Welcome to What This Is

The purpose of this blog will be to introduce its visitors to various forms of Christianity practiced throughout the history of the faith since its inception under the Galilean Jewish religious teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known in his own time as Yeshua ben Maryam, Aramaic for "Joshua son of Mary". This blog will talk of all the forms of Christianity which have arisen, not only in comparison to one another, but also in terms of their inherent qualities. In part, this is to remedy the fact that too much of Christian religious history would lead one to believe that the only forms of the faith seriously practiced over the centuries were Constantine-mandated Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, and then later, Protestant Reformationist sects, ratified by various and sundry Early Modern European states. During the supremacy of state-supported Papal and Patriarchate Christianities in the West and East of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, respectively, these alternative Christianities would have been those described as "heretical". Yet before state sponsorship of the faith at the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century CE, even much of the way mainline Christianity had been practiced would have been retroactively described as heretical if the subsequent form of Christianity as codified by the Imperial Government had taken the trouble to judge it according to the new terms of practice established at Nicaea. In short, all previous "errors" were forgiven, so long as you adhered to the new creed approved by the regime of Emperor Constantine. Alternative Christianities continued throughout the Middle Ages, and even after Protestant sects emerged and stabilized under political protection. In the Protestant-controlled spheres of Early Modern Europe, those religious reform movements that did not win the approval of some respectable political entity were usually called "separatists" rather than heretics, but it meant essentially the same thing: ostracism and the brand of outlawry. In Catholic-controlled territories, Protestant movements continued to emerge and be repressed throughout much of the Early Modern Period, until the atheism of the Enlightenment replaced it in frustration. Then of course there are the heresies of Early Christianity, which before the political protection of that branch of Christianity which was deemed orthodox, were no less valid in practice or appeal than those forms that later contributed to the victorious amalgam that emerged after the Council of Nicaea. All these alternative branches of Christianity have been unduly neglected in surveys of the Faith, and mostly it is because scholars assume (unconsciously following the barnacled cues of past dogmatists), that these other forms were somehow spurious and spiritually unsatisfying or unfulfilling. This blog will seek to correct such mistaken assumptions. In fact, hopefully the readers of this blog will discover that most of the worthwhile alternatives of Christian expression belong as much to the trunk of the Christian Family Tree as those that we today consider "appropriate".