tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post3131602739543526380..comments2023-10-10T09:50:34.565-07:00Comments on Find and Ye Shall Seek: Karen Armstrong and the purpose of religious faithMystical Seekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828225180668865911noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-78137809340054543102009-10-26T09:33:34.426-07:002009-10-26T09:33:34.426-07:00Marmalade, you are right, there's no question ...Marmalade, you are right, there's no question that there was diversity within Christianity from the very beginning. I think the real tragedy was the imposition of orthodoxy upon Christianity and the pruning of its early diversity into a single, "acceptable" theological dogma. I think you are also right that fundamentalism is really a product of modernism and has little to do with ancient orthodoxy.Mystical Seekerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10828225180668865911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29128991.post-17869092297114108542009-10-23T21:38:14.071-07:002009-10-23T21:38:14.071-07:00From my studies of early Christianity, I favor Arm...From my studies of early Christianity, I favor Armstrong's view.<br /><br />There was no single orthodoxy in early Christianity. Some early Christians were more literalist and some preferred allegory. But going by the fact that the Gnostic Christians were the earliest commenters on Christian texts and the earliest to create a New Testament and the some of the earliest prominent leaders in the church, I feel there beliefs are at least as valid if not more than supposedly "orthodox" view.<br /><br />The heresiologists only began to come to power about a century after the earliest Christians and some version of their beliefs didn't become the majority view until centuries later with the Nicene Creed. Early Catholicism held a wide variety of beliefs, and those like Valentinus even tried to bridge the distance between those views. Also, there were a wide variety of Christianities and Catholicism wasn't even the most widespread Christian tradition in the first few centuries.<br /><br />The interesting part is that fundamentalism is specifically a response to the Biblical scholarship that challenged orthodoxy. This is rather ironic when you consider how far away from orthodox beliefs is much of evangelical literalism. We now have the early Christian texts that later "orthodox" Christians tried to destroy and the apologists are desparately trying to dismiss any new understandings these texts provide.Marmaladehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02701062765483715442noreply@blogger.com