Early Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as Reluctant Witnesses

The view that God is incorporeal, without body or parts, has been the hallmark of Christian orthodoxy, but in the beginning it was not so. In this article I show that ordinary Christians for at least the first three centuries of the current era commonly (and perhaps generally) believed God to be cor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Paulsen, David L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 1990
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 1990, Volume: 83, Issue: 2, Pages: 105-116
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Summary:The view that God is incorporeal, without body or parts, has been the hallmark of Christian orthodoxy, but in the beginning it was not so. In this article I show that ordinary Christians for at least the first three centuries of the current era commonly (and perhaps generally) believed God to be corporeal. The belief was abandoned (and then only gradually) as Neoplatonism became more and more entrenched as the dominant world view of Christian thinkers.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000005587