Now that you have put it that way, maybe the megalomaniac nature of Saul the Pharisee never really disappeared after his conversion. He was certainly a very driven person. I often wonder if every Christian took on Paul’s Christian mission, there would be a lot of broken families and no one to get the work done.

The Council of Nicea broke the Gnostic movement in early Christianity. Did you know the Gnostics had a TDG-like structure? The congregation elected the presbyters, the presbyters elected the bish.

After Nicea, this early TDG all disappeared in favor of the top-down appointed approach, modeled after the power structure of the Roman Empire.

And Nicea also brought in all those unimportant theological debating points that had little to with bettering individuals, families, and communities. Christianity lost some of its true way after that event (in my opinion).