(August 22, 2015 at 12:58 am)Minimalist Wrote: I don't know that I found the whole list but I did find the one which most caught my eye the first time I saw it. Remember, Celsus is writing c 180-185 or some 20-25 years after Lucian.
He has heard enough xtian malarkey to know the name "jesus" which Lucian apparently did not. Still, this quote makes clear that there are many different xtian groups by the late 2d century.
Quote:"Christians, needless to say, utterly detest one another; they slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse, and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching. Each sect brands its own, fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense...".
Ehrman beats this point to death in his Lost Christianities which is a superb little book.
Indeed. Paul dealt with factionalism in Corinth, and even as late as the fourth century, Augustine noted:
"[T]he very name of Catholic . . . belongs to this Church alone . . . so much so that, although all heretics want to be called ‘catholic,' when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house" (Against the Letter of Mani Called `The Foundation' 4:5 [AD 397]).
The Church has been dealing with Cafeteria Catholics from the beginning, Min. This shouldn't be a surprise.