Heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization.[1][2] A heretic is a proponent of heresy.[1]
Heresy in
Heresy is distinct from apostasy, which is the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause;[4] and from blasphemy, which is an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.[5] Heresiology is the study of heresy.
Etymology
Derived from Ancient Greek haíresis (αἵρεσις), the English heresy originally meant "choice" or "thing chosen".[6] However, it came to mean the "party, or school, of a man's choice",[7] and also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live.[citation needed]
The word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies slightly different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy are known as heretics.
Christianity
According to Titus 3:10 a divisive person should be warned twice before separating from him. The Greek for the phrase "divisive person" became a technical term in the early Church for a type of "heretic" who promoted dissension.[8] In contrast, correct teaching is called sound not only because it builds up the faith, but because it protects it against the corrupting influence of false teachers.[9]
The use of the word heresy was given wide currency by
The first known usage of the term in a legal context was in AD 380 by the
Within six years of the official criminalization of heresy by the Emperor, the first Christian heretic to be executed, Priscillian, was condemned in 386 by Roman secular officials for sorcery, and put to death with four or five followers.[16][17][18] However, his accusers were excommunicated both by Ambrose of Milan and by Pope Siricius,[19] who opposed Priscillian's heresy, but "believed capital punishment to be inappropriate at best and usually unequivocally evil."[16] The edict of Theodosius II (435) provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius.[20] Those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death.[21]
In the 7th-century text
For some years after the
Although less common than in earlier periods, in modern times, formal charges of heresy within Christian churches still occur. Issues in the Protestant churches have included modern biblical criticism and the nature of God. In the Catholic Church, the
On 11 July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI stated that some Protestant groups are "ecclesial communities" rather than Churches.[32] Representatives of some of these Christian denominations accused the Vatican of effectively calling them heretics.[33][34] However, Pope Benedict XVI clarified that the phrase "ecclesial community" did not necessitate explicit heresy, but only that the communities lacked certain "essential elements" of an apostolic church, as he had written in the document Dominus Iesus.
Catholicism
In the
In France the Cathars grew to represent a popular mass movement and the belief was spreading to other areas.
Galileo Galilei was brought before the Inquisition for heresy, but abjured his views and was sentenced to house arrest, under which he spent the rest of his life. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, and that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.[39]
Pope Gregory I stigmatized Judaism and the Jewish people in many of his writings. He described Jews as enemies of Christ: "The more the Holy Spirit fills the world, the more perverse hatred dominates the souls of the Jews." He labeled all heresy as "Jewish", claiming that Judaism would "pollute [Catholics and] deceive them with sacrilegious seduction."[40] The identification of Jews and heretics in particular occurred several times in Roman-Christian law.[35][41]
Eastern Orthodoxy
In
The Eastern Orthodox Church also rejects the early Christian heresies such as Arianism, Gnosticism, Origenism, Montanism, Judaizers, Marcionism, Docetism, Adoptionism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism and Iconoclasm.
Lutheranism
The
Anglicanism
The
In Britain, the 16th-century
Another example of the persecution of heretics under Protestant rule was the execution of the
Methodism
The
Islam
Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to heretics and those who antagonized Islam as
To
In 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini, supreme religious leader of Iran, issued a fatwa that declared the writing of Salman Rushdie to be heretical, and a bounty was issued for anyone who assassinated him. Heresy remains an offense punishable by death in some nations. The Baháʼí Faith is considered an Islamic heresy in Iran, with systematic persecution of Baháʼís.[60]
Judaism
Orthodox Judaism considers views on the part of Jews who depart from traditional Jewish principles of faith heretical. In addition, the more right-wing groups within Orthodox Judaism hold that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics.[61] As such, most of Orthodox Judaism considers Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism heretical movements, and regards most of Conservative Judaism as heretical. The liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy is more tolerant of Conservative Judaism, particularly its right wing, as there is some theological and practical overlap between these groups.
Other religions
The act of using
Although Zoroastrianism has had an historical tolerance for other religions, it also held sects like Zurvanism and Mazdakism heretical to its main dogma and has violently persecuted them, such as burying Mazdakians with their feet upright as "human gardens." In later periods Zoroastrians cooperated with Muslims to kill other Zoroastrians deemed heretical.[63]
Non-religious usage
In other contexts the term does not necessarily have pejorative overtones and may even be complimentary when used, in areas where innovation is welcome, of ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with the status quo in any practice and branch of knowledge.
Scientist/author Isaac Asimov considered heresy as an abstraction, mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies.[65] He divided scientific heretics into: endoheretics, those from within the scientific community; and exoheretics, those from without. Characteristics were ascribed to both and examples of both kinds were offered. Asimov concluded that science orthodoxy defends itself well against endoheretics (by control of science education, grants and publication as examples), but is nearly powerless against exoheretics. He acknowledged by examples that heresy has repeatedly become orthodoxy.
Publishing his findings as
I have enormous respect for dinosaur paleontologists past and present. But on average, for the last fifty years, the field hasn't tested dinosaur orthodoxy severely enough.[66]: 27
He adds that, "Most taxonomists, however, have viewed such new terminology as dangerously destabilizing to the traditional and well-known scheme."[66]: 462 The illustrations by the author show dinosaurs in very active poses, in contrast to the traditional perception of lethargy.
Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exoheretic; he did not have appropriate scientific credentials and did not publish in scientific journals. While the details of his work are in scientific disrepute, the concept of catastrophic change (extinction event and punctuated equilibrium) has gained acceptance in recent decades.
The term heresy is used not only with regard to religion but also in the context of political theory.[67][68] The term heresy is also used as an ideological pigeonhole for contemporary writers because, by definition, heresy depends on contrasts with an established orthodoxy. For example, the tongue-in-cheek contemporary usage of heresy, such as to categorize a "Wall Street heresy" a "Democratic heresy" or a "Republican heresy", are metaphors that invariably retain a subtext that links orthodoxies in geology or biology or any other field to religion. These expanded metaphoric senses allude to both the difference between the person's views and the mainstream and the boldness of such a person in propounding these views.
See also
- Convention (norm)
- Deviationism
- Herem
- Heterodoxy
- Mores
- Norm (social)
- Prohairesis
- Religious offense
- Schism
- Sin
Notes
- ^ An "ecclesiastical authority" was initially an assembly of bishops, later the Pope, then an inquisitor (a delegate of the Pope) and later yet the leadership of a Protestant church (which would itself be regarded as heretical by the Pope). The definitions of "state", "cooperation", "suppress" and "heresy" were all subject to change during the past 16 centuries.
- Religious Warsslaughtered millions. During these wars, the charge of "heresy" was often leveled by one side against another as a sort of propaganda or rationalization for the undertaking of such wars.
References
- ^ a b "Heresy | Define Heresy at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
- ^ "heresy – definition of heresy in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-13597974-4. p. 62.
- ^ "Apostasy | Learn everything there is to know about Apostasy at". Reference.com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
- ^ "Definitions of "blasphemy" at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
- ^ Cross, F. L., and E. A. Livingstone, eds. 1974. "Heresy." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Bruce, F. F. 1964. The Spreading Flame. Exeter: Paternoster. p. 249.
- ^ The NIV Study Bible. London: Zondervan / Hodder & Stoughton. 1987. Titus 3:10n.
- ^ The NIV Study Bible. London: Zondervan / Hodder & Stoughton. 1987. Titus 1:9n.
- ISBN 978-0230111318.
- ^
W.H.C. Frend (1984). The Rise of Christianity. Chapter 7, The Emergence of Orthodoxy 135–93. ISBN 978-0-8006-1931-2.) Appendices provide a timeline of Councils, Schisms, Heresies and Persecutions in the years 193–604. They are described in the text.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Milan, Edict of". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Chadwick, Henry. 1967. The Early Christian Church. Pelican. pp. 129–130.
- ^
Paul Stephenson (2009). "Chapter 11". Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-59020-324-8. The Emperor established and enforced orthodoxy for domestic tranquility and the efficacy of prayers in support of the empire.
- ^
Charles Freeman (2008). A.D. 381 – Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-59020-171-8. As Christianity placed its stamp upon the Empire, the Emperor shaped the church for political purposes.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-13661158-2. p. 950.
- ISBN 978-0-66422396-0), p. 284
- ^ "Priscillian". Encyclopædia Britannica. January 2024.
- ^ Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church, Pelican, London, 1967. p. 171
- ISBN 978-1-4982-7447-0.
- ISBN 978-90-04-17904-2.
- ISBN 978-0-691-14628-7.
- ^ Wismer, Don (2016). Routledge Revivals: The Islamic Jesus (1977): An Annotated Bibliography of Sources in English and French. Routledge.
The old opinion of John of Damascus continues to persist among Christian orientalists. The author here replies to Frank Hugh Foster (see 233), who said that Islam is in fact heretical Christianity.
- ISBN 978-1-4729-4222-7.
- ISBN 978-3-319-57439-4.
- ^
Edward Gibbon (1862). History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 37, Part III.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 978-0-8006-1931-2.
- ^ Edward Gibbon (1862). History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 21, Part VII.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 0-618-21908-0.
- ^ Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. p. 778.
- ^ An example is the Notification regarding certain writings of Fr. Marciano Vidal, C.Ss.R.
- ^ Cf. the documents "Responses to Some Questions" and "Commentary" from the Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith.
- ^ "Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches." The Guardian. 11 July 2007.
- ^ "Will the Pope's Pronouncement Set Ecumenism Back a Hundred Years?" Progressive Theology. 11 July 2007
- ^ ISBN 978-0230111318. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- ^ "Massacre of the Pure." Time. April 28, 1961.
- ISBN 0-472-06476-2
- ^
Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. Chapter XXVIII, The Early Inquisition: 1000–1300.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Fantoli (2005, p. 139); Finocchiaro (1989, pp. 288–293).
- ISBN 978-0230111318. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- Codex Justinianus 1:3:54, 1:5:12,21, 1:10:2; Justinian, Novellae37, 45
- ^ ISBN 9781440836695.
- ^ https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/ Book of Concord.org, Articles 1–17
- ^ ISBN 9780567317469.
- ISBN 9781598842982.
- ISBN 978-0-88738406-6. p. 302.
- ISBN 978-0-80284209-1. p. 558.
- ^ a b Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation Fontana/Collins 1967, pp. 327, 364
- ^ Neill, Stephen. Anglicanism. Pelican. pp. 96–97.
- ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 1996. Thomas Cranmer. Yale University Press. p. 477.
- ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 2003. The Reformation. Penguin. p. 679.
- ^ ISBN 9780810878945.
- ^ Hurst, John Fletcher (1903). John Wesley the Methodist: A Plain Account of His Life and Work. Eaton & Mains. p. 200.
- ^ The Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine. Vol. 12. R. Abercrombie. 1849. p. 368.
- ^ John Bowker. "Zindiq." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997[ISBN missing]
- ISBN 978-0-88206-047-7.
- ISBN 9781601270436.
- ISBN 9780801464331.
- ISBN 9781439884225.
- ^ ISBN 0-521-77073-4.
- ISBN 1-874774-90-0. (A book written as a contentious rebuttal to an article written in the Torah u'Maddah Journal.)
- ^ Welkos, Robert W.; Sappell, Joel (29 June 1990). "When the Doctrine Leaves the Church". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
- ISBN 9789004097964
- ISBN 978-0-7914-3760-5.
- ISBN 0-8014-0961-6. Asimov's views are in "Forward: The Role of the Heretic".
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8065-2260-9.
- ^ "Religion: Anti-Religion". TIME.com. 6 May 1940.
- ^ "Exploring the high moments and small mountain roads of Marxism". isreview.org.
Bibliography
- ).
- Henderson, John B. (1998). The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early Christian Patterns. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791437599.
- Alain Le Boulluec (1985), La notion d'hérésie dans la littérature grecque, 2 voll., Paris, Etudes Augustiniennes, (The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries, New York, Oxford University Press, 2022)
External links
- Some quotes and information in this article came from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Cathars of the middle age, Philosophy and History (in French).
- What Is Heresy? by Wilbert R. Gawrisch (Lutheran)