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

Lecture 10: The Shaping of Orthodoxy

The Definitive Emergence of Christianity

•    The start of the “history of Christianity” in the proper sense is the

middle of the 2nd century. It was then that “Christianity” clearly and

definitively emerged from paganism and Judaism as a “third race”

(Letter to Diognetus), with a firmer sense of “catholic” identity.

•    Both the process and product of this emergence would have

tremendous consequences for subsequent history.

o Christianity is not, first of all, a matter of private experience

but of public and communal identity.

o Christianity is emphatically material, with a positive view of

body, time, and institution.

o When facing future challenges to identity, the strategy of

Irenaeus would be followed: Bishops would meet in councils

and, on the basis of the canonical texts, interpret the meaning

of the creed.

Dunn, Tertullian.

Osborn, Irenaeus of Lyons.

1. Discuss this proposition: The battle for orthodoxy in the 2nd and
   3 rd centuries involved conflicting views of salvation. Was the point
   the liberation of individuals, or was it the building of a certain kind
   of community?


2. What does it mean to call Irenaeus’s focus on creed, canon, and apostolic
   authority a “strategy for self-definition”?

Suggested Reading

Questions to Consider