History is written backwards, hindsight is of its essence and every attempt to characterize any great and complex historical movement is an act of retrospective construction: what is left out of the story is as significant as anything included. Is Christanity one movement or many, one story or a host of divergent narratives with few if any unifying threads? Once upon a time, historians of early Christianity could take it for granted that there were indeed true and false versions of the Christian message, right and wrong developments of its characteristic institutions...Nowadays we are not so sure.
