Concept

Christianity in the ante-Nicene period

Overview

Christianity in the ante-Nicene period was the period in Christian history following the Apostolic Age (1st century AD) up to the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD). Although the use of the term Christian (Koine Greek: Χριστιανός) is attested in the Acts of the Apostles (80–90 AD), the earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Koine Greek: Χριστιανισμός) is attested by the ante-Nicene Father and theologian Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD).

While the Jewish–Christian community was centered in Jerusalem in the 1st century AD, Gentile Christianity spread widely in the 2nd century AD. One stream of Gentile Christianity (so-called "proto-Orthodox Christianity") that emerged in this period in the persons and theological positions of the Apostolic Fathers would eventually become the international Great Church. Proto-Orthodox Christianity placed importance on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as saving humanity, and described Jesus as the incarnated Son of God come to Earth. The 2nd and 3rd centuries AD saw a sharp separation between Jewish Christianity and Pauline or Gentile Christianity, with the latter being derived from the teachings of the Apostle Paul. There was an explicit rejection of Second Temple Judaism and Jewish culture by the end of the 2nd century, with a growing body of anti-Jewish Christian literature. Many doctrinal variations in this era defy neat categorizations, as various forms of Christianity interacted in a complex fashion.

A third major school of thought was Marcionite Christianity, a dualistic theological system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in 2nd-century Rome and held that the Hebrew God of the Old Testament ruled upon the Jews by enslaving them to follow the Mosaic Law, while the Gentiles were saved through divine grace by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sent by an entirely different Supreme God. A fourth major school of thought was Gnostic Christianity, an elaborate theological system characterized by several emanationist cosmologies and the notion of a "divine spark" trapped in matter, which regarded Jesus Christ as a divine being sent by a supreme, Unknown God who pre-existed and was superior to the malevolent Hebrew God of the Old Testament (actually the Demiurge or false creator of the material universe), and who brought salvation through direct, experiential "knowledge" (gnosis).

During the ante-Nicene period, various local and provincial ancient Church councils were held, with the decisions meeting varying degrees of acceptance by different Christian groups. Major Christian figures of the 2nd century who were later declared by the developing proto-Orthodox faction to be heretics were Marcion, Montanus, and Valentinus. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, after centuries of intermittent persecution, proto-Orthodox Christianity experienced both pressure and recognition from the Roman State and developed a strong episcopal and unifying structure, leading to its legalization under the Emperor Constantine (313 AD).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
States what Christianity in the ante-Nicene period is; the author is tied to Christianity in the ante-Nicene period in the knowledge graph.
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And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),--this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his…
of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
States what Christianity in the ante-Nicene period is; the author is tied to Christianity in the ante-Nicene period in the knowledge graph.
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What is called Christian, but should rather be termed theological, morality, was not the work of Christ or the Apostles, but is of much later origin, having been gradually built up by the Catholic church of the first five centuries, and though not implicitly adopted by moderns and Protestants, has been much less modified by them than might have been expected. For the most part, indeed, they have contented themselves…
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
States what Christianity in the ante-Nicene period is.
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Polytheism.

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