My church history textbook examines the common claim that 'heresy comes before orthodoxy'. That is, the imposition of the truth in a narrow spectrum is imposed only in the light of a diversity of perspectives. The sister statement to this idea is that 'Evangelicals are defined by reaction'.
These claims to reaction being the prominent factor behind orthodoxy is at one level insightful. There is a sense where disagreement invokes sharpening. Specifically with evangelicals that we see something wrong and do the opposite, oftentimes guided by doing things differently rather than doing things correctly.
Yet at another level this claim fails to recognise that somewhere back there is the truth. That the truth to which evangelicals are seeking to submit themselves did not essentially evolve. Nor was it the exercise of those in power exerting influence, or even of authenticating that which was most widely accepted.
No, at all points the claim to orthodoxy goes back to a clearly perceived level of agreement about Jesus which was accepted from the apostolic age. All which has developed in our understanding is firmly grounded in that initial revelation.
In other words, orthodoxy came first.
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