Ancient afterlife beliefs

   On the historical reception of the eschatological views  of the 'Cappadocians fathers (and mothers)' In what follows, I will make a list of references of both pre-modern and recent (20-21th centuries) witnesses of ‘universalist’ [1]  or ‘universalist-leaning’positions in the writings of the Cappadocian Christian philosophers (who lived in the fourth century): Basil of Caesarea, Macrina the Younger, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus.  The purpose of this text is to show that, while scant, there is evidence that in Ancient and Medieval times some have affirmed the presence of the doctrine in these figures – at least in the case of Gregory of Nyssa – or tried to explain it away by suggesting that the texts have been interpolated (which, in a way, is an admission of the presence of the doctrine in the texts themselves) and the latter strategy was probably popular among the later Greek fathers. It should be noted that there is no writing attributed to M...

On the presence of universalism [1] in East Syrian tradition Warning: the present post is subject to revision East Syrian theologians were influenced by Diodore of Tarsus (fl. 4 th century), his disciple Theodore of Mopsuestia (fl. 4-5 th century) who is called the ‘Interpreter/Exegete/Expositor’ in the East Syrian church (also called ‘Church of the East’), and Evagrius Ponticus (fl. 4 th century) [2] .  The point of this text is to show that there a was significant prevalence of the idea in this tradition (this doesn’t necessarily mean that it was a majority view). For more details about Diodore and Theodore see my previous post: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/01/ancient-and-medieval-witnesses-of_28.html A testimony of an opponent: Babai the Great (fl. 6 th century): Let me start with the testimony of an opponent of ‘universalism’ in the East-Syrian Church. This testimony is particularly interesting because it provides evidence that ‘universalism’ was often...