Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

The Silent Catalyst of Rome In the late 130s, during the episcopacy of Hyginus in Rome, a Syrian teacher named Cerdon (often referred to by patristic writers as Cerdo ) arrived in the capital of the empire. At a time when the Roman church was still a loose association of house churches without a single, defined orthodoxy, Cerdon began to quiet disseminate a radical interpretation of the Christian message. While he was eventually expelled from the community after multiple public confessions and subsequent relapses into his teachings, his brief career in Rome would alter the course of Christian history. It was Cerdon who provided the fundamental theological spark that Marcion of Sinope would develop into a global, institutional church. Cerdon represents the primary connection between the provincial, highly speculative Gnostic circles of Syria and the emerging intellectual debates of the Western church. Although his own writings have been lost and his ideas are known only through the ...