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| a period in Christian history, roughly the 2nd century to the 5th or 6th century AD in the West, though the East traditionally extends it as far as the 9th century; the period is so named b/c the major writers of the time are known as the "fathers" of the church. |
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| a term used (especially in Roman times) to describe those persons who are neither Christians nor Jews. |
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| in the Greek & Roman religious world, secret cults that conducted ritual initiations into the mysteries of a particular god or goddess; their celebrations usually involved purification rituals & sacred meals. |
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| in the Roman world, a partly political & partly religious ceremony in honor of the emperor who was recognized as a superhuman or divine figure. |
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| from the Greek term meaning "witness," someone who, under persecution, dies rather than give up his or her faith. |
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| the bodily remains of martyrs or other saints. |
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| in early Christianity, those who were arrested during persecution and stood firm in their faith but who were not put to death; Confessors enjoyed great prestige in the churches, and some claimed the right to forgive sins. |
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| falling away from the faith or renunciation of the faith under the threat of persecution. |
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| meaning "defender," the apologists of the early church attempted to respond to pagan criticisms of Christianity by explaining what Christians believed & how they lived their lives in terms that made sense to outsiders. |
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| meaning "right teaching" or "right opinion;" the term is often used to describe doctrine or teaching that is declared by the church (or any religious authority) to be correct and binding for believers; it is contrasted w/ heresy. |
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| a theological term used to describe the relationship of the 3 "persons" of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one Godhead; as defined at the 4th century ecumenical councils of Nicaea & Constantinople, the dogma of the Trinity affirms that the 3 persons are coeternal & share equally in the same divine nature. |
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| a short summary of belief; the earliest creeds originated as teaching instruments to prepare catechumens for Baptism; they later became formal instruments by which churches defined themselves. |
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| meaning "universal;" the term catholic is also used in a restrictive sense to refer to a tradition within Christianity, namely the Roman Catholic church or to describe those churches that claim a continuity of leadership that goes back to the early Christian churches (for example, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, and Episcopalians). |
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| meaning "overseer;" in early Christianity, bishops were overseers of local churches, chiefly responsible for teaching and presiding at the Eucharist; later, the bishop is an overseer of a group of churches known as a diocese. |
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| government by bishops; the adjectival form of the word is episcopal (for example, the episcopal authority is the authority of the bishop). |
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| false teaching, or teaching that goes agains orthodoxy (correct teaching) in the eyes of the church. |
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| from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "knowledge;" Gnostics claimed to have access to a special kind of knowledge known to them alone & by which they could be saved; they believed that there were 2 gods: one who was the supreme godhead of the divine realm (representing good) and who was unknown until Jesus came to reveal him, and the other the creator of the physical universe (representing evil), whom they equated with the God of the Old Testament; Gnostics believed that they belonged to the divine realm & their goal was to return there unharmed by this physical world. |
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| from a Greek word meaning "to seem" or "to appear to be;" the belief of some early Christians that Jesus Christ did not really become flesh but only seemed to have a body; in reality he was a spiritual being who could not suffer or die. |
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| a late 2nd-century bishop of the church at Lyons, he wrote "Against Heresies" primarily in response to gnosticism. |
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| a doctrine about redemption taught by Ireneaus, a 2nd-century AD bishop; Ireneaus said that the redemption effected by Jesus Christ was a "doing over again" of all that had gone wrong in human history. |
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| meaning "teaching," the term refers to the title of an early church document, "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles;" it is a church order, that is, a document describing how the Christian ought to live & how the sacraments ought to be celebrated. |
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| an early Christian theologian, he wrote a # of works including "Against Celsus," a response to a non-Christian critique of Christianity, and "On First Principles," an exposition of Christian doctrine as it was understood at that time. |
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| term used to describe a method of interpreting scripture; it involves looking for a hidden spiritual meaning beneath the bare literal or historical meaning of the text. |
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