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12 - Self-differentiation among Christian groups: the Gnostics and their opponents

from Part III - Community Traditions and Self-Definition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
David Brake
Edited by
Margaret M. Mitchell  and
Frances M. Young
Margaret M. Mitchell
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Frances M. Young
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

When around 180 ce Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons wrote his Detection and refutation of gnōsis falsely so-called, known simply by the Latin title Adversus haereses (‘Against heresies’), he hoped to bring order to a confused situation. A bewildering number of ‘Christian’ groups and teachers offered interested persons salvation, often in the form of gnōsis (‘knowledge’ or ‘acquaintance’) with God. Yet the teachings and practices of these ‘Christians’ displayed an astonishing diversity on such issues as the nature(s) of God and the creator of this world and the content and interpretation of scripture. Irenaeus presented his readers with a powerfully simple way to make sense of these competing claims. There was, he argued, a single consistent Christian truth, deposited in a single church spread throughout the world in communities that could trace their heritage back to Christ and his original apostles. All other groups that claimed to be Christian, despite their seemingly infinite variety, in fact were manifestations of a single error, false gnōsis, which originated in a single teacher, Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–24). The clarity of Irenaeus’ vision is so compelling that even today, after more than a century of scholarship undermining it, we moderns must exert great pains to see the Christianities of the second century in any other way.

Keywords

IrenaeusChristianityGnosticismMarcionValentinusJustin MartyrPlatonismproto-orthodox
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 245 - 260
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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