Essay - Early Christianity Introduction Christianity is One of the Most Prevalent...

Early Christianity

Introduction

Christianity is one of the most prevalent and controversial religions in the world. Gather*****g a solid understanding of just how Christianity came to exist can be a daunting task (Sagovsky, 2000). The purpose of this discussion is to examine the factors that were responsible for the ********** of *****, particularly in the context of Orthodoxy and Heresy. In other words, how did Chr*****tianity become Christian as seen through the lenses of Orthodoxy and *****. The research will explore several defining moments in the history ***** Christianity including proto-orthodox and the boundary markers that enabled the proto-orthodox to prevail ***** become the dominant religion of ***** empire from the first through the fourth century. In an effort ***** underst*****d *****se defining moment ***** topic ***** be explored. Let us begin ***** discussion by defining the term Proto-Orthodox.

Proto-Orthodox

According to Ehrman (2003) ancient Christian embraced Gospels that were not included in the New Testament. However, many of *****se gospels are no longer available and are only known by name. In addition some of these "other" gospels are sometimes quoted by early church writers ***** some of ***** writings have even been found in more recent times (Mukonyora, 1997). ***** any cases it is postulated that Christians that read these other gospels accepted them as sacred writings, while Christians that rejected the writings believed them ***** be forged and heretical. The latter are known as the Proto-Orthodox. ***** views of the Proto-orthodox were established as *****. The author further explains that The Christians who won the early conflicts and established their ***** ***** dominant by the fourth ***** not only gave us the creeds ***** have been handed down from antiquity, they also decided which books would belong to the Scriptures. Once ***** battles had ***** won, they succeeded in labeling *****selves "orthodox" (i.e., those who hold to the "right beliefs") and marginalized their opp*****nts as "heretics." But what should we call Christians who held the views of the victorious party prior to their ultimate vic*****ry? It may be *****st to call them the forerunners of **********, the "proto-orthodox (Ehrman, 2003)."

In short ***** Christians that emerged in the 1st century following the death of Christ provided ***** prototype for the orthodox Christianity that ***** emerge in subsequent centuries. They laid a very specific foundation for what ***** word ***** God said and the pr*****ciples of *****. In doing this they contributed greatly to the ***** that ***** people and nations have embraced as *****ir own.

***** the proto-orthodox ***** the ***** to embrace the four gospels that became the central feature of the new testament (Ehrman, 2003). The acceptance ***** these ***** was so critical ***** the development of Christianity that those that accepted the other gospels ********** considered ***** (*****, 2003). ***** gospels that were considered heretical included the Gospel according to ***** Egyptians, the Gospel ***** to the Twelve Apostles, ***** Gospel of Basilides, the ***** according to Thomas, and the Gospel according to Matthias (Ehrman,