In my previous post I talked about the “Eusebian model” for understanding the relationship of orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity, and then about the counter-view set forth by Walter Bauer in his important study of 1934. What do scholars think today?
Only the most conservative scholars (fundamentalists and extremely conservative evangelical Christian scholars) still hold to a Eusebian view. For them, not only was Eusebius’s form of orthodoxy taught by Jesus (who told his disciples that he was fully God and fully man, etc.), but their *own* view of the faith was taught by both Jesus and all his disciples. No one else thinks so. Jesus did not teach his disciples the Nicene Creed!
Bauer’s view has been enormously influential on critical scholarship, although no one today accepts the details of Bauer’s very detailed exposition. And everyone recognizes that there are major problems with the case that Bauer built…..
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JUN
This not a question but a comment. Orthodoxy survived because it did & does meet the felt needs of its hearers. It is a truism that one learns that Jesus is all I need only when coming to the point that Jesus is all I have. I think it is impossible to reduce the totality of the Christian faith to something that is academically acceptable.
Hey Bart, I know you studied under Bruce Metzger and my question is how did he feel about your skepticism toward the trustworthiness of the N.T?
Ah! I think I’ll answer this one on the blog itself. It’s a good one….