ISBN: 9780217887595

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from Gene… More...

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Clarendon press in 1905 in 165 pages; Subjects: Church history; Rome; History / Ancient / Rome; Religion / Christianity / History; Religion / Christianity / General; Religion / Christian Church / History; Charles Bigg, Books, The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire Books Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RELIGION UNDER THE EMPIRE Is1s worship and Mithraism prepared the way for Gnosticism, which may, upon the whole, be regarded as a phase of heathenism. Gnosticism is a term rather loosely employed to denote not a particular definite sect, but rather a type or genus, which embraces a bewildering variety of systems, some wholly pagan, some more or less Christian. It is impossible to describe them except in general terms. They all taught the existence of an evil Creator of the world, side by side with, or not far below, the good Creator of spirit and intelligence; and they all, except perhaps the Mar- cionites, dealt in occultism. Occultism was the knowledge, or Gnosis, from which they derived their title. They sprang up we do not exactly know when, but there are allusions to some kind of Gnosticism in the Epistle to the Colossians and in the Pastoral Epistles. They flourished from the second century onwards, gradually changing their old name for that of Manicheeism. They maintained their existence down to the time of the Albigensian War and St. Thomas Aquinas. During all these centuriesthey never produced a great man, or won a place in the kingdom of letters. The reason must surely have been that they addressed themselves to the congenital infirmities of the human mind, but could not satisfy its higher powers. Gnosticism is commonly said to be a form of Syncretism. This is a word of such importance for the history of religion under the Empire that we ought not to leave it unexplained. Syncretism means 'mixture, ' and, in special, the mixture of two things that will not blend, as for instance of oil and water. Let us take an example. Among the many illustrations in M. Cumont's elaborate volumes on Mithra is one representing a ring1. It is a flat hoop of gold, on which a...<

ISBN: 9780217887595

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from Gene… More...

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Clarendon press in 1905 in 165 pages; Subjects: Church history; Rome; History / Ancient / Rome; Religion / Christianity / History; Religion / Christianity / General; Religion / Christian Church / History; Charles Bigg, Books, The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire Books, General Books LLC<

ISBN: 9780217887595

No Synopsis Available The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire, 9780217887595, Book, Textbook Books > History > Ancient History Paperback, General Books