A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church

A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
Author: Saint John Chrysostom
Publisher: Arkose Press
Total Pages: 690
Release: 2015-10-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781344809382

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 4 (Classic Reprint)

A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 4 (Classic Reprint)
Author: John Chrysostom Augustine
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 684
Release: 2016-06-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781332590537

Excerpt from A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 4 It is true that such questions pressed themselves with special importunity upon the thinkers of the age mentioned, but we should be far astray if we should think for a moment that now for the first time they suggested themselves and demanded solution. The fact is that the earliest literary records of the human race bear evidence of high thinking on the fundamental problems of God, man, and the world, and the relations of these to each other. Recent scholars have brought to light facts of the utmost interest with reference to the pre Babylonian (accadian) religion. A rude nature-worship, with a pantheistic basis, but as suming a polytheistic form, seems to have prevailed in Mesopotamia from a very early period. Spirit everywhere dispersed produced all the phenomena of nature, and directed and animated all created beings. They caused evil and good, guided the movements of the celestial bodies, brought back the seasons in their order, made the wind to blow and the rain to fall, and produced by their in uence atmospheric phenomena both beneficial and destructive; they also rendered i, the earth fertile, and caused plants to germinate and to bear fruit, presided over the births and preserved the lives of living beings, and yet at the same time sent death and disease. There were spirits of this kind everywhere, in the starry heavens, in the'earth, and in the intermediate region of the atmosphere; each element was full of them, earth, air, fire and water; and nothing could exist without them As evil is everywhere present in nature side by side with good, plagues with favorable in uences, death with life, destruction with fruitfulness: an idea of dualism as decided as in the religion of Zoroaster pervaded the conceptions of the supernatural world formed by the Accadian magicians, the evil beings of which they feared more than they valued the poyvers of good. There were essentially good spirits, and others equally bad. These opposing troops con stituted a vast dualism, Which embraced the Whole universe and kept up a perpetual struggle in all parts of the creation. This primitive Turanian quasi-dualism (it was not dualism in the strictest sense of the term) was not entirely obliterated by the Cushite and Semitic civilizations and cults that successively overlaid it. SO firmly rooted had this early mode of viewing the world become that it materially in uenced the religions of the invaders rather than suffered extermination. In the Babylonian religion of the Semitic period the dualistic element was manifest chie y in the magical rites of the Chaldean priests who long continued to use Accadian as their sacred language. Upon this dualistic conception rested the whole edifice of sacred magic, of magic regarded as a holy and legitimate intercourse established by rites of divine origin, between man and the supernatural beings surrounding him on all sides. Placed unhappily in the midst of this perpetual struggle between the good and bad spirits, man felt himself attacked by them at every moment; his fate depended upon them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: First Series, Volume IV St. Augustine: The Writings Against the Manichaeans, and Against the Donatists

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: First Series, Volume IV St. Augustine: The Writings Against the Manichaeans, and Against the Donatists
Author: Philip Schaff
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 685
Release: 2007-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1602065977

"The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD marked the beginning of a new era in Christianity. For the first time, doctrines were organized into a single creed. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers did most of their writing during and after this important event in Church history. Unlike the previous era of Christian writing, the Nicene and Post-Nicene era is dominated by a few very important and prolific writers. In Volume IV of the 14-volume collected writings of the Nicenes and Post-Nicenes (first published between 1886 and 1889), readers will find Augustines writings defending the Catholic church against the Manichaeans and the Donatists. Manichaeanism was a religion developed in Persia by the prophet Mani. According to this religion, creation has two parts: darkness and light. Light is God and has ten attributes. Opposing this, and coeternal with it, is darkness and its five attributes. Saint Augustine was originally a Manichaean, so his defense of Christianity against this religion comes from a deep understanding of its nature. Donatists were a group of believers who refused to forgive those who had renounced their faith during a time of persecution, which caused a schism in Christianity. In opposing these men, Augustine attempted to mend the rift. Those with an interest in ancient religions will find Augustines writings on Manichaeanism one of the most important historical records of that religions practices."