I have almost finished Flaubert's Temptation of Saint Anthony, which gives a very intriguing look at the cults that sprang up in Christ's wake. It's written in the format of a play, though to actually perform it would be quite a feat, as the long and sumptuous caravan of the Queen of Sheba, a table groaning with culinary delights, and legions of cults all appear and disappear from the stage almost without pause to sway Saint Anthony from his conviction in his God.
Arius: A thousand times no! the son is not co-eternal with the Father, nor of the same substance! Or he would never have said: "Father, take away this cup from me!" - "Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, that is God" - "I go to My God and to your God!" - and other words bearing witness to his created nature. This is proved to us, further, by all his names: Lamb, Shepherd, Fountain, Wisdom, Son of Man, Prophet, the Way, the Corner-stone!
Sabellius: For my part I maintain that the two of them are identical!
Arius: The council of Antioch decided the contrary.
Anthony: Then what is the Word? What was Jesus?
The Valentinian: He was the husband of Acharamoth repentant.
The Sethianians: He was Shem, son of Noah.
The Theodotians: He was Melchizedeck.
The Merinthians: He was nothing but a man.
The Apollinarians: He took the appearance of one! His passion was a pretence!
Marcel of Ancyra: He was the unfolding of the Father!
Pope Calixtus: Father and Son are two manifestations of one only God!
Methodius: First he was in Adam, then in man.
Cerinthus: And he will rise again.
Valentine: Impossible - His body being celestial.
Paul of Samosata: He was God only from the moment of baptism!
Hermogenes: He dwells in the sun!
