"-isms" and "-ites" of the Early Christian Church -- An Outline

Annual Religion Lecture Series — January 28, 2006

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Sources

Catholic Encyclopedia

CES, The Life & Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles (1978, 1979)

Columbia Encyclopedia

Encarta (Microsoft)

Encyclopedia Britannica

Ehrman, Bart D., The New Testament & Other Early Christian Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Nystrom, Bradley P., and Nystrom, David P., The History of Christianity: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004).

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross & E. A. Livingstone (NY: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Peterson, R. Dean, A Concise History of Christianity, 2nd ed., (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999).

 

Early Scriptural Evidence

2 John 1:7. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

1 Cor 15:12–17

 

-isms of the First & Second Centuries (c. a.d. 50-200)

 

 

Cerinthianism (c. a.d. 100-200)

Cerinthus (fl. c. 100).

1.     Categorized as a gnostic.

2.     Polytheistic: more than one God.

3.     Creation: not by a Supreme God but by a Demiurge (GR: craftsman), an inferior, less exalted being, from formless matter.

4.     Jesus was a mere man, but became the Christ at baptism. Became mere man again at the crucifixion (a God cannot suffer). Jesus the man suffers, not Christ the divine who returned to heaven.

5.     Irenaeus (Adv. Haer 3.11.1) asserts that John was written to refute Cerinthus. Some believed that Cerinthus was the author of John and Revelation.

6.     Millennium

7.     Spiritual kingdom of God in heaven.

 

Docetism (c. a.d. 100-300)

1.     Gnostic.

2.     GR: dokeo  to seem, or appear, to suppose of think that.

3.     Platonic dualism: matter is evil; spirit is good.

4.     Since matter is evil, God or Christ cannot be composed of matter; therefore He is an apparition; not physical but a spirit.

5.     ChristÕs suffering and death were only an appearance or illusion.

6.     Some adherents denied that Christ had any humanity.

7.     Alluded to in the New Testament, but becomes fully developed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries (a.d. 100-300).

 

Marcionites (c. a.d. 144–450 in the West; lasted longer in the Eastern church)

1.     Founder: Marcion (b. a.d. 110) was bishop of Sinope (sin Oh pee) (horn on the Black Sea) in Pontus (north central Turkey). Wealthy ship owner.

2.     Father was a bishop. Excommunicated Marcion on grounds of immorality.

3.     Only love; no law.

4.     Old Testament totally rejected.

5.     Creator and God of OT was Demiurge.

6.     Paul the only knowledgeable and credible NT author. The rest of the apostles were deceived by Jewish traditions and doctrines.

7.     Canon of scripture: Luke and 10 of PaulÕs epistles.

8.     Allegory rejected as a means of biblical interpretation.

9.     Denied a physical resurrection: "for flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."

10.  Christ not to return to judge the living and the dead (no law).

11.  No punishment from God (unconditional love). Wicked will be cast into everlasting hell by the Demiurge.

12.  Rejection of marriage. Only those not living in marriage could be baptized: virgins, widows, celibates, and eunuchs (Tertullian, Adv. Marc., I, xxix).

13.  No OT allusions to the coming of Christ.

14.  Not sympathetic to most Gnostic beliefs.

15.  Strong ecclesiastical organization.

16.  ÒI will divide your Church and cause within her a division, which will last forever.Ó

17.  Polycarp, meeting Marcion in Rome: "I recognize thee as the first born of Satan." (a.d. 154).

18.  Absorbed by Manichaeism c. a.d. 300 in the western church.

 

Mandaeans (c. a.d. 50–present)

1.     Gnostic. Also known as Sabians (baptists). Nasoreans (observers) are their leaders.

2.     Two castes: elite and laity.

3.     Initiatory baptism; then repeated baptism.

4.     Dualistic: world or light; world of darkness.

5.     Man's soul is unwillingly imprisoned in a body.

6.     Redeemer: Manda da Hayye (Knowledge of Life) who once dwelled on earth and triumphed over demons who try to keep the soul imprisoned.

7.     Jesus Christ is a false messiah; John the Baptist is revered.

8.     Marriage and procreation are important moral obligations. Unlike most Gnostic sects.

9.     Rituals and texts reflect Persian, Judaic, and Christian influences.

10.  Anti-Jewish; anti-Christian.

11.  Exists today in southern Iraq  and southwest Iran.

 

Montanism (c. a.d. 170–500)

1.     Founded by the so-called prophet Montanus in Phrygia (west central Turkey) c. a.d. 172.

2.     Apocalyptic: focused on imminent 2nd coming of Christ.

3.     Heavenly Jerusalem would soon descend at Pepuza in Phrygia.

4.     Montanus traveled with two young women: Prisca & Maximilla.

5.     Holy Ghost came through Montanus and his associates: specialized. Excessive spiritual experiences. Aesthetic: fasting; cannot run away from persecution; disciplined.

6.     Disallowed second marriages.

7.     Tertullian joined their ranks.

8.     Montanists were excommunicated about a.d. 177, after which a separate sect was formed.

9.     By the 6th century, Montanism had all but died out.

 

Ebionites (c. a.d. 200-400)

1.     Jewish Christians in the Mediterranean area.

2.     Monotheistic: only one God therefore Jesus could not be a God.

3.     Jesus not divine. Not the Son of God.

4.     Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

5.     Vegetarian, since Christ did away with sacrifices and most meat was obtained from the religious act of sacrificing an animal.

 

Manichaeism (c. a.d. 241–1300)

1.     Mani,  c. 216–276?, was born into an aristocratic Persian family in Babylonia (Iraq). May have been brought up as a Mandaean.

2.     Had visions at ages 12 and 24. An angel designated Mani to be last prophet.

3.     Influenced by Buddhism (in India).

4.     Died in confinement or executed by Zoroastrian Bahram I (reigned 274–277).

5.     Mani was the last prophet in a succession that included Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus.

6.     Gnostic influence, too.

7.     Realm of Light (ruled by God)  and Realm of Darkness (ruled by Satan).

8.     Two realms were at first entirely separate. The Realm of Darkness invaded the Realm of Light in a primal catastrophe. The human race is a result and a microcosm of this struggle.

9.     The human body is material, therefore evil. (Platonic dualism.)

10.  Knowledge is what enables the human soul to conquer carnal desires and ascend to the divine realm.

11.  Two castes: Elect (practiced celibacy and vegetarianism, abstained from wine, did no labor, and preached) and the auditors (more numerous; permitted marriage but procreation was discouraged, weekly fasting, served the elect).

12.  Reincarnation. The auditors hoped to be reborn as the elect (transmigration).

13.  Presented a major problem to Christianity for several centuries.

14.  St. Augustine of Hippo was a Manichaean for nine years before converting to Christianity in 387.

 

Modal Monarchians (third to fifth centuries)

1.     A general theological approach to the Trinity, during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries that viewed the three Persons as three different modes, aspects, or energies of the one God's operations, but not as three distinct Persons.

2.     God's names are just labels showing how God was perceived by people in history.

3.     Monotheistic.

 

Arianism (c. a.d. 300-400)

1.     Arias.

2.     Jesus is the greatest of all creatures, but not divine.

3.     God and Jesus Christ are two separate, distinct beings.

4.     Homoiousios (of a similar substance), not homoousios (of the same substance) which was AthanasiusÕs view.

5.     God greater than Jesus Christ.

6.     There was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist.

7.     Condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325. "The Creed of Nicaea [325] confirmed that God and Christ were of the same substance (homoousios), Christ was begotten not made, and there was not a time when he was not. It also stated that the Holy Spirit was to be worshiped with the Father and Son. This creed was revised in 381 [Council of Constantinople I] and then in 451 [Chalcedon, Istanbul] and is now known as the Nicene Creed." (Peterson)

 

Donatism (c. a.d. 311–5th century)

1.     Arose as a result of the consecration of a bishop of Carthage in 311. One of the consecrators, Felix of Aptunga, was a traditor (handed over his copies of the Bible to persecutors under Diocletian). The Numidian bishops felt the consecration was invalid, since being a traditor was a serious sin, and consecrated Majorinus instead.

2.     Worthiness or holiness is a requisite of using priesthood powers.

3.     Donatists were deprived of all civil rights in 414, and their assemblies were banned under penalty of death the following year.

4.     Movement was named after Donatus the Great, bishop of Carthage (c. 315). Donatus succeeded Majorinus.

5.     Attacked by Augustine. The "Church maintained that the unworthiness of the minister did not affect the validity of sacraments, since, as Augustine insisted, their true minister was Christ. The Donatists, on the other hand, went so far as to assert that all those who communicated with traditores were infected, and that, since the Church is one and holy, the Donatists alone formed the Church. Converts to Donatism were rebaptized, a proceeding repeatedly condemned by orthodox synods." (Oxford Dictionary)

 

Pelagianism (4th and 5th centuries)

1.     Pelagius (British monk; taught in Rome; appalled by the laxity in the Roman city and church; died c. 420, after Augustine)

2.     "Man can take the initial and fundamental steps toward salvation by his own efforts, apart from the grace of Christ." (Oxford Dictionary)

3.     Humans have the free will to keep from sinning.

4.     Man can perfect himself.

5.     Denied Original Sin. Man not as fallen as the church taught. "He argued that the corruption of the human race is not inborn, but is due to bad example and habit, and that the natural faculties of humanity were not adversely affected by Adam's fall. Human beings can lead lives of righteousness and thereby merit heaven by their own efforts. Pelagius asserted that true grace lies in the natural gifts of humanity, including free will, reason, and conscience." (Encarta.)

6.     Faith and dogma hardly matter because moral action is what counts. (Pragmatism.)

7.     No need for infant baptism.

8.     God's grace is the example of Jesus.

9.     No sinful people, just sinful acts.

10.  Roundly condemned by Augustine, who favored a form of predestination.

 

Apollinarianism (c. fourth century)

1.     Apollinarius, c. 310–390.

2.     Became bishop of Laodicea (southwestern Turkey) in 360. Close friend of Athanasius of Alexandria (Creed of Nicaea in 325 and the following Nicene Creed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451).

3.     Denied the existence of a mortal, human, rational soul in Jesus Christ. That was replaced by the Divine Logos.

4.     Heresy condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Jesus had to be fully human and fully divine.

 

Nestorianism (c. fifth century)

1.     Nestorius (d. 451). (He may have been misquoted.)

2.     Supported his chaplain Anastasius who preached against the term Theotokos.

3.     In "Jesus there were two persons (natures), one human, one divine. This idea led him to object to the term Theotokos commonly used by Christians in referring to Mary in worship. Theotokos means 'God-bearer' or 'the mother of God.' Nestorius believed that Mary may have given birth to the human Jesus but did not bear the divine Christ." (Peterson).

4.     The human part of Jesus was tempted, suffered, and died, not the divine part.

5.     But Nestorius repeatedly reaffirmed the oneness of Christ.

6.     Heresy condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Jesus was a single person, at once God and man.

 

Eutychianism (5th century)

1.     Eutychus (c. 378-454). Monastery in Constantinople.

2.     Opposed Nestorianism. Therefore condemned of the opposite heresy of confounding the two natures of Christ.

3.     Christ did not have two distinct natures.

4.     The God part absorbed the human part.

5.     It was the God part that was tempted, suffered, and died.

6.     Denied "that His manhood was consubstantial with ours, a view which was held to be incompatible with our redemption through him." (Oxford Dictionary)

7.     Excommunicated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

 

Monophysitism (5th & 6th centuries)

1.     Like Eutychianism, maintained that Christ had only one nature, not both divine and human.

2.     Mainly in the eastern Church, not Rome.

3.     "At the directive of Pope Leo I, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 attempted to steer a middle course between the orthodox and Monophysite views. The resulting edict did not satisfy the Monophysites, and the controversy continued, the Monophysites being supported by the Copts and the Eutychian sect. The Eastern Church, in an effort to suppress the heresy, in the first half of the 6th century excommunicated the Monophysites, who thereupon formally seceded from the parent church. The Monophysites split into two factions over controversies regarding the incorruptibility of ChristÕs body. After 560 a third faction, the Tritheists, arose; they interpreted the three persons in the Deity as three separate gods and hence were regarded by the other factions are heretics.... Although finally condemned in 680-81, at the sixth ecumenical council [Constantinople III] Monophysitism continues in some churches to this day. The modern Abyssinian church, Armenian church, Coptic church, and Jacobite church are all Monophysitic bodies." (Encarta.)

 

Monothelitism (7th century)

1.     Christ had two distinct natures (in accordance with traditional Christian doctrine), human and divine, but the two natures are manifested in one will and activity.

2.     "The doctrine ... was first promulgated about 624 by Byzantine emperor Heraclius, in an attempt to reconcile the orthodox point of view, that Christ has two natures, with the heretical belief of the Monophysites, that he has but one; by this reconciliation Heraclius hoped to bring back into the church the thousands of Monophysites who had been excommunicated for heresy." (Encarta.)

3.     Failed. Declared a heresy by the Council of Constantinople III in 680. Christ has two natures, two wills, with the human being subordinate to the divine.