The Genesis of Orthodoxy

Today we begin a study of the origins of the Christian orthodox tradition. This first session focuses on the Church’s engagement with Gnosticism, a diverse set of religious groups in the early centuries of the Church. Gnostics tended toward what one historian described as “world rejection coupled with … a transcendentalist habit of mind,” and were prevalent in the Greco-Roman world, making a response to Gnosticism one of the Church’s first theological tasks. Subsequent classes in this series focus on the first four ecumenical councils, as the Church began formally to articulate the orthodox faith.

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