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==Historical roots and parallels==

==Early historical roots and parallels==

In the 2nd century AD, one of the [[heretical]] sects established by Marcion embraced the basic [[Gnostic]] convictions that The God of the [[Old Testament]] is not Father of [[Jesus Christ]], but an inferior deity who was ignorant and vengeful, foreign to the principle of ''"unlimited love"'' taught by their version of Jesus. They regarded the created world we live in as a miserable product of this inferior deity who also devised the degrading method of [[sexual reproduction]]. Thus, Marcion rejected [[marriage]] and required that his followers should not help this "malevolent" creator to keep the miserable show going on. Some Gnostics turned the argument the other way and maintained that since this mortal body will perish in any case, it does not hurt the divine spark within you if you let the body to have the sensual, mostly sexual, pleasures it longs for. These heretical views represented so serious challenge to the early church that the church father [[Tertullian]] devoted several years to writing five monumental books refuting Marcion.<ref name="Skarsaune">{{cite book

In the 2nd century AD, one of the [[heretical]] sects established by Marcion embraced the basic [[Gnostic]] convictions that The God of the [[Old Testament]] is not Father of [[Jesus Christ]], but an inferior deity who was ignorant and vengeful, foreign to the principle of ''"unlimited love"'' taught by their version of Jesus. They regarded the created world we live in as a miserable product of this inferior deity who also devised the degrading method of [[sexual reproduction]]. Thus, Marcion rejected [[marriage]] and required that his followers should not help this "malevolent" creator to keep the miserable show going on. Some Gnostics turned the argument the other way and maintained that since this mortal body will perish in any case, it does not hurt the divine spark within you if you let the body to have the sensual, mostly sexual, pleasures it longs for. These heretical views represented so serious challenge to the early church that the church father [[Tertullian]] devoted several years to writing five monumental books refuting Marcion.<ref name="Skarsaune">{{cite book

|author=Oskar Skarsaune

|author=Oskar Skarsaune

|isbn=978-0-8308-2844-9

|isbn=978-0-8308-2844-9

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAlQTo4H4F4C&dq=inauthor:"Oskar+Skarsaune"&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6GvzVObxF8uNaL_igUg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAlQTo4H4F4C&dq=inauthor:"Oskar+Skarsaune"&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6GvzVObxF8uNaL_igUg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA

}}</ref>  

}}</ref>

 

== See also ==

== See also ==