The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

The Importance of Radical Phenomena
• Such radical phenomena are of great importance for assessing the
character of Christianity as it grew within the Roman Empire.

•    They continued the original diversity of Christianity in even more

dramatic ways; Christianity was certainly not yet just “one thing.”

•    They continued to insist on a key element in earliest Christianity,

namely, religious experience of various kinds.

•    They continued to challenge the unity of the church, which would

eventually expel some manifestations (such as Gnosticism) and

domesticate others (such as miracle-working and martyrdom).

Johnson, Among the Gentiles.

King, What Is Gnosticism?

1. Discuss the ways in which forms of “extreme Christianity” in the
   2 nd and 3rd centuries can claim precedent in the diversity of religious
   experiences in earliest Christianity.


2. Why would the place of women in these forms of Christianity pose a
   threat to the Greco-Roman social order?

Suggested Reading

Questions to Consider