Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christianity

3 units

From the time Jesus of Nazareth preached in the rural countryside of Judea, his followers interpreted his words differently and wrote varied accounts of what he said and did. As time passed and as Jesus' movement grew into a world religion -- Christianity -- disagreement among Christians only continued to increase, leading to the need to define and enforce correct beliefs and practices to create a Christian orthodoxy embodied in the now-familiar institutions of creed, canon, and clergy. Yet in the process of creating an orthodoxy, what was left out? Whose voices were suppressed? Through the careful study of ancient texts that were long-ago deemed heretical and virtually lost until the 20th century, this course examines the wide varieties of Christianity in its nascent years and discusses how the framers of orthodoxy defined themselves against these alternatives.