Marcion's Old Testament God

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Eaton Humanities 350

3:00PM 

Marcion was one of the most significant "heretics" of the second century C.E. as evidenced both by the number of church fathers that wrote against him and the amount that they wrote against him. Though there is widespread agreement that a fundamental element in Marcion's version of early Christianity was his distinguishing between the Father of Jesus Christ and the "Old Testament" or creator god, the precise nature of Marcion's dualism is disputed. This lecture revisits this dispute, both among Marcion's modern interpreters and in the ancient sources, with a particular view towards considering the role that evil played in Marcion's conception of the "Old Testament" God.

A guest lecture by Dr. Dieter T. Roth of Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany