Against Plato, On the Cause of the Universe

by Hippolytus of Rome

Genres: Christianity

Unknown Binding

About the author

Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235 AD) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. He came into conflict with the popes of his time and seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival Bishop of Rome. He opposed the Roman bishops who softened the penitential system to accommodate the large number of new pagan converts. However, he was very probably reconciled to the Church when he died as a martyr.

Starting in the 4th century AD, various legends arose about him, identifying him as a priest of the Novatianist schism or as a soldier converted by Saint Lawrence. He has also been confused with another martyr of the same name. Pius IV identifies him as "Saint Hippolytus, Bishop of Pontus" who was martyred in the reign of Alexander Severus through his inscription on a statue found at the Church of St. Lawrence in Rome and kept at the Vatican as photographed and published in Brunsen.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, a good booklet if you want to know about the vision of the endtimes. Hippolytus talks about both the resurrection, and about judgement day. It's very short, but good as far as it goes. For the resurrection, I think Athenagoras' Resurrection of the Dead is better, but you can still pick up Hippolytus as a refresher or to learn about it in the first place. Brevity does not make it worthless, far from it.

I have my problems with this passage, hence only three stars:

Of which voice the justification will be seen in the awarding to each that which is just; since to those who have done well shall be assigned righteously eternal bliss, and to the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal punishment. And the fire which is un-quenchable and without end awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm which dies not, and which does not waste the body, but continues bursting forth from the body with unending pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no voice of interceding friends will profit them. For neither are the righteous seen by them any longer, nor are they worthy of remembrance. But the righteous will remember only the righteous deeds by which they reached the heavenly kingdom, in which there is neither sleep, nor pain, nor corruption, nor care, nor night, nor day measured by time[...]

I don't think this conforms with Matthew 10:42, according to which every little favor done to a believer will bring a reward. I also see a conflict with 1 Timothy 4:10. If Christ is the savior of ALL men, then endless punishment with no hope of salvation for any of the condemned doesn't fit. There are more verses like that. You don't have to go all the way of universal salvation, but Hippolytus' binary eschatology is, in my opinion, far more implausible, on the face of it.

Another problem I have is that the punishments and rewards also seem undifferentiated. I cannot imagine that everyone, from the lukewarm Christian to the Saint, will receive the same reward in the life to come. At the very least, he will first have to be purified, in the cleansing fires that both Origen and Gregory Thaumaturgus talked about. Likewise, I cannot imagine that the habitual pagan will suffer the same torments as a prosecutor of Christians.

Lastly, if the Gospels and the Epistles all exhort us to love even our enemies, how does that fit in with forgetting that sinners exist when we are in Heaven? If God is merciful and loving, would He want us to lose the mercy and love that He inspired in us? I think not. But this is precisely what Hippolytus view here seems to entail.

[Christian Proano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really is more of a treatise about Hades.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and easy to read tractate that explains what the early Church believed about our bodies and souls after death as recorded by Hippolytus.