The early Church's teaching on anger drew on both Scripture and Greek moral philosophy to frame the passions as disordered movements that enslave the soul. Clement of Alexandria taught that pleasure and pain "nail the soul to the body" — only self-crucifixion from the passions liberates the inner person toward God. Origen grounded this in free will: the soul always has the capacity to direct itself toward good or evil, making anger not an irresistible force but a choice. Hermas warned against impure thoughts entering the heart, and the broader tradition catalogued wrath, strife, and sedition as works of the flesh — directly opposed to the Spirit's fruit of meekness and temperance.
"each pleasure and pain nails to the body the soul of the man that does not sever and crucify himself from the passions" — Clement frames mastery of anger as a spiritual discipline of self-crucifixion: the uncontrolled soul is enslaved to the body, while freedom from passion opens the soul toward God.
"a soul is always in possession of free-will...freedom of will is always directed either to good or evil" — Origen grounds the church's teaching on anger in free will: the passions are not irresistible but movements the soul can choose to resist, making moral discipline both possible and obligatory.
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