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Hi Bart, I hope you won’t mind answering an off topic question. From the tiny little bit of church history that I’ve managed to familiarise myself with, I get the impression that the early Christians were very careful to define in as precise and detailed a manner as possible, what it was they believed. The bishops came together in council to define the doctrines of the faith and to condemn those who held opposing views. My question is this: was that something that was exclusive to christians only or was it common practice among the “pagan” or non Christian religions in the Roman and Greek world? Was the practice of anathematising a group or an individual and branding them heretical something that was peculiar to christians or are there examples of similar happenings among the non christian cults or religions of the Greek and Roman world of those early centuries?
Great question. And a simple and intriguing answer: yes, it was unique to Christianity. Roman and Greek religions had no doctrines, no creeds, no orthodoxies, and no heresies! Hard to imagine, but religion was almost entirely about forms of worship, not doctrinal views.