EMPEROR AND GALILEAN
The third, the deepest of all, had its roots in the bosom of the Church itself. It arose then, it has arisen since, and it will arise again and again as long as Christendom remains a human society. It re- sults from the fact that there is a conflict between the rights of the individual and those of society, as a whole, between things as I sec them and as they are in themselves. This kind of man and that kind of man both confront the Church and expect it to be the exact image of themselves. But it was called to embrace all men, even as they all were called to it. In it there shall be many mansions, even as there are in the Heavenly Father's House, who has made not one like unto another; and nevertheless the Church, in order to exist at all, had to become one only fold for the flock of the One Shepherd. If men had had their way, this house would have fallen into ruin and out of the debris hut after hut would have been built according to each one's desire. During the second and third centuries, the grow- ing confederation of Christian communities saw that danger lay in luxuriant growth, in the diversity of peoples and races from East and West who now belonged to the Church. Enthusiasm disrupted the bonds of law, negation of the world looked with hostility upon affirma- tion of the world. Knowledge strove against faith, untrammelled feeling resisted the compulsion of the norm, the God who lived in the individual heart seemed at odds with the God who lived in the law and the priesthood. Every group appealed to Christ and in- sisted that it was His Church. During this difficult contest of forces and men, the mystical body of Christ resisted all pressure from with- out and took on its Catholic form (we shall see what that form is) , and the Church in Rome became the authoritative guide of all others.
The primary concern was for unity of faith and thought as the determining characteristics of Christian life. Debating the great ques- tions of the time, men reached irreconcilable answers. Did this world hail from God, or did it spring from evil? How can the evil in it be reconciled with God's holiness? Is not man the one and only being, himself his God and the inner meaning of heaven and earth? 'Should not all flesh be gainsaid for the spirit's sake, or are flesh and matter so remote from God and the spirit that where they have dominion there is no sin? Who was Jesus and in what sense was He the Christ, the Son of God? A flood of theosophic cults arose between the years
GNOSTICISM
