Early Christian Schisms - Lies - Extra History
We hope this series will serve as a primer to the
Christian faith, specifically how it interacted with the
Roman Empire - even though we had to simplify many complex theological concepts to fit an introductory series.
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James wanted this series to be the primer he always wished he'd had when studying the later history of
Rome. Since it was focused on the impact of Christianity upon the Roman Empire, we left out the Gnostic movement which had a greater impact on the
Persian Empire. Our history begins with Paul the Apostle, whose fundamental belief was that the sacrifice of Christ erased the sins of mankind and freed them from having to follow the old laws, specifically the
Mosaic Laws which Judaism believed were the path to salvation. In abolishing these laws, he emphasized that circumcision would no longer be necessary because
Roman men, while perfectly willing to give their lives for a noble cause (and Christianity at the time often required sacrifice), were pretty hesitant to let anyone cut off parts of their penises. Not until
Constantine, though, would Christianity be embraced in large numbers - but was Constantine really
Christian? Many scholars have suggested otherwise, and it may be hard to say given our current sources, but he did originate as a monotheistic
Sol Invictus worshipper and probably saw the political advantage of ruling a people united under one God instead of thousands of cults. He may not have realized the difficulty of that, however, until the
Council of Nicaea which brought together many bishops who had been actively persecuted for their faith - hence the eyepatches and missing limbs! - and felt very strongly about how it should be practiced. Even
Saint Nicholas, who is the foundation for
Santa Claus, supposedly punched
Arius during this council over his heretical statements. And they were none too tolerant of each other's opposing beliefs. Although there were many different beliefs that evolved from monophysitism, miaphysitism being the most common, they were often lumped together as one heretical group. Even in our series, we lumped their beliefs together in a way that made their differences easier to understand, but weren't entirely accurate. And these divisions persist to today: not until
1994 did the
Assyrian and
Catholic churches repair the divide from the
Council of Ephesus. But while religion is often a contentious topic, we've been fortunate to see much thoughtful dicussion in our comments section and want to thank our viewers for that. The history of the faith is a way to understand how it has shaped our history, and it has been the genesis of great acts of charity along with great moments of strife.
Understanding and accepting that legacy in all of its complexity is vital to understanding the path that took us here.
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