The Study On The Theology Of Marcion

As those apostles passed away one after another during the second century, the most direct and closest bond of belief between Christians and Jesus Christ disappeared which makes the second century becoming the vital period for the development of early Christianity. It is the absolutely imperative for the educated Christians to reconnect the bond. Marcion of Sinope was one of them. Compared with those famous contemporary apologists, such as Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Irenaeus, Marcion was not really a Christian orthodoxly because he was exiled by Roman church and accordingly was be called the arch-heretic. This thesis is to study on Marcion because of his special and important influence on Christianity. Though the research on him aftertime was not too much, since the publishing of "Marcion:The Gospel of the Alien God" which wrote by Adolf Von Harnack, Christian Theologians began to reconsider the historical value of Marcion. There are two important and inseparable parts in Marcion's theology. One of them is his interpretation on the Old Testament(OT), and another is his dualism system.About the OT, Maricion insists to take literal interpretation to it and accept the veracity of it. However, he also believe that there are two totally different gods between the OT and the new gospel. The god in the OT is the creator who is feeble and weak which lead to the result that the created human beings are deficient and their life has to be in jail under the law of creator. On the other hand, the new alien god is ultimate good who help people finding the way of salvation by the mediator Jesus. Although the attitude of Marcion to the OT is a bit extreme and his theory did not adopted by orthodox church, his method alert the church noticed the discrepancy between the OT and the New Testament. Instead of seeking the completion and unity of those two testaments, apologists begin to confront the problem and figure it out.About His dualism system, scholars ague that if Marcion was one of representative figures of Gnosticism. In fact, no matter the ancient church fathers or those modern theologians, they all failed to come to an agreement of that argument. In this thesis, it will debate for the opinion that Marcion should not be considered as a Gnostic because his dualism is different from the dualism of Gnosticism in nature. Based on the eight characteristics of Gnosticism that discussed about in Christoph Markschies' book "Gnosis", this thesis compares similarities and differences between Marcion and Gnosticism. Conclusively, the mythology system of Gnosticism is a flow from the top to the bottom and then becomes a return from the bottom to the top. Marcion did not conceive such complicate myths. The alien god has nothing to do with human beings, that makes the revelation of Jesus becoming vitally important because it's the only bridge connect the alien god and human beings. In that case, Marion is not a Gnostic.Marcion's ray of light is rediscovered by Harnark after been shadowed for a thousand years. Harnark called him Martin Luther in the second century. Certainly, the evaluation from Harnarck for Marcion is a subjective point of view. But as a not well-known heresy in the second century, Marcion draws attention of a famous Christian historian who took his life to search the relevant data and study on it, from what we can see his value.