Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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MARCIONISM

A second-century heresy of Marcion and his followers, who rejected the Old Testament and claimed that the Apostles were wrong in claiming that the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old. Marcion claimed to be teaching a pure Christianity, after the example of St. Paul. He wrote a mutilated revision of the New Testament, consisting mainly of the Gospel of St. Luke and ten letters of St. Paul. The Macionists' principal doctrine was that Christianity is wholly a gospel of love to the exclusion of any law. Among their followers married people could never rise above the catechumenate. Only virgins, widows, and celibates were baptized. Marcionism disappeared after the seventh century.