the Christians say ...

[sven]

i dont know a better thread title, but its very interesting:

when i read the koran, there was a sura saying:

"The Jews and the Christians say the punishments lasts only a few days, but they are wrong."

so obviously Mohammed accused the Jews and Christians of his time, of not believing in eternal punishment, i dont know the sura, but i´m quite sure it is written somewhere in the koran

so the arabian christians about 500 or 600 AD seem not to have believed in eternal punishment but only punishment for a few days, this is very interesting, i never forgot this, since i read it. maybe its interesting for somebody, just wanted to share it.

[Chris]

Something I came across not long ago in my research... (emphasis mine)

The earliest system of Universalistic theology was by Clement of Alexandria (q.v.), who was the head of the theological school in that city until 202 A.D. His successor in the school was the great Origen (q.v.) who was the most distinguished advocate of this doctrine in all time. His mind has something of the largeness of Plato combined with Christian piety, and his influence was felt for many centuries throughout the East and to some extent in the West. The next great philosophical theologian in the East was Gregory of Nyssa (q.v.) Then came Theodore Mopsuestia (q.v.), distinguished as the promulgator of the grammatico-historical exegesis (see EXEGESIS OR HERMENEUTICS, III., 3; and ANTIOCH, SCHOOL OF), and of a Biblical scientific theology containing a portion of the theory of evolution applied to the history of mankind. His influence for some centuries was more extensive than that of Augustine. Johannes Cassianus (q.v.) should also be mentioned. He was the author of Semipelagianism (q.v.). Under the instruction of these great teachers many other theologians believed in universal salvation; and indeed the whole Eastern Church (q.v.) until after 500 A.D. was inclined to it.

In the West this doctrine had fewer adherents and was never accepted by the Church at large. In the first five or six centuries of Christianity there were six theological schools, of which four (Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, and Edessa, or Nisibis) were Universalist; one (Ephesus) accepted conditional mortality; one (Carthage or Rome) taught endless punishment of the wicked. Other theological schools are mentioned as founded by Universalists, but their actual doctrine on this subject is unknown.

The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 12, p. 96


From what I also gathered from my reading, the school at Alexandria (UR) was the only school for about 150 years.

[Chris]

Not sure, but I think that Origen referred to it as "apokastasis", as that it was most of the references seem to call it when linked to him... "Origen's doctrine of apokastasis".

[sven]

might the christians in arabia be the assyrian church? they were universalists as far is i know