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David Brakke (History), "The First Early Christian Heretics?: Why the Church Did Not Reject Gnosticism"

January 22, 2014
7:00PM - 8:30PM
Ohio Union, 1739 North High Street - Cartoon Room #1 (3rd Floor)

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Add to Calendar 2014-01-22 19:00:00 2014-01-22 20:30:00 David Brakke (History), "The First Early Christian Heretics?: Why the Church Did Not Reject Gnosticism" Professor David Brakke (OSU Department of History) will present the first lecture in the Center for the Study of Religion's new series "Religions of the World: Past and Present"."Gnosticism" is traditionally understood to be the first great heresy in the history of Christianity.  In the 100s AD, the story goes, the Church rejected Gnosticism and began to form Catholic Christianity.  But is this what really happened?  In this lecture we will meet the early Christian Gnostics and learn about their astonishing beliefs about God and Jesus, sin and salvation.  We will discover that the Gnostics and the so-called "arch-heretic" Valentinus were never really expelled by an organized Church.  Instead, they contributed to the great diversity and richness of the ongoing Christian tradition.**Reception to follow - admission free and open to the public**-parking can be found in the garages north and south of the Ohio Union. More info on parking can be found here.View this lecture (.m4v format)  Ohio Union, 1739 North High Street - Cartoon Room #1 (3rd Floor) Center for the Study of Religion religion@osu.edu America/New_York public

Professor David Brakke (OSU Department of History) will present the first lecture in the Center for the Study of Religion's new series "Religions of the World: Past and Present".

"Gnosticism" is traditionally understood to be the first great heresy in the history of Christianity.  In the 100s AD, the story goes, the Church rejected Gnosticism and began to form Catholic Christianity.  But is this what really happened?  In this lecture we will meet the early Christian Gnostics and learn about their astonishing beliefs about God and Jesus, sin and salvation.  We will discover that the Gnostics and the so-called "arch-heretic" Valentinus were never really expelled by an organized Church.  Instead, they contributed to the great diversity and richness of the ongoing Christian tradition.

**Reception to follow - admission free and open to the public**

-parking can be found in the garages north and south of the Ohio Union. More info on parking can be found here.


View this lecture (.m4v format)