The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity-- Part Five<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Q. In reading through and editing all these essays, did the idea emerge of something called \u2018mainstream\u2019 or \u2018orthodox\u2019 Christianity as opposed to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity-- Part Five\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q. 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{"id":60623,"date":"2023-10-29T01:13:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T05:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=60623"},"modified":"2023-10-19T12:15:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T16:15:53","slug":"the-cambridge-history-of-ancient-christianity-part-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/10\/29\/the-cambridge-history-of-ancient-christianity-part-five\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity– Part Five"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A. David Wilhite addresses this question directly in his opening essay, and there are others that deal with particular aspects of the issue along the way \u2014 such as the essays on Marcionism and gnosticising forms of Christianity. In my view, the so-called \u201cChristianities\u201d of the pre-Constantinian era were not disparate entities with equal historical value. Like the early moments of the universe, forces within the full spread of ancient Christianity were beginning to coalesce in a variety of gravitational centers, some with more centripetal pull than others. I think the character of this volume exhibit something of a \u201cmiddle way\u201d between the uncritical-traditionalist approach of binary opposites (orthodox Christianity versus heretical Christianities) and the overly-revisionist approach in which all forms of diversity are given equal weight.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"