Front cover image for Lost Christianities : the battle for Scripture and the faiths we never knew

Lost Christianities : the battle for Scripture and the faiths we never knew

Describes how most forms of early Christianity, and the sacred writings they adhered to, came to be suppressed, proscribed, destroyed - in one way or another lost. This work also tells the story of how the canon of the New Testament became the official, orthodox and sacred text for Christianity
eBook, English, 2003
Oxford University Press, New York, 2003
Criticism, interpretation, etc
1 online resource (xv, 294 pages) : illustrations
9780195184143, 9780195141832, 9781280481680, 9780199727124, 9780199756681, 0195184149, 0195141830, 1280481684, 0199727120, 0199756686
57124976
Introduction, recouping our losses
Forgeries and discoveries: Ancient discovery of a forgery, Serapion and the Gospel of Peter; Ancient forgery of a discovery, the Acts of Paul and Thecla; Discovery of an ancient forgery, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas; Forgery of an ancient discovery? Morton Smith and the secret Gospel of Mark
Heresies and orthodoxies: At polar ends of the spectrum, early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites; Christians "in the know", the worlds of early Christian gnosticism; On the road to Nicaea, the broad swath of proto-orthodox Christianity
Winners and losers: Quest for orthodoxy; Arsenal of the conflicts, polemic treatises and personal slurs; Additional weapons in the polemic arsenal, forgeries and falsifications; Invention of scripture, the formation of the proto-orthodox New Testament; Winners, losers, and the question of tolerance
English