Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jmgreen@pilot.njin.net (Jim Green) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Is Christianity Christian? Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 03:14:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: NJ InterCampus Network, New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 45 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I have been thinking about the recent posting of Gilberto Simpson: |From: gdsimpson@amherst.bitnet |Subject: Is Christianity Christian? |Date: 21 Apr 91 05:27:43 GMT |Organization: Amherst College, Amherst, MA. | |....................I was also curious about the extent to which [heretical] |things happened in Christianity. From what I gather, there were many |"heresies" and variants of Christianity around during the first Century. |People had widely different interpretations concerning who Christ was and what |his mission on Earth consisted of. Were certain heresies eliminated for |political reasons? Is it conceivable that the "true" Christian doctrine |would not be very popular (after all, the Bible calls it the narrow path) |and would be suppressed while "false" doctrines would eventually be adopted |by the mainstream? I guess the answer to your Subject question (Is Christianity Christian?) is that in the main no it is not. But this shouldn't come as the surprise it seems to amoungst most so called christians. It was repeatedly prophesied by Jesus that the Church which he established was to disolve. The apostles all seem to have assumed that this would be the fate of the primitive church. The pre-Nicene Fathers (eg Ignatius, Origen, Clement, and Tertullian) experienced, fretted, fought and finally accepted the inevitable. Yes, heresies, were both eliminated AND promoted for political reasons; it was taught by the apostles that the "true" christian doctrine would not be very popular -- so unpopular that the members of the church would lose their lives; and , yes, false doctrines were adopted by the the mainstream and the truth supressed. Agustine struggled his entire life to piece together and make sense of the shambles that was left after Nicaea, but by then the Lord's Church was pretty much dead. The situation continued variably from bad to worse to total corruption over the next 1000 years, when Thomas Aquinas tried to put things right, sort of. Then, of course, came the reformation -- such as it was. The early period is covered in the History writen by Eusebius of Caesarea. Many modern treatments are around, not the least of which is the eight volume series by Schaff ("History of the Christian Church"...vol 1 covers Apoltolic Christianity 1-100ad...vol 2 covers Ante-Nicene Christianity 100-200ad all at ~$25 a pop) Of course the best sourses are found in the Patrologiae Latinae in 221 vols!, Patrologiae Graecae in 161 vols!, and Patrologia Orientalis, but these won't be found in many community libraries! Jim Green