Patristics and Succession

Looking at the patristic period of Christian history (c. 100-451), Christianity was far more theologically diverse than the Roman church gives it credit for. One of the Roman Church's arguments for its status as the true church is that the Roman Church is the development of the early periods of Christianity: it is most true to the early forms of Christianity. This assumes that there was a single type of Christianity which Rome adheres to and other denominations do not. However, there is no one theology of the patristic period. There were many, conflicting theologies. Different cities represented different schools of theology: the theologians from Alexandria are referred to as, surprise, Alexandrine theologians, and they are different from the theologians from Antioch, known as Antiochene theologians. Also, there were the theologians from North Africa, such as Tertullian and Augustine. The Roman Church may agree with some of these guys, but they cannot agree with them all. To give it credit, though, the Roman Church is probably the most diverse church, able to hold in unity the most disparate group of believers.