Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Part 2 (4 BCE – 451 CE)

obedience-and-authority

• The Emperor had not expected such ingratitude after he had ended the Great Persecution — history confronted him with subjects who appealed to a higher principle than his power.

  CHR2-RC-133

• Nicaea has always been regarded as one of the milestones in the history of the Church, reckoned as the first council styled 'general' or 'oecumenical'.

  CHR2-RC-136

• The Church in Rome was bitterly divided — the argument mainly over whether there could be any forgiveness for those who had lapsed.

  CHR2-RC-099

belonging

• A Church in which Marcion prevailed would have been a very tidy organization; the Christianity which emerged sought to define, to create a uniformity of belief.

  CHR2-RC-056

• Gnosticism represented an alternative future for the Church — wherever there were Christians, a good many could have been labelled gnōstikoi.

  CHR2-RC-051

faith-and-doubt

• Four different spotlights shine on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ — a book of good news is not the same as straightforward reported news.

  CHR2-RC-010