ABSTRACT
Christianity had inherited from Judaism a belief in a single, omnipotent God, the creator not only of the cosmos but also of whatever existed on any other plane, and the conviction that in the distant past something had gone wrong with His creation, so that men and women and the environment in which they lived had been corrupted. It believed, nevertheless, that in God’s mind the cosmos had a purpose, and that one day, when this purpose was fulfilled, He would bring it to an end. In the meantime He had delivered messages about Himself and what He wanted of mankind, and had intervened directly in history in the person of Christ to assist mankind in fulfilling what He desired for it and to put right whatever had gone wrong in creation. Latin Catholics and Greek Orthodox were in agreement that Christ was at the same time the one God and a true human being, who had risen from the dead and preceded the rest of mankind to heaven.
