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August 11 - October 9, 2017
Christians were an ignorant lot whose doctrines, although preached under a cloak of wisdom, were foolish and even self-contradictory.
the enmity against Christianity on the part of many cultured pagans was not a purely intellectual matter, but was deeply rooted in class prejudice.
the worship of this God destroys the very fiber of society, because those who follow this religion abstain from most social activities, claiming that participation in them would be tantamount to worshiping false gods.
But it makes no sense to leave this life, which is certain, for the sake of another, which is at best uncertain.
The task of responding to such criticism resulted in some of the most remarkable theological works of the second century,
But the most famous of the early apologists was Justin,
Christians were forced to take up the issue of the relationship between their faith and pagan culture.
To be a Christian required a commitment to the sole worship of God, and any deviation from that commitment was a denial of Jesus Christ, who in the final judgment would deny the apostate who had denied him.
Some insisted on a radical opposition between Christian faith and pagan culture.
On becoming a Christian, Justin did not cease being a philosopher, but rather took upon himself the task of doing “Christian philosophy,” and a major part of that task as he saw it was to show and explain the connection between Christianity and classical wisdom.
Justin claimed that there were several points of contact between Christianity and pagan philosophy.
For instance, in contrast to the philosophers, Christian hope is not based on the immortality of the soul, but rather on the resurrection of the body.
Thus, according to Justin, what has happened in the incarnation is that the underlying reason behind the universe, the Logos or Word of God, has come in the flesh.
What Justin thus did was to open the way for Christianity to claim whatever good it could find in classical culture, in spite of its having been pagan.
If God made all bodies out of nothing, why would it be impossible for the same God to create them anew, even after they have been dead and scattered?
What the emperor needs—they said—is not to be worshiped, but to be served; and those who serve him best are those who pray for him and for the empire to the only true God.
These subversive undertones of Christian teaching and practice formed the basis of continued persecution by some of the most able emperors of the second and third centuries,
the writings of the apologists witness to the tensions in which early Christians lived.
The many converts who joined the early church came from a wide variety of backgrounds. This variety enriched the church and gave witness to the universality of its message. But it also resulted in widely differing interpretations of that message.
In order to reaffirm such doctrines, it developed a series of instruments—creeds, the canon of scripture, apostolic succession—that would set limits on orthodoxy and would long remain central themes in Christian life and teaching.
Of all the differing interpretations of Christianity, none seemed as dangerous, nor as close to victory, as was Gnosticism.
According to the Gnostics, they possessed a special, mystical knowledge, reserved for those with true understanding. That knowledge was the secret key to salvation.
the Gnostics came to the conclusion that all matter is evil, or at best unreal.
the Gnostic’s final goal is to escape from the body and this material world in which we are exiled.
although officially rejected by orthodox Christianity, has frequently been part of it.
That is what the world is in Gnosticism: an abortion of the spirit, and not a divine creation.
What Christ has then done is to come to earth in order to remind us of our heavenly origin, and to give us the secret knowledge without which we cannot return to the spiritual mansions.
All these notions are various degrees of what the church at large called Docetism—a name derived from a Greek word meaning “to seem”—for all of them implied, in one way or another, that the body of Jesus appeared to be fully human, but was not.
One point is certain: In many Gnostic circles women had a prominence they did not have in society at large.
It is quite possible that it was partly in response to this feature in Gnosticism that orthodox Christianity began restricting the role of women in the church,
Gnosticism was a serious threat to Christianity throughout the second century.
He thus developed an understanding of Christianity that was both anti-Jewish and anti-material.
Yahweh is a god of justice—and of an arbitrary justice at that. Over against Yahweh, and far above him, is the Father of Christians. This God is not vindictive, but loving.
at the end there will be no judgment, since the Supreme God is absolutely loving, and will simply forgive us.
Marcion posed an even greater threat to the church than did the Gnostics.
But he went beyond them in that he organized a church with its own bishops and its own scripture.
Marcion’s challenge required a response; and thus the church at large began to compile a list of sacred Christian writings.
Christian faith was the fulfillment of the hope of Israel, and not a sudden apparition from heaven.
the acceptance and use of a variety of Gospels came to be seen as a sign of the unity of the church.
The early Christians were well aware of these differences, and that was precisely one of the main reasons why they insisted in using more than one book.
the church at large sought to show that its doctrines were not based on the supposed witness of a single apostle or Gospel, but on the consensus of the entire apostolic tradition.
by the end of the second century the core of the canon was established: the four Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline Epistles.
It was in the second half of the fourth century that a complete consensus was achieved regarding exactly which books ought to be included in the New Testament, and which ought not to be included.
very few considered this a burning issue.
the main question was, is this book to be read when the church gathers for worship?
its basic text was put together, probably in Rome, around the year 150.
The creed’s most extensive paragraph is the one dealing with the Son. This is because it was precisely in their christology that Marcion and the Gnostics differed most widely from the church.
this incipient form of the Apostles’ Creed was only one of several creedal statements employed at the time in connection with baptism.
the debate finally came to the issue of the authority of the church.
All agreed that the true message was the one taught by Jesus.
