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Baptismal Regeneration
Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican churches, and other Protestant denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism, without necessarily holding that salvation is impossible apart from it. Etymologically, the term means "being born again" (regeneration, or rebirth) "through baptism" (baptismal). Etymology concerns the origins and root meanings of words, but these "continually change their meaning, ... sometimes moving out of any recognisable contact with their origin ... It is nowadays generally agreed that current usage determines meaning." While for Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof, "regeneration" and "new birth" are synonymous, Herbert Lockyer treats the two terms as different in meaning in one publication, but in another states that baptism signifies regeneration. The term is associated by some with , where Jesus tells Nicodemus, a Pharisee an ...
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Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ...
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Ignatius Of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch (; ; died 108/140), also known as Ignatius Theophorus (), was an early Christian writer and Patriarch of Antioch. While en route to Rome, where he met his Christian martyrs, martyrdom, Ignatius wrote a series of letters. This correspondence forms a central part of a later collection of works by the Apostolic Fathers. He is considered one of the three most important of these, together with Clement of Rome and Polycarp. His letters also serve as an example of early Christian theology, and address important topics including ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops. Life Nothing is known of Ignatius' life apart from the words of his letters and later traditions. It is said Ignatius conversion (religious), converted to Christianity at a young age. Tradition identifies him and his friend Polycarp as disciples of John the Apostle. Later, Ignatius was chosen to serve as Bishop of Antioch; the fourth-century Church historian Eusebius writes that Ignatius ...
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Paulicianism
Paulicianism (Classical Armenian: Պաւղիկեաններ, ; , "The followers of Paul"; Arab sources: ''Baylakānī'', ''al Bayāliqa'' )Nersessian, Vrej (1998). The Tondrakian Movement: Religious Movements in the Armenian Church from the 4th to the 10th Centuries. London: RoutledgeCurzon. p. 13. . was a heretical medieval Christian sect which originated in Armenia in the 7th century. Followers of the sect were called Paulicians and referred to themselves as Good Christians. Little is known about the Paulician faith and various influences have been suggested, including Gnosticism, Marcionism, Manichaeism and Adoptionism, with other scholars arguing that doctrinally the Paulicians were a largely conventional Christian reform movement unrelated to any of these currents. The founder of the Paulicians is traditionally held to have been an Armenian by the name of Constantine, who hailed from a Syrian community near Samosata in modern-day Turkey. The sect flourished between 65 ...
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Jovinianism
Jovinianism refers to an anti-ascetic movement that has its origins in the 4th-century theologian Jovinian, who criticized the monastic movement and argued for the equality of marriage and celibacy. Jovinianism was criticized by Saint Augustine and Jerome. History Jovinianism spread into Rome and Milan and two followers of Jovinian, Sarmatio and Barbatianus, kept preaching his ideas after Jovinian was expelled. Other disciples of Jovinian included Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus, Martianus, Januarius and Ingeniosus. Because Sarmatio preached anti-ascetic ideas, Ambrose started to write to defend ascetism, calling him a "foolish talker". Jovinianism was condemned by two synods, one in Rome and one in Milan, afterwards they were banished by Emperor Honorius, however some Jovinianists perhaps survived longer in the Alps. Jovinianism was also condemned by Pope Siricus. He opposed Jovinian, because Siricus was zealously opposed to marriage of clergy. Later Era ...
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Caelestius
Caelestius (or Celestius) was the major follower of the heretical Christian teacher Pelagius and the heresy of Pelagianism, which was opposed to Augustine of Hippo and his doctrine on original sin, and was later declared to be heresy by mainstream Nicene Christianity. Development of Caelestius' doctrines It is believed Caelestius met Pelagius in the late 4th century in the city of Rome. Pelagius emphasized that Christians were required by God to struggle against evil behavior using the teachings of the Bible and the example of the Christian saints (although he also affirmed repeatedly in Church proceedings and in a letter to the pope that grace assisted the will in all good actions). For several decades before the doctrine of sin was fully worked out by the church, this teaching brought both of them into numerous theological disputes about the nature of sin with several leaders in the Christian church. Among them were the Bishop of the northern African Roman province of Hippo, Aug ...
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Pelagius
Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British (Celtic Britons, Brittonic) theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius was accused of heresy at the Synod of Diospolis in 415 and his doctrines were harshly criticized by Augustine of Hippo, especially the Pelagian views about mankind's good nature and individual responsibility for choosing asceticism. Pelagius especially stressed the freedom of human will. Very little is known about the personal life and career of Pelagius. Beginnings Pelagius was active between about 390 and 418. He was said by his contemporaries, such as Augustine of Hippo, Prosper of Aquitaine, Marius Mercator, and Orosius, Paul Orosius, to have been of Celtic British origin. Jerome apparently thought that Pelagius was Irish, suggesting that he was "stuffed with Irish porridge" (). He was tall in stature and portly in appearance. Pelagius was a ...
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Augustine Of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include '' The City of God'', '' On Christian Doctrine'', and '' Confessions''. According to his contemporary, Jerome of Stridon, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith". In his youth he was drawn to the Manichaean faith, and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of Neoplatonism. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin and m ...
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Origen
Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early centers of Christianity#Alexandria, Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, exegesis, biblical exegesis and biblical hermeneutics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, Christian apologetics, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described by John Anthony McGuckin as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced". Overview Origen sought martyrdom with his father at a young age but was prevented from turning himself in to the authorities by his mother. When he was eighteen years old, Origen became a Catechesis, catechist at the or School of Alexand ...
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Tertullian
Tertullian (; ; 155 – 220 AD) was a prolific Early Christianity, early Christian author from Roman Carthage, Carthage in the Africa (Roman province), Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin literature, Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologetics, Christian apologist and a polemicist against Heresy in Christianity, heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism. Tertullian was the first theologian to write in Latin, and so has been called "the father of Latin Christianity", as well as "History of Christian theology, the founder of Western theology". He is perhaps most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term ''trinity'' (Latin: ''trinitas''). Tertullian originated new theological concepts and advanced the development of early Church doctrine. However, some of his teachings, such as the Subordinationism, subordination of God the Son, the Son and Holy Spirit in C ...
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Clement Of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (; – ), was a Christian theology, Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with Ancient Greek philosophy, classical Greek philosophy and Ancient Greek literature, literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoicism, Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Judaism, Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars. Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a ...
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Justin Martyr
Justin, known posthumously as Justin Martyr (; ), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and Philosophy, philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The ''First Apology of Justin Martyr, First Apology'', his most well-known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius to abandon the persecution of the Church. Further, he also indicates, as Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustine would later, regarding the "true religion" that revealed itself as Christianity, that the "seeds of Christianity" (manifestations of the Logos (Christianity), Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as Virtuous pagan, unknowing Chris ...
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Theophilus
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (''theós'', "God") and φιλία (''philía'', "love or affection") can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theophoric name, synonymous with the name ''Amadeus (name), Amadeus'' which originates from Latin, Gottlieb (name), Gottlieb in German and Bogomil (name), Bogomil or Bogumił in Slavic. Theophilus may refer to: People Arts * Theophilus Cibber (1703–1758), English actor, playwright, author, son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber * Theophilus Clarke (1776?–1831), English painter * Theophilos Hatzimihail (c. 1870–1934), Greek folk painter from Lesbos * Theophilus Presbyter (1070–1125), Benedictine monk, and author of the best-known medieval "how-to" guide to several arts, including oil painting — thought to be a pseudonym of Roger of Helmarshausen Historical * Theophilos (emperor) (c. 812–842), Byzantine E ...
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