4 - Belief

Summary

A grave concern to protect the church from false teaching is evident throughout the Pastorals. In this section the relationship between the struggle against false teaching and the doctrinal stance in the text will be explored.

Orthodoxy or heresy?

The classical understanding of heresy is based on the notion that during the first period the church was able to remain untainted. This pure age was followed by an invasion of heresy from outside the church. Yet, the church was able to stage a victorious battle against heresy.

In his influential study entitled Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, Walter Bauer stood this traditional view on its head. The great strength of Bauer's thesis is that it enables the reader to confront the diversity and conflict that were part of the life of the church from the very beginning. His work illustrates the impossibility of determining which points of view were the most authentic on historical grounds. Statements such as the following exhibit Bauer's interest in an honest presentation of the historical situation:

Both orthodox and heretics alike, seek by means of literature of all kinds, by letters and collections of letters, and of course also by personal contacts, to extend their influence at home and abroad and to obstruct the path of their opponents wherever they meet. So also, both parties make use of the sermon and the homily, delivered orally as well as circulated in writing; both produce religious poetry, psalms, odes, and other songs; or by means of the apocryphal acts, both introduce an abundance of the popular works so as to win the masses.