I just came back from handing in my History exam. I wrote it this morning, 8am. It went well. I had the option of answering 18 short answer questions and an essay, or just two essays. I picked the latter.
Here are the two questions I picked, as well as some (very short) answers:
* What is gnosticism? What is Marcionism? What impact did these have on the early church?
Gnosticism: a popular belief in the 2nd and 3rd century that all matter was evil; a special messenger is needed to "awaken" our spirit to a "higher life."
Marcionism: the belief that Jehovah in the Hebrew Scriputres was not the same God that Jesus called "Father." Marcion disregarded all Scriptures, except for Luke and the Pauline letters. He got rid of any reference to the Jewish Scriptures.
Early Church Response: The early church created the Apostles' Creed, came to a consensus on the Canon of Scripture, and affirmed Apostolic Succession.
* St. Augustine (354-4430) adhered to two other religions before converting to Christianity. What were they and what did they believe? After conversion, what did Augustine do?
Manicheism: reality consists of two principles: "light" (spiritual) and "dark" (material). The human endeavour was to separate light from dark, and prepare our spirit for for its return to the realm of pure light.
Neo-Platonism: a supreme being created a spiritual world, and one of the lower spirits created matter by mistake. The human endeavour was to "face" (or get near) the goodness of the supreme being, thereby avoiding evil.
After conversion, St. Augustine devoted himself to defending the faith against Manicheism, Donatism, and Pelagianism.
Note: After the Apostle Paul, Augustine is regarded as the greatest theologian of the church (well, the Orthodox Church thinks otherwise). His greatest works are the Confessions (an autobiographical prayer to God), and City of God (in which he argues that there are two types of cities: the city of God built on love of God, and the earthly city built on love of self).
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