedicating all the
life to God" and "the mind which was in Christ, enabling us to
walk as Christ walked." It is "loving God with all our heart, and
our neighbor as ourselves".[27] It is 'a restoration not only to
the favour, but likewise to the image of God," our "being filled
with the fullness of God".[28] Wesley was clear that Christian
perfection did not imply perfection of bodily health or an
infallibility of judgment. It also does not mean we no longer
violate the will of God, for involuntary transgressions remain.
Perfected Christians remain subject to temptation, and have
continued need to pray for forgiveness and holiness. It is not
an absolute perfection but a perfection in love. Furthermore,
Wesley did not teach a salvation by perfection, but rather says
that, "Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through
Jesus Christ."[27]
Other variations[edit source | editbeta]
Since the time of Arminius, his name has come to represent a
very large variety of beliefs. Some of these beliefs, such as
Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism (see below) are not
considered to be within Arminian orthodoxy and are dealt
with elsewhere. Some doctrines, however, do adhere to the
Arminian foundation and, while minority views, are
highlighted below.
Open theism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Open theism
The doctrine of open theism states that God is omnipresent,
omnipotent, and omniscient, but differs on the nature of the
future. Open theists claim that the future is not completely
knowable because people have not made their decisions yet,
and therefore God knows the future in possibilities rather than
certainties. As such, open theists resolve the issue of human
239
free will and God's sovereignty by claiming that God is

sovereign because he does not ordain each human choice, but
rather works in cooperation with his creation to bring about
his will. This notion of sovereignty and freedom is
foundational to their understanding of love since open theists
believe that love is not genuine unless it is freely chosen. The
power of choice under this definition has the potential for as
much harm as it does good, and open theists see free will as
the best answer to the problem of evil. Well-known
proponents of this theology are Greg Boyd, Clark Pinnock,
Thomas Jay Oord, William Hasker, and John E. Sanders.
Some Arminians, such as professor and theologian Robert
Picirilli, reject the doctrine of open theism as a "deformed
Arminianism".[29] Joseph Dongell stated that "open theism
actually moves beyond classical Arminianism towards process
theology."[30] There are also some Arminians, like Roger
Olson, who believe Open theism to be an alternative view that
a Christian can have. The majority Arminian view accepts
classical theism – the belief that God's power, knowledge, and
presence have no external limitations, that is, outside of his
divine nature. Most Arminians reconcile human free will with
God's sovereignty and foreknowledge by holding three points:
Human free will is limited by original sin, though God's
prevenient grace restores to humanity the ability to accept
God's call of salvation.[31][32]
God purposely exercises his sovereignty in ways that do not
illustrate its extent – in other words, He has the power and
authority to predetermine salvation but he chooses to apply it
through different means.
God's foreknowledge of the future is exhaustive and
complete, and therefore the future is certain and not
contingent on human action. God does not determine the
240
future, but He does know it. God's certainty and human

contingency are compatible.[33]
Corporate view of election[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Conditional election Corporate election
The majority Arminian view is that election is individual and
based on God's foreknowledge of faith, but a second
perspective deserves mention. These Arminians reject the
concept of individual election entirely, preferring to
understand the doctrine in corporate terms. According to this
corporate election, God never chose individuals to elect to
salvation, but rather He chose to elect the believing church to
salvation. Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Ridderbos says
"[The certainty of salvation] does not rest on the fact that the
church belongs to a certain "number", but that it belongs to
Christ, from before the foundation of the world. Fixity does
not lie in a hidden decree, therefore, but in corporate unity of
the Church with Christ, whom it has come to know in the
gospel and has learned to embrace in faith."[34]
Corporate election draws support from a similar concept of
corporate election found in the Old Testament and Jewish law.
Indeed most biblical scholarship is in agreement that Judeo-
Greco-Roman thought in the 1st century was opposite of the
Western world's "individual first" mantra – it was very
collectivist or communitarian in nature.[35] Identity stemmed
from membership in a group more than individuality.[35]
According to Romans 9–11, supporters claim, Jewish election
as the chosen people ceased with their national rejection of
Jesus as Messiah. As a result of the new covenant, God's
chosen people are now the corporate body of Christ, the
church (sometimes called spiritual Israel – see also Covenant
theology). Pastor and theologian Dr. Brian Abasciano claims
"What Paul says about Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, whether
of their place in God’s plan, or their election, or their salvation,
241
or how they should think or behave, he says from a corporate

perspective which views the group as primary and those he
speaks about as embedded in the group. These individuals act
as members of the group to which they belong, and what
happens to them happens by virtue of their membership in the
group."[35]
These scholars also maintain that Jesus was the only human
ever elected and that individuals must be "in Christ" (Eph 1:3–
4) through faith to be part of the elect. This was, in fact, Swiss
Reformed theologian, Karl Barth's, understanding of the
doctrine of election. Joseph Dongell, professor at Asbury
Theological Seminary, states "the most conscipuous feature of
Ephesians 1:3–2:10 is the phrase 'in Christ', which occurs
twelve times in Ephesians 1:3–4 alone...this means that Jesus
Christ himself is the chosen one, the predestined one.
Whenever one is incorporated into him by grace through faith,
one comes to share in Jesus' special status as chosen of
God."[36] Markus Barth illustrates the inter-connectedness:
"Election in Christ must be understood as the election of God's
people. Only as members of that community do individuals
share in the benefits of God's gracious choice."[37]
Arminianism and other views
242
243
Chapter Fourteen
The Ancient Essenes
The Essenes (in Modern but not in Ancient Hebrew: ‫םס ִס ִ סִא‬,
Isiyim; Greek: Εσσήνοι, Εσσαίοι, or Οσσαίοι, Essḗnoi, Essaíoi,
Ossaíoi) were a sect of Second Temple Judaism that flourished
from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some
scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests.[1] Being
much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees
(the other two major sects at the time), the Essenes lived in
various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to
asceticism, voluntary poverty, daily immersion, and
abstinence from worldly pleasures, including (for some
groups) celibacy. Many separate but related religious groups
of that era shared similar mystic, eschatological, messianic,
and ascetic beliefs. These groups are collectively referred to
by various scholars as the "Essenes." Josephus records that
Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived
throughout Roman Judæa.
The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of
the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents
known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed
to be Essenes' library—although there is no proof that the
Essenes wrote them. These documents include preserved
multiple copies of the Hebrew Bible untouched from as early
as 300 BCE until their discovery in 1946. Some scholars,
however, dispute the notion that the Essenes wrote the Dead
Sea Scrolls.[2] Rachel Elior questions even the existence of the
Essenes.[3][4][5]
The first reference is by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (died
c. 79 CE) in his Natural History.[6] Pliny relates in a few lines
244
that the Essenes do not marry, possess no money, and had

existed for thousands of generations. Unlike Philo, who did not
mention any particular geographical location of the Essenes
other than the whole land of Israel, Pliny places them in Ein
Gedi, next to the Dead Sea.
A little later Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes
in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE), with a shorter description in
Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius
Josephus (c. 97 CE). Claiming first hand knowledge, he lists the
Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy[7]
alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the
same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of
personal property and of money, the belief in communality
and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. He further
adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every
morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to
charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger,
studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were
very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred
writings.
Pliny, also a geographer and explorer, located them in the
desert near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, where
the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the year 1947 by
Muhammed edh-Dhib and Ahmed Mohammed, two Bedouin
shepherds of the Ta'amireh tribe.[8]
Contents [show]
Name[edit source | editbeta]
Josephus uses the name Essenes in his two main

accounts[9][10] as well as in some other contexts ("an account
of the Essenes";[11] "the gate of the Essenes";[12] "Judas of
the Essene race";[13] but some manuscripts read here
Essaion; "holding the Essenes in honour";[14] "a certain
245
Essene named Manaemus";[15] "to hold all Essenes in

honor";[16] "the Essenes").[17][18][19] In several places,
however, Josephus has Essaios, which is usually assumed to
mean Essene ("Judas of the Essaios race";[20] "Simon of the
Essaios race";[21] "John the Essaios";[22] "those who are
called by us Essaioi";[23] "Simon a man of the Essaios
race").[24] Philo's usage is Essaioi, although he admits this
Greek form of the original name that according to his
etymology signifies "holiness" to be inexact.[25] Pliny's Latin
text has Esseni.[6][26] Josephus identified the Essenes as one
of the three major Jewish sects of that period.[27]
Gabriele Boccaccini implies that a convincing etymology for
the name Essene has not been found, but that the term
applies to a larger group within Palestine that also included
the Qumran community.[28]
It was proposed before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
that the name came into several Greek spellings from a
Hebrew self-designation later found in some Dead Sea Scrolls,
'osey hatorah, "observers of torah."[29] Though dozens of
etymology suggestions have been published, this is the only
etymology published before 1947 that was confirmed by
Qumran text self-designation references, and it is gaining
acceptance among scholars.[30] It is recognized as the
etymology of the form Ossaioi (and note that Philo also
offered an O spelling) and Essaioi and Esseni spelling variations
have been discussed by VanderKam, Goranson and others. In
medieval Hebrew (e.g. Sefer Yosippon) Hassidim ("the pious
ones") replaces "Essenes". While this Hebrew name is not the
etymology of Essaioi/Esseni, the Aramaic equivalent Hesi'im
known from Eastern Aramaic texts has been suggested.[31]
Others suggest that Essene is a transliteration of the Hebrew
word Chitzonim (chitzon=outside), which the Mishna (e.g.
Megila 4:8) uses to describe various sectarian groups. Another
246
theory is that the name was borrowed from a cult of devotees

to Artemis in Asia Minor, whose demeanor and dress
somewhat resembled those of the group in Judaea.[32]
Location[edit source | editbeta]
Remains of part of the main building at Qumran.

According to Josephus, the Essenes had settled "not in one
city" but "in large numbers in every town".[33] Philo speaks of
"more than four thousand" Essaioi living in "Palestine and
Syria",[34] more precisely, "in many cities of Judaea and in
many villages and grouped in great societies of many
members".[35]
Pliny locates them "on the west side of the Dead Sea, away
from the coast… [above] the town of Engeda".[26]
Some modern scholars and archaeologists have argued that
Essenes inhabited the settlement at Qumran, a plateau in the
Judean Desert along the Dead Sea, citing Pliny the Elder in
support, and giving credence that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the
product of the Essenes. This view, though not yet conclusively
proven, has come to dominate the scholarly discussion and
public perception of the Essenes.[36]
Josephus' reference to a "gate of the Essenes" in his
description of the course of "the most ancient" of the three
walls of Jerusalem,[12] in the Mount Zion area,[37] perhaps
suggests an Essene community living in this quarter of the city
or regularly gathering at this part of the Temple precincts.
Rules, customs, theology and beliefs[edit source | editbeta]
The accounts by Josephus and Philo show that the Essenes led
a strictly communal life – often compared by scholars to later
Christian monastic living. Many of the Essene groups appear
247
to have been celibate, but Josephus speaks also of another

"order of Essenes" that observed the practice of being
engaged for three years and then becoming married.[38]
According to Josephus, they had customs and observances
such as collective ownership,[39][40] electing a leader to
attend to the interests of the group, obedience to the orders
from their leader.[41] Also, they were forbidden from
swearing oaths[42] and from sacrificing animals.[43] They
controlled their tempers and served as channels of peace,[42]
carrying weapons only for protection against robbers.[44] The
Essenes chose not to possess slaves but served each other[45]
and, as a result of communal ownership, did not engage in
trading.[46] Josephus and Philo provide lengthy accounts of
their communal meetings, meals and religious celebrations.
After a total of three years' probation,[47] newly joining
members would take an oath that included the commitment
to practice piety towards "the Deity" (το θειον) and
righteousness towards humanity, to maintain a pure lifestyle,
to abstain from criminal and immoral activities, to transmit
their rules uncorrupted and to preserve the books of the
Essenes and the names of the Angels.[48] Their theology
included belief in the immortality of the soul and that they
would receive their souls back after death.[18][49] Part of
their activities included purification by water rituals, which
was supported by rainwater catchment and storage.
Ritual purification was a common practice among peoples of
the Palestine in this period and was thus not specific to the
Essenes. Ritual baths are found near many Synagogues of the
period.[50]
The Church Father Epiphanius (writing in the 4th century CE)
seems to make a distinction between two main groups within
the Essenes:[31] "Of those that came before his [Elxai, an
248
Ossaean prophet] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the
Nazarean."[51] Epiphanius describes each group as following:
The Nazarean – they were Jews by nationality – originally from
Gileaditis, Bashanitis and the Transjordan… They
acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received laws
– not this law, however, but some other. And so, they were
Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, but they would not
offer sacrifice or eat meat. They considered it unlawful to eat
meat or make sacrifices with it. They claim that these Books
are fictions, and that none of these customs were instituted
by the fathers. This was the difference between the Nazarean
and the others…[52]
After this Nazarean sect in turn comes another closely
connected with them, called the Ossaeans. These are Jews like
the former… originally came from Nabataea, Ituraea, Moabitis
and Arielis, the lands beyond the basin of what sacred
scripture called the Salt Sea… Though it is different from the
other six of these seven sects, it causes schism only by
forbidding the books of Moses like the Nazarean.[51]
If it is correct to identify the community at Qumran with the
Essenes (and that the community at Qumran are the authors
of the Dead Sea Scrolls), then according to the Dead Sea Scrolls
the Essenes' community school was called "Yahad" (meaning
"community") in order to differentiate themselves from the
rest of the Jews who are repeatedly labeled "The Breakers of
the Covenant".
Scholarly discussion[edit source | editbeta]

(November 2007)
249
The Essenes are discussed in detail by Josephus and Philo.

Most scholars believe that the community at Qumran that
allegedly produced the Dead Sea Scrolls was an offshoot of the
Essenes; however, this theory has been disputed by some, for
example, by Norman Golb:
Golb argues that the primary research on the Qumran
documents and ruins (by Father Roland de Vaux, from the
École Biblique et Archéologique de Jérusalem) lacked scientific
method, and drew wrong conclusions that comfortably
entered the academic canon. For Golb, the amount of
documents is too extensive and includes many different
writing styles and calligraphies; the ruins seem to have been a
fortress, used as a military base for a very long period of time
– including the 1st century – so they could not have been
inhabited by the Essenes; and the large graveyard excavated
in 1870, just 50 metres east of the Qumran ruins was made of
over 1200 tombs that included many women and children –
Pliny clearly wrote that the Essenes that lived near the Dead
Sea "had not one woman, had renounced all pleasure ... and
no one was born in their race". Golb's book presents
observations about de Vaux's premature conclusions and their
uncontroverted acceptance by the general academic
community. He states that the documents probably stemmed
from various libraries in Jerusalem, kept safe in the desert
from the Roman invasions.[53]
Other scholars refute these arguments—particularly since
Josephus describes some Essenes as allowing marriage.[54]
Another issue is the relationship between the Essaioi and
Philo's Therapeutae and Therapeutrides. It may be argued[by
whom?] that he regarded the Therapeutae as a contemplative
branch of the Essaioi who, he said, pursued an active life.[55]
One theory on the formation of the Essenes suggested the
movement was founded by a Jewish high priest, dubbed by
250
the Essenes the Teacher of Righteousness, whose office had

been usurped by Jonathan (of priestly but not Zadokite
lineage), labeled the "man of lies" or "false priest".[4][5]
Others follow this line and a few argue that the Teacher of
Righteousness was not only the leader of the Essenes at
Qumran, but was also identical to the original Jesus [Essa]
about 150 years before the time of the Gospels.[36] Lawrence
Schiffman has argued that the Qumran community may be
called Sadducean, and not Essene, since their legal positions
retain a link with Sadducean tradition.[56]
The Saint Thomas Christians ("Nasrani") of southwestern India
may have connections with the Essenes, according to the
Manimekalai, one of the great Tamil epic poems, which refers
to a people called "Issani".[57] The high presence of Cohen
DNA amongst today's Nazareans make further support to the
full or part Essene origin of the Malabar Nazareans. The
Essenes were often of Levite or Cohen heritage and this may
further explain the frequent 'priestly heritage' claims of
several Nazerean families of India.[58]
Connections with Kabbalah[edit source | editbeta]
According to a Jewish legend, one of the Essenes, named

Menachem, had passed at least some of his mystical
knowledge to the Talmudic mystic Nehunya ben HaKanah,[59]
to whom the Kabbalistic tradition attributes Sefer HaBahir
and, by some opinions, Sefer HaKanah, Sefer HaPeliah and
Sefer HaTemunah. Some Essene rituals, such as daily
immersion in the mikveh, coincide with contemporary Hasidic
practices; some historians had also suggested, that name
"Essene" is a Hellenized form of the word "Hasidim" or "Hasid"
("pious ones"). However, the legendary connections between
Essene and Kabbalistic tradition are not verified by modern
historians.
251
Essenes in modern times[edit source | editbeta]
There are several modern Essene movements that sprung up

before and after the Dead Sea Scrolls findings on the Ancient
Essene Order. The Order of the Essenes founded by Grace
Mann Brown in the turn of the 19th-20th century,
Rosicrucianism took it under its curriculum.
The Order of the Nazoreans Essenes, founded in the United
States by Abba Yesai Nasrai (Davied Asia Israel) in 1981, is a
syncretic school of religious thought which draws on
Nazarean, Gnostic Christian, Buddhist, and Manichaean
beliefs and practices.[60]
In Quebec, Canada and in France there is a French movement
with the founder Olivier Manitara and The Essene Spirit.[61]
In the United States there are several new Essene movements
and Essene churches,
252
253
Chapter Fifteen
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts discovered

between 1946 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank.
They were found in caves about a mile inland from the
northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their
name.[1] The texts are of great historical, religious, and
linguistic significance because they include the earliest known
surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew
Bible canon, along with extra-biblical manuscripts which
preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late
Second Temple Judaism.
The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and
Nabataean, mostly on parchment but with some written on
papyrus and bronze.[2] The manuscripts have been dated to
various ranges between 408 BCE and 318 CE.[3] Bronze coins
found on the site form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus
(135-104 BCE) and continuing until the First Jewish-Roman
War (66–73 CE).[4]
The scrolls have traditionally been identified with the ancient
Jewish sect called the Essenes, although some recent
interpretations have challenged this association and argue
that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem,
Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups.[5][6]
Due to the poor condition of some of the Scrolls, not all of
them have been identified. Those that have been identified
can be divided into three general groups: (1) some 40% of
them are copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible, (2)
254
approximately another 30% of them are texts from the Second

Temple Period and which ultimately were not canonized in the
Hebrew Bible, like the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, the Book of
Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155, etc., and (3) the
remaining roughly 30% of them are sectarian manuscripts of
previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules
and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater
Judaism, like the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher
on Habakkuk and the The Rule of the Blessing.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of twelve

caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead
Sea in the Judean Hills of modern Israel and the West Bank (of
the Jordan River) between 1946 and 1956 by Bedouin peoples
and archeologists.[8]
Initial discovery (1946–1947)[edit source | editbeta]
The initial discovery, by Bedouin shepherd Muhammed Edh-
Dhib, his cousin Jum'a Muhammed, and Khalil Musa, took
place between November 1946 and February 1947.[9][10] The
shepherds discovered 7 scrolls (See Fragment and scroll lists)
housed in jars in a cave at what is now known as the Qumran
site. John C. Trever reconstructed the story of the scrolls from
several interviews with the Bedouin. Edh-Dhib's cousin
noticed the caves, but edh-Dhib himself was the first to
actually fall into one. He retrieved a handful of scrolls, which
Trever identifies as the Isaiah Scroll, Habakkuk Commentary,
and the Community Rule, and took them back to the camp to
show to his family. None of the scrolls were destroyed in this
process, despite popular rumor.[11] The Bedouin kept the
scrolls hanging on a tent pole while they figured out what to
do with them, periodically taking them out to show people. At
some point during this time, the Community Rule was split in
two. The Bedouin first took the scrolls to a dealer named
255
Ibrahim 'Ijha in Bethlehem. 'Ijha returned them, saying they

were worthless, after being warned that they might have been
stolen from a synagogue. Undaunted, the Bedouin went to a
nearby market, where a Syrian Christian offered to buy them.
A sheikh joined their conversation and suggested they take the
scrolls to Khalil Eskander Shahin, "Kando", a cobbler and part-
time antiques dealer. The Bedouin and the dealers returned to
the site, leaving one scroll with Kando and selling three others
to a dealer for GBP7 (equivalent to US$29 in 2003).[11] The
original scrolls continued to change hands after the Bedouin
left them in the possession of a third party until a sale could
be arranged. (See Ownership)
In 1947 the original seven scrolls caught the attention of Dr.
John C. Trever, of the American Schools of Oriental Research
(ASOR), who compared the script in the scrolls to that of The
Nash Papyrus, the oldest biblical manuscript then known, and
found similarities between them. In March the 1948 Arab-
Israeli War prompted the move of some of scrolls to Beirut,
Lebanon for safekeeping. On 11 April 1948, Millar Burrows,
head of the ASOR, announced the discovery of the scrolls in a
general press release.
Search for the Qumran caves (1948–1949)[edit source |
editbeta]
Early in September 1948, Mar brought Professor Ovid R.
Sellers, the new Director of ASOR, some additional scroll
fragments that he had acquired. By the end of 1948, nearly
two years after their discovery, scholars had yet to locate the
original cave where the fragments had been found. With
unrest in the country at that time, no large-scale search could
be undertaken safely. Sellers attempted to get the Syrians to
assist in the search for the cave, but he was unable to pay their
price. In early 1948, the government of Jordan gave
permission to the Arab Legion to search the area where the
256
original Qumran cave was thought to be. Consequently, Cave

1 was rediscovered on 28 January 1949, by Belgian United
Nations observer Captain Phillipe Lippens and Arab Legion
Captain Akkash el-Zebn.[12]
Qumran caves rediscovery and new scroll discoveries (1949–
1951)[edit source | editbeta]
A view of the Dead Sea from a cave at Qumran in which some

of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
The rediscovery of what became known as "Cave 1" at
Qumran prompted the initial excavation of the site from 15
February to 5 March 1949 by the Jordanian Department of
Antiquities led by Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de
Vaux.[13] The Cave 1 site yielded discoveries of additional
Dead Sea Scroll fragments, linen cloth, jars, and other
artifacts.[14]
Excavations of Qumran (1951–1956)[edit source | editbeta]
In November 1951, Roland de Vaux and his team from the
ASOR began a full excavation of Qumran.[15] By February
1952, the Bedouin people had discovered 30 fragments in
what was to be designated Cave 2.[16] The discovery of a
second cave eventually yielded 300 fragments from 33
manuscripts, including fragments of Jubilees, the Wisdom of
Sirach, and Ben Sira written in Hebrew.[14][15] The following
month, on 14 March 1952, the ASOR team discovered a third
cave with fragments of Jubilees and the Copper Scroll.[17]
Between September and December 1952 the fragments and
scrolls of Caves 4, 5, and 6 were subsequently discovered by
the ASOR teams.[15]
With the monetary value of the scrolls rising as their historical
significance was made more public, the Bedouins and the
ASOR archaeologists accelerated their search for the scrolls
257
separately in the same general area of Qumran, which was

over 1 kilometer in length. Between 1953 and 1956, Roland de
Vaux led four more archaeological expeditions in the area to
uncover scrolls and artifacts.[14] The last cave, Cave 11, was
discovered in 1956 and yielded the last fragments to be found
in the vicinity of Qumran.[18]
Scrolls and Fragments[edit source | editbeta]
See also: List of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Gnome globe current event.svg
This section is outdated. Please update this article to reflect
recent events or newly available information. (May 2012)
The War Scroll, found in Qumran Cave 1.

The 972 manuscripts found at Qumran were found primarily
in two separate formats: as scrolls and as fragments of
previous scrolls and texts.
A portion of the second discovered copy of the Isaiah scroll,

1QIsab.
The original seven scrolls from Cave 1 at Qumran are: the
Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa), a second copy of Isaiah (1QIsab),
the Community Rule Scroll (4QSa-j), the Pesher on Habakkuk
(1QpHab), the War Scroll (1QM), the Thanksgiving Hymns
(1QH), and the Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen).[19]
Caves 4a and 4b[edit source | editbeta]
Cave 4 was discovered in August 1952, and was excavated
from 22–29 September 1952 by Gerald Lankester Harding,
Roland de Vaux, and Józef Milik.[20] Cave 4 is actually two
hand-cut caves (4a and 4b), but since the fragments were
mixed, they are labeled as 4Q. Cave 4 is the most famous of
258
Qumran caves both because of its visibility from the Qumran

plateau and its productivity. It is visible from the plateau to the
south of the Qumran settlement. It is by far the most
productive of all Qumran caves, producing ninety percent of
the Dead Sea Scrolls and scroll fragments (approx. 15,000
fragments from 500 different texts), including 9–10 copies of
Jubilees, along with 21 tefillin and 7 mezuzot.
The Damascus Document Scroll, 4Q271Df, found in Cave 4

[show]Fragment/Scroll # Fragment/Scroll Name KJV
Bible Association Description
Cave 5[edit source | editbeta]
Cave 5 was discovered alongside Cave 6 in 1952, shortly after
the discovery of Cave 4. Cave 5 produced approximately 25
manuscripts.[20]
Cave 6 was discovered alongside Cave 5 in 1952, shortly after
the discovery of Cave 4. Cave 6 contained fragments of about
31 manuscripts.[20]
List of groups of fragments collected from Wadi Qumran Cave
6:[23][24]
Cave 7, along with caves 8 and 9, was one of the only caves
that is accessible by passing through the settlement at
Qumran. Carved into the southern end of the Qumran plateau,
archaeologists excavated cave 7 in 1957.
Cave 7 yielded fewer than 20 fragments of Greek documents,
including 7Q2 (the "Letter of Jeremiah" = Baruch 6), 7Q5
259
(which became the subject of much speculation in later

decades), and a Greek copy of a scroll of Enoch.[25][26][27]
Cave 7 also produced several inscribed potsherds and jars.[28]
Dead Sea Scroll fragments 7Q4, 7Q5, and 7Q8 from Cave 7 in
Qumran, written on papyrus.
A view of part of the Temple Scroll that was found in Qumran

Cave 11.
7:[23][24]
Cave 8 produced five fragments: Genesis (8QGen), Psalms
(8QPs), a tefillin fragment (8QPhyl), a mezuzah (8QMez), and
a hymn (8QHymn).[29] Cave 8 also produced several tefillin
cases, a box of leather objects, tons of lamps, jars, and the sole
of a leather shoe.[28]
8:[23][24]
260

There was only one fragment found in Cave 9:
In Cave 10 archaeologists found two ostraca with some writing
on them, along with an unknown symbol on a grey stone slab:
Cave 11 was discovered in 1956 and yielded 21 texts, some of
which were quite lengthy. The Temple Scroll, so called
because more than half of it pertains to the construction of
the Temple of Jerusalem, was found in Cave 11, and is by far
the longest scroll. It is now 26.7 feet (8.15 m) long. Its original
length may have been over 28 feet (8.75 m). The Temple Scroll
was regarded by Yigael Yadin as "The Torah According to the
Essenes". On the other hand, Hartmut Stegemann, a
contemporary and friend of Yadin, believed the scroll was not
to be regarded as such, but was a document without
exceptional significance. Stegemann notes that it is not
mentioned or cited in any known Essene writing.[30]
Also in Cave 11, an escatological fragment about the biblical
figure Melchizedek (11Q13) was found. Cave 11 also produced
a copy of Jubilees.
According to former chief editor of the DSS editorial team John
Strugnell, there are at least four privately owned scrolls from
Cave 11, that have not yet been made available for scholars.
Among them is a complete Aramaic manuscript of the Book of
Enoch.[31]
11:
261

Fragments with unknown provenance[edit source | editbeta]
Some fragments of scrolls do not have significant
archaeological provenance nor records that reveal which
designated Qumran cave area they were found in. They are
believed to have come from Wadi Qumran caves, but are just
as likely to have come from other archaeological sites in the
Judaean Desert area.[32] These fragments have therefore
been designated to the temporary "X" series.
Origin[edit source | editbeta]
There has been much debate about the origin of the Dead Sea
Scrolls. The dominant theory remains that the scrolls were the
product of a sect of Jews living at nearby Qumran called the
Essenes, but this theory has come to be challenged by several
modern scholars.
Qumran–Essene Theory[edit source | editbeta]
The view among scholars, almost universally held until the
1990s, is the "Qumran–Essene" hypothesis originally posited
by Roland Guérin de Vaux[33] and Józef Tadeusz Milik,[34]
though independently both Eliezer Sukenik and Butrus Sowmy
of St Mark's Monastery connected scrolls with the Essenes
well before any excavations at Qumran.[35] The Qumran–
Essene theory holds that the scrolls were written by the
Essenes, or by another Jewish sectarian group, residing at
Khirbet Qumran. They composed the scrolls and ultimately hid
them in the nearby caves during the Jewish Revolt sometime
between 66 and 68 CE. The site of Qumran was destroyed and
the scrolls never recovered. A number of arguments are used
to support this theory.
262
There are striking similarities between the description of an

initiation ceremony of new members in the Community Rule
and descriptions of the Essene initiation ceremony mentioned
in the works of Flavius Josephus – a Jewish–Roman historian
of the Second Temple Period.
Josephus mentions the Essenes as sharing property among the
members of the community, as does the Community Rule.
During the excavation of Khirbet Qumran, two inkwells and
plastered elements thought to be tables were found, offering
evidence that some form of writing was done there. More
inkwells were discovered nearby. De Vaux called this area the
"scriptorium" based upon this discovery.
Several Jewish ritual baths (Hebrew: miqvah = ‫ )מקוה‬were
discovered at Qumran, which offers evidence of an observant
Jewish presence at the site.
Pliny the Elder (a geographer writing after the fall of Jerusalem
in 70 CE) describes a group of Essenes living in a desert
community on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea near the
ruined town of 'Ein Gedi.
The Qumran–Essene theory has been the dominant theory
since its initial proposal by Roland de Vaux and J.T. Milik.
Recently, however, several other scholars have proposed
alternative origins of the scrolls.
Christian Origin Theory[edit source | editbeta]
Spanish Jesuit José O'Callaghan Martínez has argued that one
fragment (7Q5) preserves a portion of text from the New
Testament Gospel of Mark 6:52–53.[36]This theory was
recently falsified in the year 2000 by paleographic analysis of
the particular fragment.[37]
In recent years, Robert Eisenman has advanced the theory
that some scrolls describe the early Christian community.
Eisenman also argued that the careers of James the Just and
263
Paul the Apostle correspond to events recorded in some of

these documents.[38]
Jerusalem Origin Theory[edit source | editbeta]
Some scholars have argued that the scrolls were the product
of Jews living in Jerusalem, who hid the scrolls in the caves
near Qumran while fleeing from the Romans during the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Karl Heinrich Rengstorf first
proposed that the Dead Sea Scrolls originated at the library of
the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.[39] Later, Norman Golb
suggested that the scrolls were the product of multiple
libraries in Jerusalem, and not necessarily the Jerusalem
Temple library.[6][40] Proponents of the Jerusalem Origin
theory point to the diversity of thought and handwriting
among the scrolls as evidence against a Qumran origin of the
scrolls. Several archaeologists have also accepted an origin of
the scrolls other than Qumran, including Yizhar Hirschfeld[41]
and most recently Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg,[42] who all
understand the remains of Qumran to be those of a
Hasmonean fort that was reused during later periods.
Qumran–Sectarian Theory[edit source | editbeta]
Qumran–Sectarian theories are variations on the Qumran–
Essene theory. The main point of departure from the Qumran–
Essene theory is hesitation to link the Dead Sea Scrolls
specifically with the Essenes. Most proponents of the
Qumran–Sectarian theory understand a group of Jews living in
or near Qumran to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, but
do not necessarily conclude that the sectarians are Essenes.
Qumran–Sadducean Theory[edit source | editbeta]
A specific variation on the Qumran–Sectarian theory that has
gained much recent popularity is the work of Lawrence H.
Schiffman, who proposes that the community was led by a
group of Zadokite priests (Sadducees).[43] The most
important document in support of this view is the "Miqsat
264
Ma'ase Ha-Torah" (4QMMT), which cites purity laws (such as

the transfer of impurities) identical to those attributed in
rabbinic writings to the Sadducees. 4QMMT also reproduces a
festival calendar that follows Sadducee principles for the
dating of certain festival days.
Physical characteristics[edit source | editbeta]
Age[edit source | editbeta]

Radiocarbon dating[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Carbon dating the Dead Sea Scrolls
Parchment from a number of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been
carbon dated. The initial test performed in 1950 was on a
piece of linen from one of the caves. This test gave an
indicative dating of 33 CE plus or minus 200 years, eliminating
early hypotheses relating the scrolls to the mediaeval
period.[44] Since then two large series of tests have been
performed on the scrolls themselves. The results were
summarized by VanderKam and Flint, who said the tests give
"strong reason for thinking that most of the Qumran
manuscripts belong to the last two centuries BCE and the first
century CE."[45]
Paleographic dating[edit source | editbeta]
Analysis of handwriting, a path of study known as
palaeography, was applied to the text on the Dead Sea Scrolls
by a variety of scholars in the field. Major linguistic analysis by
Cross and Avigad dates fragments from 225 BCE to 50 CE.[46]
These dates were determined by examining the size,
variability, and style of the text.[47] The same fragments were
later analyzed using radiocarbon date testing and were dated
to an estimated range of 385 BCE to 82 CE with a 68% accuracy
rate.[46]
Ink and parchment[edit source | editbeta]
265
The scrolls were analyzed using a cyclotron at the University

of California, Davis, where it was found that two types of black
ink were used: iron-gall ink and carbon soot ink.[48] In
addition, a third ink on the scrolls that was red in color was
found to be made with cinnabar (HgS, mercury sulfide).[48]
There are only four uses of this red ink in the entire collection
of Dead Sea Scroll fragments.[49] The black inks found on the
scrolls that are made up of carbon soot were found to be from
olive oil lamps.[50] Gall nuts from oak trees, present in some,
but not all of the black inks on the scrolls, was added to make
the ink more resilient to smudging common with pure carbon
inks.[48] Honey, oil, vinegar and water were often added to
the mixture to thin the ink to a proper consistency for
writing.[50] In order to apply the ink to the scrolls, its writers
used reed pens.[51]
Shown here is a closeup of the ink and text of two of the

fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The two fragments,
fragments 1 and 2 of 7Q6, are written on papyrus.
The Dead Sea scrolls were written on parchment made of
processed animal hide known as vellum (approximately 85.5 -
90.5% of the scrolls), papyrus (estimated at 8.0 - 13.0% of the
scrolls), and sheets of bronze composed of about 99.0%
copper and 1.0% tin (approximately 1.5% of the
scrolls).[51][52] For those scrolls written on animal hides,
scholars with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, by use of DNA
testing for assembly purposes, believe that there may be a
hierarchy in the religious importance of the texts based on
which type of animal was used to create the hide. Scrolls
written on goat and calf hides are considered by scholars to be
more significant in nature, while those written on gazelle or
266
ibex are considered to be less religiously significant in

nature.[53]
In addition, tests by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics
in Sicily, Italy, have suggested that the origin of parchment of
select Dead Sea Scroll fragments is from the Qumran area
itself, by using X-ray and Particle Induced X-ray emission
testing of the water used to make the parchment that were
compared with the water from the area around the Qumran
site.[54]
Deterioration, storage, and preservation[edit source |
editbeta]
Two examples of the pottery that held some of the Dead Sea
Scrolls documents found at Qumran.
The Dead Sea Scrolls that were found were originally
preserved by the dry, arid, and low humidity conditions
present within the Qumran area adjoining the Dead Sea.[55]
In addition, the lack of the use of tanning materials on the
parchment of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the very low airflow in
the Qumran caves also contributed significantly to their
preservation.[56] Some of the scrolls were found stored in clay
jars within the Qumran caves, further helping to preserve
them from deterioration. The original handling of the scrolls
by archaeologists and scholars was done inappropriately, and,
along with their storage in an uncontrolled environment, they
began a process of more rapid deterioration than they had
experienced at Qumran.[57] During the first few years in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, adhesive tape used to join
fragments and seal cracks caused significant damage to the
documents.[57] The Government of Jordan had recognized
the urgency of protecting the scrolls from deterioration and
the presence of the deterioration among the scrolls.[58]
267
However, the government did not have adequate funds to

purchase all the scrolls for their protection and agreed to have
foreign institutions purchase the scrolls and have them held at
their museum in Jerusalem until they could be "adequately
studied".[58]
In early 1953, they were moved to the Palestine
Archaeological Museum in East Jerusalem and through their
transportation suffered more deterioration and damage.[59]
The museum was underfunded and had limited resources with
which to examine the scrolls, and, as a result, conditions of the
"scrollery" and storage area were left relatively uncontrolled
by modern standards.[59] The museum had left most of the
fragments and scrolls lying between window glass, trapping
the moisture in with them, causing an acceleration in the
deterioration process. During a portion of the conflict during
the 1956 Arab-Israeli War, the scrolls collection of the
Palestinian Archaeological Museum was stored in the vault of
the Ottoman Bank in Amman, Jordan.[60] Damp conditions
from temporary storage of the scrolls in the Ottoman Bank
vault from 1956 to the Spring of 1957 lead to a more rapid rate
of deterioration of the scrolls. The conditions caused mildew
to develop on the scrolls and fragments, and some of the
fragments were partially destroyed or made illegible by the
glue and paper of the manila envelopes in which they were
stored while in the vault.[60] By 1958 it was noted that up to
5% of some of the scrolls had completely deteriorated.[58]
Many of the texts had become illegible and many of the
parchments had darkened considerably.[57][59]
Until the 1970s, the scrolls continued to deteriorate because
of poor storage arrangements, exposure to different
adhesives, and being trapped in moist environments.[57]
Fragments written on parchment (rather than papyrus or
bronze) in the hands of private collectors and scholars
268
suffered an even worse fate than those in the hands of the

museum, with large portions of fragments being reported to
have disappeared by 1966.[61] In the late 1960s, the
deterioration was becoming a major concern with scholars
and museum officials alike. Scholars John Allegro and Sir
Francis Frank were some of the first to strongly advocate for
better preservation techniques.[59] Early attempts made by
both the British and Israel Museums to remove the adhesive
tape ended up exposing the parchment to an array of
chemicals, including "British Leather Dressing," and darkening
some of them significantly.[59] In the 1970s and 1980s, other
preservation attempts were made that included removing the
glass plates and replacing them with cardboard and removing
pressure against the plates that held the scrolls in storage;
however, the fragments and scrolls continued to rapidly
deteriorate during this time.[57]
In 1991, the Israeli Antiquities Authority established a
temperature controlled laboratory for the storage and
preservation of the scrolls. The actions and preservation
methods of Rockefeller Museum staff were concentrated on
the removal of tape, oils, metals, salt, and other
contaminants.[57] The fragments and scrolls are preserved
using acid-free cardboard and stored in solander boxes in the
climate-controlled storage area.[57]
Photography and assembly[edit source | editbeta]
Najib Albina working on the Dead Sea Scrolls in the photo lab
of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Circa 1955–1960.
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were initially held by different
parties during and after the excavation process, they were not
269
all photographed by the same organization nor in their

entirety.
First photographs by the American Schools of Oriental
Research (1948)[edit source | editbeta]
The first individual to photograph a portion of the collection
was John C. Trever (1916–2006), a biblical scholar and
archaeologist, who was a resident for the American Schools of
Oriental Research.[62] He photographed three of the scrolls
discovered in Cave 1 on 21 February 1948, both on black-and-
white and standard color film.[62][63][64] Although an
amateur photographer, the quality of his photographs often
exceeded the visibility of the scrolls themselves as, over the
years, the ink of the texts quickly deteriorated after they were
removed from their linen wrappings.
Infrared photography and plate assembly by the Palestinian
Archaeological Museum (1952–1967)[edit source | editbeta]
A majority of the collection from the Qumran caves was
acquired by the Palestine Archeological Museum. The
Museum had the scrolls photographed by Najib Albina, a local
Arab photographer trained by Lewis Larsson of the American
Colony in Jerusalem,[65] Between 1952 and 1967, Albina
documented the five stage process of the sorting and
assembly of the scrolls, done by the curator and staff of the
Palestine Archeological Museum, using infrared photography.
Using a process known today as broadband fluorescence
infrared photography, or NIR photography, Najib and the team
at the Museum produced over 1,750 photographic plates of
the scrolls and fragments.[66][67][68][69] The photographs
were taken with the scrolls laid out on animal skin, using large
format film, which caused the text to stand out, making the
plates especially useful for assembling fragments.[70] These
are the earliest photographs of the museum's collection,
which was the most complete in the world at the time, and
270
they recorded the fragments and scrolls before their further

decay in storage, so they are often considered the best
recorded copies of the scrolls.[71]
Israel Antiquities Authority and NASA digital infrared imaging
(1993–2012)[edit source | editbeta]
A previously unreadable fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls

photographed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA in the
early 1990s using digital infrared technology. The fragment,
translated into English, reads "he wrote the words of Noah."
Beginning in 1993, the United States National Aeronautics and
Space Administration used digital infrared imaging technology
to produce photographs of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments.[72] In
partnership with the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center and
West Semitic Research, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
successfully worked to expand on the use of infrared
photography previously used to evaluate ancient manuscripts
by expanding the range of spectra at which images are
photographed.[73] NASA used this multi-spectral imaging
technique, adapted from its remote sensing and planetary
probes, in order to reveal previously illegible text on
fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[73] The process uses a
liquid crystal tunable filter in order to photograph the scrolls
at specific wavelengths of light and, as a result, image
distortion is significantly diminished.[74] This method was
used with select fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to reveal
text and details that cameras that take photographs using a
larger light spectrum could not reveal.[74] The camera and
digital imaging assembly was developed by Greg Berman, a
scientist with NASA, specifically for the purpose of
photographing illegible ancient texts.[75] On December–18-
2012[76] the first output of this project was launched together
271
with Google on a dedicated site

http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/. The site contains both
digitizations of old images taken in the 1950s and about 1000
new images taken with the new NASA technology[77]
Israel Antiquities Authority and DNA scroll assembly (2006–
2012)[edit source | editbeta]
Scientists with the Israeli Antiquities Authority have used DNA
from the parchment on which the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments
were written, in concert with infrared digital photography, to
assist in the reassembly of the scrolls. For scrolls written on
parchment made from animal hide and papyrus, scientists
with the museum are using DNA code to associate fragments
with different scrolls and to help scholars determine which
scrolls may hold greater significance based on the type of
material that was used.[78]
Israel Museum of Jerusalem and Google digitization project
(2011–2016, Estimated)[edit source | editbeta]
In partnership with Google, the Museum of Jerusalem is
working to photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them
available to the public digitally, although not placing the
images in the public domain.[79] The lead photographer of the
project, Ardon Bar-Hama, and his team are utilizing the Alpa
12 MAX camera accompanied with a Leaf Aptus-II back in
order to produce ultra-high resolution digital images of the
scrolls and fragments.[80] With photos taken at 1,200
megapixels, the results are digital images that can be used to
distinguish details that are invisible to the naked eye. In order
to minimize damage to the scrolls and fragments,
photographers are using a 1/4000th of a second exposure
time and UV-protected flash tubes.[79] The digital
photography project, estimated in 2011 to cost approximately
3.5 million U.S. dollars, is expected to be completed by
2016.[80]
272
Scholarly examination[edit source | editbeta]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (June 2012)
Scholar Eleazar Sukenik examining one of the Dead Sea Scrolls

in 1951.
Some of the fragments and scrolls were published early. Most
of the longer, more complete scrolls were published soon
after their discovery. All the writings in Cave 1 appeared in
print between 1950 and 1956; those from eight other caves
were released in 1963; and 1965 saw the publication of the
Psalms Scroll from Cave 11. Their translations into English
soon followed.
Controversy[edit source | editbeta]
Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and delays
have been a source of academic controversy. The scrolls were
controlled by a small group of scholars headed by John
Strugnell, while a majority of scholars had access neither to
the scrolls nor even to photographs of the text. Scholars such
as Hershel Shanks, Norman Golb and many others argued for
decades for publishing the texts, so that they become
available to researchers. This controversy only ended in 1991,
when the Biblical Archaeology Society was able to publish the
"Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls", after an
intervention of the Israeli government and the Israeli
Antiquities Authority (IAA).[90] In 1991 Emanuel Tov was
appointed as the chairman of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation,
and publication of the scrolls followed in the same year.
Physical description[edit source | editbeta]
The majority of the scrolls consist of tiny, brittle fragments,
which were published at a pace considered by many to be
excessively slow. During early assembly and translation work
273
by scholars through the Rockefeller Museum from the 1950s

through the 1960s, access to the unpublished documents was
severely limited to the editorial committee.
Discoveries in the Judean Desert (1955–2009)[edit source |
editbeta]
Emanuel Tov (1941-) who was Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Seas

Scrolls Publication Project and, as a result, responsible for the
publication of 32 volumes of the Discoveries in the Judean
Desert series. He also worked to publish a six-volume printed
edition with a majority of the non-Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and
make the same volumes available electronically on CD in a
collection titled "The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader".
The content of the scrolls was published in a 40 volume series
by Oxford University Press published between 1955 and 2009
known as Discoveries in the Judean Desert.[91] In 1952 the
Jordanian Department of Antiquities assembled a team of
scholars to begin examining, assembling, and translating the
scrolls with the intent of publishing them.[92] The initial
publication, assembled by Dominique Barthélemy and Józef
Milik, was published as Qumran Cave 1 in 1955.[91] After a
series of other publications in the late 1980s and early 1990s
and with the appointment of the respected Dutch-Israeli
textual scholar Emanuel Tov as Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea
Scrolls Publication Project in 1990 publication of the scrolls
accelerated. Tov's team had published five volumes covering
the Cave 4 documents by 1995. Between 1990 and 2009, Tov
helped the team produce 32 volumes. The final volume,
Volume XL, was published in 2009.
A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls
(1991)[edit source | editbeta]
274
In 1991, researchers at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati,

Ohio, Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin Abegg, announced the
creation of a computer program that used previously
published scrolls to reconstruct the unpublished texts.[93]
Officials at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California,
led by Head Librarian William Andrew Moffett, announced
that they would allow researchers unrestricted access to the
library's complete set of photographs of the scrolls. In the fall
of that year, Wacholder published 17 documents that had
been reconstructed in 1988 from a concordance and had come
into the hands of scholars outside of the International Team;
in the same month, there occurred the discovery and
publication of a complete set of facsimiles of the Cave 4
materials at the Huntington Library. Thereafter, the officials of
the Israel Antiquities Authority agreed to lift their long-
standing restrictions on the use of the scrolls.[94]
A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1991)[edit source
| editbeta]
After further delays, attorney William John Cox undertook
representation of an "undisclosed client", who had provided a
complete set of the unpublished photographs, and contracted
for their publication. Professors Robert Eisenman and James
Robinson indexed the photographs and wrote an introduction
to A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was
published by the Biblical Archaeology Society in 1991.[95]
Following the publication of the Facsimile Edition, Professor
Elisha Qimron sued Hershel Shanks, Eisenman, Robinson and
the Biblical Archaeology Society for copyright infringement of
one of the scrolls, MMT, which he deciphered. The District
Court of Jerusalem found in favor of Qimron in September
1993.[96] The Court issued a restraining order, which
prohibited the publication of the deciphered text, and ordered
defendants to pay Qimron NIS 100,000 for infringing his
275
copyright and the right of attribution. Defendants appealed

the Supreme Court of Israel, which approved the District
Court's decision, in August 2000. The Supreme Court further
ordered that the defendants hand over to Qimron all the
infringing copies.[97] The decision met Israeli and
international criticism from copyright law scholars.[98]
The Facsimile Edition by Facsimile Editions Ltd, London,
England (2007–2008)[edit source | editbeta]
In November 2007 the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation
commissioned the London publisher, Facsimile Editions
Limited, to produce a facsimile edition of The Great Isaiah
Scroll (1QIsa), The Order of the Community (1QS), and The
Pesher to Habakkuk (1QpHab).[99][100] The facsimile was
produced from 1948 photographs, and so more faithfully
represents the condition of the Isaiah scroll at the time of its
discovery than does the current condition of the real Isaiah
scroll.[99]
Of the first three facsimile sets, one was exhibited at the Early
Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Seoul, South
Korea, and a second set was purchased by the British Library
in London. A further 46 sets including facsimiles of three
fragments from Cave 4 (now in the collection of the National
Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan) Testimonia
(4Q175), Pesher Isaiahb (4Q162) and Qohelet (4Q109) were
announced in May 2009. The edition is strictly limited to 49
numbered sets of these reproductions on either specially
prepared parchment paper or real parchment. The complete
facsimile set (three scrolls including the Isaiah scroll and the
three Jordanian fragments) can be purchased for $60,000.[99]
The facsimiles have since been exhibited in Qumrân. Le secret
des manuscrits de la mer Morte at the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris, France (2010) and Verbum Domini at the Vatican, Rome,
Italy (2012) and Google
276
Digital publication[edit source | editbeta]

Olive Tree Bible Software (2000–2011)[edit source | editbeta]
The text of nearly all of the non-biblical scrolls has been
recorded and tagged for morphology by Dr. Martin Abegg, Jr.,
the Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scroll Studies
at Trinity Western University located in Langley, British
Columbia, Canada.[101] It is available on handheld devices
through Olive Tree Bible Software - BibleReader, on Macs and
Windows via emulator through Accordance with a
comprehensive set of cross references, and on Windows
through Logos Bible Software and BibleWorks.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (2005)[edit source | editbeta]
The text of almost all of the non-Biblical texts from the Dead
Sea Scrolls was released on CD-ROM by publisher E.J. Brill in
2005.[102] The 2400 page, 6 volume series, was assembled by
an editorial team led by Donald W. Parry and Emanuel
Tov.[103] Unlike the text translations in the physical
publication, Discoveries in the Judean Desert, the texts are
sorted by genres that include religious law, parabiblical texts,
calendrical and sapiental texts, and poetic and liturgical
works.[102]
Israel Antiquities Authority and Google digitization project
(2010–2016)[edit source | editbeta]
High-resolution images, including infrared photographs, of
some of the Dead Sea scrolls are now available online at the
Israel Museum's website.[104]
On 19 October 2010, it was announced[105] that Israeli
Antiquities Authority (IAA) would scan the documents using
multi-spectral imaging technology developed by NASA to
produce high-resolution images of the texts, and then,
through a partnership with Google, make them available
online free of charge, on a searchable database and
complemented by translation and other scholarly tools. The
277
first images, which according to the announcement could

reveal new letters and words,[105] are expected to be posted
online in the few months following the announcement, and
the project is scheduled for completion within five years.
According to IAA director Pnina Shor, "from the minute all of
this will go online there will be no need to expose the scrolls
anymore",[105] referring to the dark, climate-controlled
storeroom where the manuscripts are kept when not on
display.[105]
On 25 September 2011 [106] the Israel Museum Digital Dead
Sea Scrolls this site went online. Google and the Israel
Museum teamed up on this project,[107] allowing users to
examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from
Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible.
The new website gives users access to searchable, high-
resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory
videos and background information on the texts and their
history. As of May 2012, five complete scrolls from the Israel
Museum have been digitized for the project and are now
accessible online. These include the Great Isaiah Scroll, the
Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll,
the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll. All five scrolls can be
magnified so that users may examine texts in detail.
Biblical significance[edit source | editbeta]
See also: Biblical canon

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest
Hebrew language manuscripts of the Bible were Masoretic
texts dating to the 10th century, such as the Aleppo Codex.
(Today, the oldest known extant manuscripts of the Masoretic
Text date from approximately the 9th century.[108]) The
biblical manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls push
that date back a millennium to the 2nd century BCE.[109]
278
Before this discovery, the earliest extant manuscripts of the

Old Testament were manuscripts such as Codex Vaticanus
Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus (both dating from the 4th
century) that were written in Greek.
According to The Oxford Companion to Archaeology:
The biblical manuscripts from Qumran, which include at least
fragments from every book of the Old Testament, except
perhaps for the Book of Esther, provide a far older cross
section of scriptural tradition than that available to scholars
before. While some of the Qumran biblical manuscripts are
nearly identical to the Masoretic, or traditional, Hebrew text
of the Old Testament, some manuscripts of the books of
Exodus and Samuel found in Cave Four exhibit dramatic
differences in both language and content. In their astonishing
range of textual variants, the Qumran biblical discoveries have
prompted scholars to reconsider the once-accepted theories
of the development of the modern biblical text from only
three manuscript families: of the Masoretic text, of the
Hebrew original of the Septuagint, and of the Samaritan
Pentateuch. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Old
Testament scripture was extremely fluid until its canonization
around A.D. 100.[110]
At the time of their writing the area was transitioning between
the Greek Macedonian Empire and Roman dominance as
Roman Judea. The Jewish qahal (society) had some measure
of autonomy following the death of Alexander and the
fracturing of the Greek Empire among his successors. The
country was long called Ιουδαία or Judæa at that time, named
for the Hebrews that returned to dwell there, following the
well-documented diaspora.[111] The majority of Jews never
actually returned to Israel from Babylon and Persia according
to the Talmud, oral and archeological
evidence.[112][113][unreliable source?]
279
Biblical books found[edit source | editbeta]

There are 225 Biblical texts included in the Dead Sea Scroll
documents, or around 22% of the total, with deutercanonical
books the number increases to 235.[114][115] The Dead Sea
Scrolls contain parts of all but one of the books of the Tanakh
of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament protocanon. They
also include four of the deuterocanonical books included in
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles: Tobit, Ben Sirach,
Baruch 6, and Psalm 151.[114] The Book of Esther has not yet
been found and scholars believe Esther is missing because, as
a Jew, her marriage to a Persian king may have been looked
down upon by the inhabitants of Qumran,[116] or because the
book has the Purim festival which is not included in the
Qumran calendar.[117] Listed below are the sixteen most
represented books of the Bible found among the Dead Sea
Scrolls in the 1970s, including the number of translatable Dead
Sea texts that represent a copy of scripture from each Biblical
book:
280

Esotorlogy, Theology and Philosophy of The Christian Faith

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Esotorlogy, Theology and Philosophy of The Christian Faith

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THE CONCISE

The spiritual path of faith

Early Christians used the Greek word μυστήριον (mysterion)

This esoteric knowledge would allow a deep comprehension

doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in

1 Original Sacred Mysteries of Christianity

5 Baptism of the Holy Spirit

The term sacred mysteries generally denotes the area of

Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret

Although the term is not used equally by all Christian

Jesus. These are mysteries in the sense that they cannot be

The word mysterion (μυστήριον) is used 27 times in the New

In the Roman Catholic Church the First Vatican Council re-

In parts of the Early Church many aspects of Christian

This is not usually so in the West, though theologically many

Although all the official doctrines of Christian churches have

The term is used in Eastern Christianity to refer to what the

Mysteries, in the plural. Orthodox Christians have always

Though Orthodox instructional materials may list seven Sacred

Christian life is centered in the Mystery of the Incarnation of

Heterodoxy in a religious sense means "any opinions or

Heterodoxy is also an ecclesiastical term of art, defined in

Christian theology is the enterprise which seeks to construct

Systematic theology is a discipline of Christian theology that

foundational sacred texts of Christianity, while simultaneously

The Old Testament is a Christian term for a collection of

The books can be broadly divided into the Pentateuch, which

biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning

The New Testament (Koine Greek: Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Hē Kainḕ

The New Testament is an anthology, a collection of Christian

Collections of related texts such as letters of the Apostle Paul

The New Testament consists of

"Apocalypse" (Ἀποκάλυψις) is a Greek word meaning

"Apocrypha" means "things put away" or "things hidden" and

John in the East. Often used by scholars is the term

The canon of the New Testament is the set of books most

"memoirs of the apostles" as being read on the Sabbath

In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria,

commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383,

The Incarnation in Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the

The Incarnation is a fundamental theological teaching of

In the Incarnation, as traditionally defined by those Churches

This is central to the traditional faith held by most Christians.

the Hebrews) have been proposed throughout the centuries,

In the early Christian era, there was considerable

Council of Nicea, 325.

Eventually, the Christian Church accepted the teaching of St.

The most widely-accepted definitions of the Incarnation and

Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic

The significance of the Incarnation has been extensively

O only begotten Son and Word of God,

Glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit—

West Syriac Churches

The West Syriac Churches - Syriac Orthodox, Malankara

I exalt Thee, Lord and King,

The link between the Incarnation and the Atonement within

Alternative views of the Incarnation.

In describing Servetus' theology of the Logos, Andrew Dibb

Post-Reformation Arians such as William Whiston often held a

Socinian and Unitarian

Servetus rejected Arianism because it denied Jesus' divinity so

Arian groups accept. Fausto Sozzini and writers of the Polish

The Oneness view of the Incarnation