Discernment of Spirits in The Shepherd of Hermas and Origen

Abstract

Some contemporary authors make special mention of The Shepherd of Hermas (c. 90–140 AD) as one of the most significant works on the subject of discernment in the early Church. One recent writer even holds that as an early spiritual treatise, composed in Rome sometime during the middle of the second century, this work “formulated the essential rules for the discernment of spirits.”1 Another author says that in this opus of Hermas, we can see “the first Christian formulation of the rules for the discernment of spirits.”2