Church History
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Skeletons Coming Back Together: The Creepiest Resurrection Texts in the Church Fathers
Early Christians did not imagine resurrection as the survival of a disembodied soul. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Aphrahat, and Cyril describe bones… Read More
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Headless Men, Dog-Headed People, and the Monster Races Augustine Couldn’t Simply Dismiss
Augustine knew the ancient stories about headless men, dog-headed people, one-legged Skiapods, Pygmies, and other strange races. He did not… Read More
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Incubi Before the Middle Ages: Demons, Sex, and the “Duses”
Long before medieval theologians developed elaborate theories about incubi and succubi, Augustine was already discussing reports of spirits sexually assaulting… Read More
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Could Demons Turn You Into an Animal? Augustine’s Theory of Supernatural Shapeshifting
Augustine did not believe demons could literally turn a human body into a wolf, horse, or other animal. His alternative… Read More
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Shadow People? Origen and the “Apparitions of Shadowy Spirits”
Did early Christians believe in something resembling modern “shadow people”? Origen describes shadowy apparitions near tombs, while Athanasius, John Cassian,… Read More
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Lilith, Lamia, Sirens, and the Night Monsters of Early Christian Interpretation
Isaiah once sounded considerably stranger to Greek and Latin Christians than it does in many modern Bibles. Jerome found Lilith,… Read More
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Satyrs, Fauns, Incubi, and the Monsters Christians Thought Lived in the Wilderness
Early Christian writers occasionally describe creatures that sound as if they wandered out of classical mythology. Jerome reports a goat-footed… Read More
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Mummies? Embalming, Incorrupt Bodies, and the Christian Dead
Early Christians buried their dead, gathered martyrs’ bones, reported bodies preserved from decay, and sometimes compared the remains of saints… Read More
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What Did the Church Fathers Actually Think Monsters Were?
Early Christians did not have one explanation for monsters. Depending on the report, a strange creature might be a fable,… Read More
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Zombies Before Zombies? When Early Christians Said the Dead Came Back to Life
Early Christians sometimes claimed that dead people had returned to life. Irenaeus said some remained alive for years, Augustine recorded… Read More
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Your Birth Chart Is Not Your Destiny: Eusebius on Astrology and Free Will
Ancient Christians did not reject astrology because they thought the heavens were meaningless. Eusebius, Bardaisan, and Origen argued instead that… Read More
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Do Spells Really Summon Spirits? Eusebius on Magic, Images, and Ritual Power
Did early Christians think spells could actually summon spirits? Eusebius preserves pagan arguments about magical names, images, ritual objects, and… Read More
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Would Eusebius Call the Gods of Modern Paganism Demons?
Eusebius did not think the gods worshiped throughout the pagan world were simply imaginary. He argued that many were real… Read More
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Was Christianity Copied from Paganism? Eusebius Reversed the Charge
The claim that Christianity copied paganism assumes that Christian doctrine moved from Greece into the church. Eusebius of Caesarea argued… Read More
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Can Christians Accept Evolution? What Eusebius Can Tell Us
Christians were arguing against naturalistic accounts of origins long before Darwin. Eusebius preserved Christian attacks on eternal matter, atomism, chance,… Read More
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Did Genesis Borrow from Pagan Creation Myths? Eusebius Read Them Side by Side
Long before modern scholars compared Genesis with pagan creation myths, Eusebius placed Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek accounts beside the Hebrew… Read More
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The Christian Bishop Who Saved the Pagan Books He Wanted to Defeat
Eusebius wanted pagan writers to testify against pagan religion and philosophy. His argument was openly Christian and often severe, but… Read More