On Healing and Christianity: An Examination of Origen and Tertullian's Views on Healing and Christianity
Abstract
This paper examines the theological and practical views of Origen and Tertullian on the relationship between healing and Christianity. Its introduction examines the reason for the study, outlines research into this field, and explains the research method utilized. The following two chapters devoted to Origen and Tertullian begin by examining the role of healing in their theology. The chapters then move to a discussion of their understanding and view on the nascent Western medical science found in the Greco-Roman world. Each chapter then ends with a look at their views on the role of faith healing. All of these subjects have been touched on by distinguished scholars who have looked at the relationship between early Christianity and healing in the Roman Empire. This paper seeks to collate this work, thereby allowing a more specific view of that relationship in Origen and Tertullian, who have been respectively called the founders of Eastern and Western Christian theology. A final chapter systematically examines Origen and Tertullian for similarities in their views on healing and Christianity by comparing their writings to the propaedeutic premises proposed by Darrel W. Amundsen for the study of patristic thought concerning healing. The paper ends with a general summary of the paper and its conclusions. The research tended to show a strong emphasis on healing in the theology of Origen and Tertullian. Each church father had specific emphases, but both showed a commonality of belief in the ability of Jesus to heal the minds, bodies, souls, and societal structures of the Greco-Roman world.