(May 5, 2020 at 12:05 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: That there was tremendous diversity in the proto-christian community is evident. Nothing that could be pointed to as a generally accepted theory, doctrine, or practice of christianity would arise until these formative years had passed.
New magic book encapsulates this moment itself, with Paul writing letters about errant churches. The cusp of a christian religious orthodoxy.
All that I am claiming is that "orthodoxy", Christian or otherwise, are those sets of memes that dominated, over time, other memes, which were, ultimately, labeled as being "heresies". Of course, the "appeal to authority" is often made, at least until the so-called authorities began changing the so-called immutable dogmas of their religion.