Dorotheos of Gaza (6th cent.) was a monastic leader whose works, along with the correspondence of his mentors, Barsanuphios (d. after 543) and John of Gaza (d. 543), provide insight into the Second Origenist Controversy and the tenor of theological investigation at a key juncture in late antiquity. The evidence of Dorotheos, who several times cites Evagrios by name, has been noted but its significance not yet fully appreciated. This essay reassesses Dorotheos’s theology and Gazan monastic culture through study of his eschatology in Instruction 12, in context of which the Evagrian passages appear, and which he develops from Origen’s On First Principles. Analysis of Dorotheos’s modifications and developing ideas suggests a more vigorous—indeed, “Origenist”—theological life in Gazan monasticism than has been recognized and calls for a new perspective on the effects of the Second Origenist Controversy as well as Dorotheos’s own position relative to it.
