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Adamantius
Date unknown
"Adamantius" is the protagonist of
an untitled anti-heretical dialogue extremely popular in
the IV Century. Perhaps because "Adamantius" ("Man of Steel")
was also
a sort of honorific nickname given to
Origen by his admirers, the dialogue was assumed
by its readers to be Origen's work, and this contributed greatly
to its popularity. Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory of
Nyssa included it in their Philocalia,
a collection of what they believed to be valuable
material culled from the works of Origen [not to be
confused with the modern Philokalia], and other
patristic writers shared the same opinion. Modern scholarship,
however, considers the dialogue to be by another, slightly later,
author, and points out that neither the theological concerns
nor the style bear any discernably close
resemblance to Origen's.
The theology of the dialogue is Orthodox. It purports to
record a debate between Adamantius and several
Gnostics,
including a follower of Bar-Daisan
and Marcionites
of two varieties.
There is much concern with the origin of
evil, and with
free will.
Norman Hugh Redington
- WORKS:
- Dialogus de recta in Deum fide
(Dialogue on Right Faith in God).
PG 11:1793.
The title describes only the first
section of the dialogue, and was probably
added by a scribe.
-
Dialogue on the True Faith in God.
Translated by Robert A. Pretty.
Leuven: Peeters, 1997.
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