Theognostus
Theognostus [1]
A person of this name is said by Philip of Sida (see Dodwell, Dissert. in Iren. [Oxon. 1689], p. 488 sq.) to have presided over the catechetical school of Alexandria in the second half of the 3rd century. Photius calls him an Alexandrian and an exegete; and he was unquestionably an Origenist, in the strict sense. Photius also expressly states that Theognostus shared the errors of Origen with respect to the Trinity, and termed the Son Icri Aycc (comp. Dionys. Alexand., and see Athanasius, De Blasph. in Spirit. Sanctum; also Origen, De Princ. 1, 3, 7, 63). Theognostus wrote seven books of Hypotheses, which, according to Photius, constitute a doctrinal work constructed in the order of loci-(1) of God the Father as the exclusive originator of the world (against an assumed eternity of matter); (2) of the Son; (3) of the Holy Spirit; (4) of angels and demons; (5 and 6) of the incarnation; (7) of the world-order. The brief extracts from this work which were preserved by Athanasius in De Decret. Nic. Synod. 25, and a fragment from that father's work On the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost (Athan. Ephesians 4 ad Serap. 11) may be found in Ronth, Relig. Sacr. 3, 221 sq. See Galland, Bibl. Vet. Patr. 3; Guericke, De Schola Alexand. (Halle, 1824), 1, 78; 2, 325 sq.
