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Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant , across the Roman Empire , and beyond.
Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism probably predate the New Testament writings. It seems certain that numerous Jewish sects and certainly Jesus's disciples practised baptism. John the Baptist had baptized many people, before baptisms took place in the name of Jesus Christ. Paul likened baptism to being buried with Christ in his death ...
[15] [16] Early Christians gathered into small groups inside private homes, where the typical setting for worship was the communal meal. [17] [18] Presbyters or bishops oversaw the economic requirements of the meal, alongside charitable distributions, and any ceremonial role they took was initially connected to this more prosaic role. [19] [20 ...
Some believe that Gnostic Christianity was a later development, some time around the middle or late 2nd century, around the time of Valentinus. [32] Gnosticism was in turn made up of many smaller groups, some of which did not claim any connection to Jesus Christ.
The doctrine of the Trinity, considered the core of Christian theology by Trinitarians, is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings. [1]
It developed into Early Christianity (see also List of events in early Christianity). The quest for the historical Jesus began with the work of Hermann Samuel Reimarus in the 18th century. [84] Two books, both called The Life of Jesus were written by David Strauss, published in German in 1835–36, and Ernest Renan, published in French in 1863.
Christianity in the ante-Nicene period continued the practice of female Christian headcovering (from the age of puberty onward), with early Christian apologist Tertullian referencing 1 Corinthians 11:2–10 and stating "So, too, did the Corinthians themselves understand [Paul]. In fact, at this day the Corinthians do veil their virgins.
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883) Roman investigations into early Christianity found it an irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic sub-sect of Judaism: it appeared to deny all forms of religion and was therefore superstitio.