It is not persecution alone that we ought to fear, not those forces that in open warfare range abroad to overthrow and defeat the servants of God. It is easy enough to be on one’s guard when the danger is obvious; one can stir up one’s courage for the fight when the Enemy shows himself in his true colors. There is more need to fear and beware of the Enemy when he creeps up secretly, when he beguiles us by a show of peace and steals forward by those hidden approaches which have earned him the name of the “Serpent.”… Those whom he has failed to keep in the blindness of their old [pagan] ways he beguiles, and leads them up a new road of illusion. He snatches away people from within the Church herself, and while they think that coming close to the light they have now done with the night of the world, he plunges them unexpectedly into darkness of another kind. They still call themselves Christians after abandoning the Gospel of Christ and the observance of His [moral] law; though walking in darkness they think they still enjoy the light.

— Cyprian of Carthage (200–258), Kirchenvater

Topics: Temptation & Struggle, Church & Congregation, Wisdom & Understanding

Cyprian of Carthage

Cyprian von Karthago (ca. 200–258) war Rechtsgelehrter, wurde um 248 Bischof im heutigen Tunesien und zählt zu den prägenden lateinischen Kirchenvätern der Frühkirche, der unter Kaiser Valerian das Martyrium erlitt. Er begründete eine einflussreiche Lehre über die Einheit der Kirche und das Bischofsamt, geriet jedoch wegen seiner zeitweisen Flucht vor Verfolgung sowie seiner Position im Ketzertaufstreit in schwere Konflikte. Für Bibelleser dokumentieren seine Schriften die seelsorglichen und theologischen Spannungsfelder der frühen Christenheit zwischen Verfolgungsdruck, Sakramentenverständnis und der Wiederaufnahme von Glaubensabgefallenen.

All quotes by Cyprian of Carthage (6)

Cyprian of Carthage

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