The flesh becomes word: Communication technologies and changing conceptions of heresy in the early Christian Church

This study was designed to examine whether communication technologies that were dominant in two cultures influenced the conceptions of heresy, defined as internal religious dissent, held by those cultures. To that end, two Christian communities are selected: the first century C. E. Jesus Movement, a loosely organized gathering of those who chose to model their lives on the words and example of Jesus soon after his death, and the fourth century C. E. Christian church, the widespread organization that became the official state church of the Roman Empire. The Jesus Movement is first shown to operate largely within an oral media environment and the fourth century church in a chirographic one. The conceptions of heresy that each community expressed in word or action are then compared. This comparison reveals significant differences between the conceptions held by these two communities, with the fourth century church expressing a rigidity and hostility towards dissent that is remarkably absent in the first century.;The differences in the conceptions of heresy expressed in first and fourth century Christian communities are explained by applying the insights of the discipline of media ecology. Scholars in this discipline suggest that communication technologies function in ways similar to natural environments in that they facilitate certain activities and discourage others. The biases of an oral media environment help to explain why the Jesus Movement was relatively free of heresy whereas the biases of chirography explain why the fourth century church was both hostile to, and preoccupied by, dissent within its ranks. Orality encourages dialogue, adaptation, and flexibility, precisely those things that chirography discourages. The shift from orality to chirography drastically changed the norms by which Christians identified and treated heretics within their ranks.;Although heresy is a complex phenomenon tied to many cultural factors, the role of communication technologies in the formation and development of heresy is a critical factor that has been long ignored.