Athenagoras of Athens

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Athenagoras of Athens (ancient Greek Ἀθηναγόρας Athenagóras ) (* in Athens ) was an early Christian apologist in the second half of the 2nd century. He came from Athens and is said to have taught at the catechist school in his hometown since his conversion to Christianity (around 160) and in Alexandria .

Fonts

Two writings have survived that are traditionally attributed to Athenagoras: Legatio pro Christianis (“Petition for the Christians”), an “Apology of Christianity” addressed to the Emperor Mark Aurel and his son Commodus , written after 163 (according to other sources around 177) , published by Ludwig Paul (Halle 1856), and the text De resurrectione mortuorum (“On the Resurrection of the Dead”), written around 180; Complete edition (first by Henricus Stephanus , Paris 1557) by Johann Karl Theodor von Otto (Jena 1857). The attribution of the resurrectio is controversial, Nikolai Kiel calls its author "Pseudo-Athenagoras". From the structure and reasoning, Nikolai Kiel draws the conclusion that De resurrectione was a later pamphlet against Celsus .

Concern and theology

Among all apologists, Athenagoras is the one who puts Christian doctrine the least in the foreground. He defends Christians by referring to their lives and their teaching against the then common accusations of atheism , fornication , child murder, cannibalism , etc. Furthermore, he explains the indissolubility of marriage, life after death from the point of view of Christians.

In De resurrectione mortuorum , the author deals, among other things, with the much-discussed problem of how a physical resurrection is possible in an intact form if someone is eaten by a wild animal or otherwise forcibly loses parts of his body, and seeks the "chain food objection “To refute. He postulated that human bodies and body parts would not be completely transformed into the animal body by participating in the “divine spark” and therefore remained “separate” in order to be properly put together again on the day of judgment by God.

The oldest known use of the term "trias" ( literally "trinity" ) comes from Athenagoras . This word would later become the usual Greek term for the later doctrine of the Trinity , for God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Whereby the Holy Spirit is not interpreted as a person, but as an " outflow of God, flowing out and returning like a ray of sunshine ".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nikolai Kiel: Ps-Athenagoras De Resurrectione. Dating and contextualization of the writing on the resurrection ascribed to the apologist Athenagoras , in Vigiliae Christianae Supplements, Volume 133, I / VIII / 1 p. 804. Brill, Leiden 2016, ISBN 978-90-04-30268-6
  2. ^ Horacio E. Lona: Nikolai Kiel: Ps-Athenagoras De Resurrectione. Dating and contextualization of the resurrection script attributed to the apologist Athenagoras , in Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity , Volume 21, Issue 1, pp. 184-188, 2017. DOI: 10.1515 / zac-2017-0013 .
  3. ↑ Athenagoras: De resurrectione mortuorum , Chapter 16
  4. ↑ cf. James Douglas Hansen: Le eresie imbarazzanti (The Embarrassing Heresies), in Nota diplomatica - Real Geopolitics, December 29, 2018, Ed. James Hansen Worldwide, accessed December 29, 2018
  5. ↑ Early Christian Apologists and Martyrs Acts Volume I. Translated from the Greek and Latin by Dr. Kaspar Julius (Aristides); Dr. Gerhard Rauschen (Justin, Diognet); Dr. RC Kukula (Tatian); P. Anselm Eberhard (Athenagoras). (Library of the Church Fathers, 1st row, Volume 12) Munich 1913, page 286
  6. ↑ Athenagoras' Petition for the Christians (Apologia pro Christiana) , page 16, paragraph 10, download, at the University of Freiburg
personal data
SURNAME Athenagoras of Athens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek Christian Platonic philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH before 160
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century or 3rd century