ABSTRACT
When Christianity emerged during the second century as a religion distinct from Judaism, other popular movements were also taking shape; taken together the members of those other groups at times greatly outnumbered Christians. Among those movements, the ones called “Gnostic” exerted the strongest influence on the Church, and provided so serious a challenge that Christian theology largely spelled itself out as an alternative to Gnosticism. The debate between Christians and Gnostics enables us clearly to see the articulation of a Christian embrace of the natural world.
