mark9950

Where did the roots of catholicism come from?

Preferably what religion did it get its roots if possible the dates also?

What gave the catholic church the authority to canonize the bible writings as we have them today?

Since the early catholics believed that galileo was wrong and believed in the flat earth and sky dome the center of the universe,What authority do they have on any canonization?

Tristan Scott

The roots of Catholicism could probably be traced back to the first century and Paul, who considered himself the Apostle to the gentiles.

I believe it would be more as to who, than what. Constantine, and later Augustine gave the Bishops at the conferences at Nichaea, Hippo, Tyre and other sites the authority.

Actually those would not have been early Catholics. Galielio died less than 400 years ago. The Catholic church was over 1200 years old at the time.

I assume your question here is rhetorical?

CX

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean the heirarchical structure, Catholic dogmas like transubstantiation or what?

Christianity in general derived its foundations from a combination of Jewish theology and hellenistic ideals. The Apostle Paul succeeded in turning the failed Jesus movement among the Jews into a Gentile religious movement.

The term "catholic" itself means "universal" and derives from early church fathers like Polycarp and his protegé Irenaeus who envisioned what was a highly diverse and somewhat fragmented (both geographically and philosophically) religion becoming a universal worldwide community of believers. Especially Irenaeus was concerned with eliminating "heresy" and defining an orthodox ("right thinking") faith. It is from this situation that a lot of what we consider Catholic derives.

The power of the Roman empire largely under Constantine. After his conversion and the establishment of Xianity as the state religion, Constantine was extremely concerned with solidfying and normalizing the religion into a coherent set of "orthodox" beliefs and creeds. There various councils he convened in the 4th century helped to establish these.

Well the establishment of a normative creed and list of canonical texts occured long before Galileo so I'm not sure what you're suggesting here. Religions are defined, in general, by those in power in the religious heirarchy. Xianity is no different. The orthodox position today represents the theology and doctrine of those who early on won out among competing interpretations of Xian belief. You might want to check out a couple books including St. Peter Versus St. Paul: A Tale of Two Missions bu Michael Goulder, The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels and Pagels new book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas

Bede

Mark,

Just for the avoidance of doubt neither the Catholic Church or any other main church ever at any time adopted a doctrine that said the earth was flat. Don't bother link some internet article that says otherwise as it will be wrong.

Yours

Bede

Bede's Library - faith and reason

Magus55

Thats Mark's favorite argument against the Bible and Christianity.

mark9950

In 1992 Pope John Paul II officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary - it revolved around the sun - but was this the end of the story??

What did the catholic church believe before 1992?

The earth was stationary in place and galileo was wrong?

http://www.novan.com/galileo.htm

Bede

Mark, what's this got to do with the flat earth.

The argument with Galileo was about the heliocentric v geocentric hypotheses, not the shape of the earth. Both sides agreed it was a sphere. You made a mistake and I corrected you.

B