What is the meaning of life?

[1Cor15.54 (Massimiliano)]

@knor

The very early church was congregational, a network of largely independent churches that had their own practices and minor differences in teachings. Those churches may be called catholic but not Catholic

I think you’ve said the key word yourself: minor differences. Even today there are Churches within the Catholic Church like the eastern Catholic Churches. They are all in full communion with Rome but there are a whole lot of “minor” differences between them and the mainstream Catholic Church you might find in Italy, Spain or the USA.

@knor

A more united church developed gradually. When the network of catholic local churches started to unite, there were already a widening division and mistrust between the churches within the Latin and Greek parts of the Roman empire. Unity in the overall (ecumenical) church may have been the basic image and goal that the official documents tried to support. When the western parts of the empire were conquered, the division between the west and east became more visible.

And yet in the first millennium there are several eastern patriarchs who affirmed their loyalty to Rome. I posted them in the past on here with the source and everything. Salvation without Christ - #125 by 1Cor15.54 And Salvation without Christ - #126 by 1Cor15.54

@knor

In the western Europe, changes to that situation were driven by several factors. A larger number of people trained by the RCC (mostly priests and monks) had availability to the Greek biblical scriptures and noted apparent conflicts between the scriptures and the contemporary teachings of the RCC. The moral corruption of the clergy and Popes were sources of growing discontent. Changes in the society lifted up the possibility to express the deviating opinions more openly and weakened the dominant authority of the Pope. The art of printing helped to spread ideas widely, so that the deviating opinions could not be quelled as efficiently as before.

During the Middle Ages the Church badly needed a reform, but said reform couldn’t be a break away and a negation of teachings that had been believed since the very beginning (as witnessed by the Church fathers). This was the problem, not having a reform per se, the Church needed a reform, BADLY needed it, but from within, and certainly not on fundamental doctrines of faith and morals, it needed correction on some things that were a clear sign of clergymen giving in to worldly affairs, the problem was you cannot cure a headache, or even a brain cancer, for that matter, with a behading.

@knor

It seems that there were deviating interpretations of the apostolic teachings from the earliest church to the era of Reformation

On fundamental dogmatic matters of faith and morals? Which ones? The 100% documented deviations from the apostolic teachings arrived afterwards. For example the concept that only the Bible matters and everything else was rubbish was unheard of for the early christians. The regula fidei, the rule of faith, was very different, see here Salvation without Christ - #103 by 1Cor15.54 .

Last but absolutely not least: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” - John 17:20-21