What are the most common historical misconceptions regarding Christianity?

by SocratesTombur
talondearg

The most common that I come across include:

  • The Council of Nicaea decided what Books should be in the Bible. (False: The Council of Nicaea didn't even discuss the issue. The question about which books were in and which were out was a process over several hundred years, remarkably without as much controversy as most people think).
  • Constantine and the Council of Nicaea "decided" that Jesus was God. (False: even if you don't accept the idea that the very early church treated Jesus as God, the idea still would predate the fourth century by at least 200 years).
  • Christianity adopted many pagan practices in order to be more acceptable within the Roman Empire (Very debatable. Early Christians were for the most part vehemently opposed to compromise and syncretism with pagan practices)
  • The core ideas of Christianity and stories about Jesus can be explained through parallels with Mithraism and Greek mystery religions (Complicated, but mostly incorrect. There is little evidence to suggest that Mithraism really parallels Christiantiy very well, and almost none that Mithraism was a source for Christianity. Greek mystery religions provide a historical background in which some claims of Christianity would "make sense" or be understood by contemporaries, but I am yet to be convinced that parallels with mystery religions have real explanatory power for the emergence of the NT documents).

That's a start, I might post again if I think up some more that I commonly deal with. Then there is the whole, "no evidence for Jesus ever even existing" can of worms.

bitparity

Removing for violating our rules on poll/trivia type question.

Better alternatives would be ones that would lead to specific answers rather than broader ones. An example perhaps culled from /u/talondearg's response would be:

Is there a history as to why Christians believe the deciding of the books in the bible were at the council of Nicaea?

The answer to which would involve specific examples of the evolution of Nicaea as a pivotal moment in church history, rather than the way your question is asked, to which the answers would broadly be in the form of "tell me random misconceptions about Christianity."