The Deposit of the Faith_ Gnosticism & Marcions & Montanus & The Response to heresies

The Deposit of the Faith

* Gnosticism (58-60): a radical dualism

1) Salvation was the main concern of the Gnostics. They came to the conclusion that all matter is

evil, or at best unreal. A human being is in reality an eternal spirit that somehow has been

imprisoned in a body. Since the body misguides us as to our true nature, it is evil. Therefore

the final goal of the Gnostics is to eascape from the body and this material world. The world

is not our home, but rather an obstacle to salvation of the spirit.

2) The world is "an abortion" of the spirit, not a divine creation.

3) In order to achieve liberation, a spiritual messaenger must come to this world to waken us

from our dream (Our spirits are asleep within our bodies). For Christian gnosticism, the

messenger is Jesus Christ. Since Christ is a heavenly messenger, and since body and matter are

evil, most Christian Gnostics rejected the notion that Christ had a body like ours. Or some

others (called "docetism" derived from a greek word, "to seem") argued the body of Jesus

appeared to be human, burt was not.

4) How is this life to be lived? One must control the body and its passion and thus weaken its

power over the spirit. Thus many of them were extreme ascetics.

5) Serious heretical idea that was warned since the biblical authors, but Christianity had been

heavily influenced by gnosticism.

 

 

 

* Marcions (61-62)

1) Marcion developed an understanding of Christianity that was both anti-Jewish and anti-material.

2) He distinguished true God of the NT (Father of Jesus Christ) from false god of the OT

(Jehovah). Jehovah is an arbitary god, who chooses a particular people above all the rest. The

Father of Christians is not vindicative, but loving. This God requires nothing of us but rather

gives everything freely, including salvation. This God does not seek to be obeyed, but to be

loved.

3) In order to fill this gap, Marcion compiled a list of books that he considered true Christian

Scriptures. He rejected the whole OT. These were 13 epistles of Paul and the Gospel of Like.

However, it was the first attempt to put together a "New Teatament."

4) For a number of years, Marcions achieved a measure of success, and even after it was clearly

defeated it lingered on for centuries.

 

 

* Montanus

1) Montanus was a pagan priest, but converted to Christianity in A.D. 155. At a later time he

began prophesying, decalring that he had been possessed by the Holy Spirit. There were two

prophesying women in his group, Pricilla and Maximillar.

2) This group was characterized by a more rigorous moral life, just as the Sermon on the Mount

was itself more demanding than the Law of the OT.

3) Later, around the year 207, Tertullian, the advocator of the orthodoxy, and enemy of the

heresies, joined the Montanist movement.

 

 

* The Response to heresies: Canon, Creed, and Apostolic Succession

1) The development of canonization of the NT: First gospels, then Acts and Paulines, then general

epistles, and finally the Revelation. "It was in the second half of the fourth century that a

complete consensus was achieved as to exactly which books ought to be included in the New

Testament, and which ought not to be included." (63)

2) "Apostles Creed": Its basic text was put together, probably in Rome, around the year 150. It

was then called "symbol of the faith," which can distinguish the true Christians from the those

who followed the various heresies particularly gnosticism and Marcionism.

# Basic arguments (see p. 64)

3) "Catholic Church" which means "universal," and "according to the whole." "To separate itself

from the various heretical groups and sects, the ancient church began calling itself "catholic."

This title underscored both its universality and the inclusiveness of the witness on which it

stood. It was the church "according to the whole," that is according to the total witness of all

the apostles. The various groups of Gnostics were not "catholic," because they could not claim

this broad foundation." Later the catholic church came to be centered on the person and

authority of a single apostle, Peter. (66)