Early Christian Theology

The first several centuries of Christian history were marked not only by tension between prevailing Roman rule and the peoples of the Levant but also by tension between the emerging religious orthodoxy associated with Christian thought and the philosophical traditions of classical Greece. Concern for the spiritual integrity of the Christian cult can be traced to the first exponent of Christianity, Paul. In I Cor. 1:10, Paul beseeches the Corinthian brethren "that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you." Paul's overriding concern is the community of souls, although, to be sure, Paul wanted all Christians to conform as to ritual, attitude, faith, and works. In Paul's era, however, such issues were elaborated in the context of what was thought to be an imminent second coming. In this regard, Campbell cites Paul's career as Christianity's first organization man.

It could be said that in turning from Pharisee to Christian, Paul simply transferred his temperament to the other side of the line and that the Christian Church that he founded

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stitutional and doctrinal character of orthodoxy. It came to be viewed as heretical, more mystical and more influenced by secular Greek, especially Platonic, philosophy. In this regard, Brashler describes cites the Apocalypse of Peter as "a Gnostic Christology that understands Jesus as a docetic [metaphorical] redeemer" (Brashler 338). A symbolic, not literalist, view of the Redemption connecting human experience with the divine as a matter of interpretation, connected Christianity with Greek thought in ways unacceptable to the orthodox sect. As Pagels notes: Attempting to prove that gnosticism was essentially non-Christian, they traced its origins to Greek philosophy, astrology, mystery religions, magic, and even Indian sources. Often they emphasized--and satirized--the bizarre elements that appear in some forms of gnostic mythology. Tertullian ridiculed the gnostics for creating elaborate cosmologies, with multi-storied heavens like apartment houses, "with room piled on room, and assigned to each god by just as many stairways as there were heresies: The universe has been turned into rooms for rent!" (Pagels, xxxi). Pagels and Robinson each allude to the fact that heretical texts were suppressed and destroyed by orthodox clergy
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