The truth is that the early Church’s desire to maintain fealty to the Jewish belief in one God may have been as much for political reasons as it was for theological ones. For when Marcion and the Gnostics feuded with these Christian leaders over the nature of God, they were also arguing about the nature of authority in the nascent Church. As the acclaimed scholar of religions Elaine Pagels notes, by insisting upon belief in one God, the early church was validating the system of its governance under one bishop—that is, the bishop of Rome.
