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The Religious Struggle for a True Christianity
in the Second Century
by Matthew King '03

Abstract

The early struggle for Christianity as a religion is framed by the martyrdom of early Christians under Roman rule. However, the spread of the orthodox Christian tradition was threatened also by ideas from within. There were several groups of believers, now known collectively as the Gnostics, claiming to be Christian while offering radically different theologies. This second struggle has, until recently, been known largely through the works of Orthodox Christian writers such as Irenaeus of Lyons in his text Against the Heresies. But a discovery at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945, revealing a multitude of new scriptures believed to be written by influential Gnostics such as Valentinus, has shed a new light on the interactions of these groups. With the knowledge obtained from this discovery, the famous writings of Irenaeus that ridiculed the Gnostics can be compared with actual texts. The network of threatening ideas that arose from the Gnostics' beliefs defined the terms of the debate over who was the "true" Christian. Thus, a more complete version of the early history of Christianity has been formulated. The rhetoric of these writers can be used to reveal in greater depth the political stakes behind the historical situations of these writers.