Write about one way in which these earliest figures in Christianity either disagree with each other or disagree with later Christians.

Your job is to make an argument.
The first sentence of your first paragraph should immediately begin with the “stasis” or the “state of the field”—a general concept that your audience can agree with, but you will be arguing against in your paper. You should move on right away to “destabilize” this stasis. Talk about why common knowledge or the common understanding is wrong. Then suggest your alternative.
From the first word to the last, your essay should take into account other explanations and counter-arguments. Find and use evidence to this end. Don’t waste words! Focus on a single point and develop it in depth. Use only material from the book—there is plenty there to write an excellent essay.
Finally, be ambitious. Try to prove something that is subtle or debatable. You will not get as much credit for a “perfect” essay on a simplistic topic as you will for an good, earnest attempt to tackle a difficult question.
Prompts:
1. Beginning with Jesus himself, Christians have united two conceptions of God that are somewhat contradictory. The first is the unchanging, distant God of Greek philosophy, the second is the passionate, involved God of Jewish religion. Choose one or two figures or movements to show the tension between these two perspectives on the Christian God and highlight which you find to be more interesting, influential, dominant, or threatening.
2. Christians often look to the past to settle disputes. The Biblical stories of Jesus, Paul, and the earliest churches have special authority for nearly all Christians. Write about one way in which these earliest figures in Christianity either disagree with each other or disagree with later Christians. Be sure not to oversimplify by assuming that Jesus, Paul, the early churches, and the Bible were not themselves already composite in nature with hybrid (Greco-Roman and Jewish) identities.
3. Christians founded and grew their religion at the crossroads of continents and civilizations. Not surprisingly, their beliefs and practices have shown an astounding diversity, almost from the beginning. Choose two groups and compare them in one or two aspects, like beliefs, practices, institutions, politics, or social relationships. You may define “groups” as narrowly or broadly as you want, for example, Gnostics and non-Gnostics, or Latin popes and Christian emperors. Create an argument about the differences you find. For instance, you might argue that the spread of Christians in the East depended less on their relationships to political power than Christians in the Roman Empire. Or, that Ethiopians created a more biblical Christianity than the Alexandrians who supplied their bishops.

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