Theme 1: The discursive fight over religious texts in antiquity

As indicated by the title "The discursive fight over religious texts in antiquity”, theme 1 focuses on an area of conflict which became decisive for the development of Christianity.

Several centuries passed before the Church agreed on which group of texts were to be regarded as the norms for the preaching of Christianity. There were no foregone conclusions and a great number of conflicts arose among the Christians, who held diverse opinions about the message of the Gospel. The most viable opinion is reflected in the texts that together form the New Testament canon.

Through many years, Christians as a religious and social group established their own identity by giving preferential treatment to a certain collection of texts which were used at services and in teaching. By doing so, they differentiated themselves from other Christian and non-Christian religious groups with different opinions. These texts thus became normative for the lives and world view of the believers.

However, even in a religious community who agree on the delimitation of the texts which form the basis of the faith, frictions may arise. Read as individual texts, the scripture is subject to interpretation. Theologians were able to explain the meaning of difficult passages of the scripture, but they did not always agree on these interpretations.

This theme aims to enlighten the processes in the history of early Christianity that became important for the formation of the New Testament canon.

See project description.