Heresy in Christianity
Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith[1] as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.[2]
The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs, since heresy is always defined in relation to orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has been in the process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its faith by clarifying beliefs in opposition to people or doctrines that are perceived as incorrect.
Etymology[edit]
The word heresy comes from haeresis, a Latin transliteration of the Greek word αἵρεσις originally meaning choosing, choice, course of action, or in an extended sense a sect or school of thought,[3][4] which by the first century came to denote warring factions and the party spirit. The word appears in the New Testament, usually translated as sect,[5] and was appropriated by the Church to mean a sect or division that threatened the unity of Christians. Heresy eventually became regarded as a departure from orthodoxy, a sense in which heterodoxy was already in Christian use soon after the year 100.[6]
(particularly Valentinianism) – reliance on revealed knowledge from an unknowable God, a distinct divinity from the Demiurge who created and oversees the material world.
Gnosticism
– Jesus was not born the Son of God, but was adopted at his baptism, resurrection or ascension.
Adoptionism
– Jesus was pure spirit and his physical form an illusion.
Docetism
– an Armenian group (6th to 9th centuries) who sought a return to the purity of the church at the time of Paul the Apostle.
Paulicians
– a group arising in the 11th century in Bulgaria who sought a return to the spirituality of the early Christians and opposed established forms of government and church.
Bogomils
– an itinerant 11th century preacher near Lille, France, who taught that salvation was achieved through a virtuous life of abandoning the world, restraining the appetites of the flesh, earning food by the labor of hands, doing no injury to anyone, and extending charity to everyone of their own faith.
Gundolfo
– a major Christian movement in the Languedoc region of southern France from the 11th to 13th centuries. The Cathars believed that human souls were the spirits of angels trapped within the physical creation of an evil god. Through living a pure and sinless life, the soul could become perfect and free from the snare of matter.
Cathars
– a 12th-century group, inspired by the example of controversial figure Arnold of Brescia (c. 1090 – June 1155), from Lombardy who criticized the wealth of the Catholic Church and preached against baptism and the Eucharist.
Arnoldists
were 12th century followers of Peter of Bruys in southeastern France who rejected the authority of the Church Fathers and of the Catholic Church, opposing clerical celibacy, infant baptism, prayers for the dead and organ music.
Petrobrusians
were 12th century followers of Henry of Lausanne in France. They rejected the doctrinal and disciplinary authority of the church, did not recognize any form of worship or liturgy and denied the sacraments.
Henricans
– a movement that began in the 12th century in Lyon, France, and still exists today. They held that Apostolic poverty was the way to spiritual perfection and rejected what they perceived as the idolatry of the Catholic Church.
Waldensians
– a 12th-century group from northern Italy who embraced poverty, charity and mortification. Initially approved by the church, they were suppressed for disobedience in 1571.
Humiliati
– a term applied in the 13th century to those, primarily in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia and northern Italy, who believed that the sacraments were unnecessary for salvation, that the soul could be perfected through imitating the life of Christ, and that the perfected soul was free of sin and beyond all ecclesiastical, moral and secular law.
Brethren of the Free Spirit
(later known as Dulcinians) – a 13th to 14th century sect from northern Italy founded by Gerard Segarelli and continued by Fra Dolcino of Novara. The Apostolic Brethren rejected the worldliness of the church and sought a life of perfect sanctity, in complete poverty, with no fixed domicile, no care for the morrow, and no vows.
Apostolic Brethren
(or Spiritual Franciscans) – Franciscan through the 13th to 15th centuries who regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous.
Fraticelli
– a term applied in the 13th to 15th century to those, including Taborites, Picards and some Beghards, who wished to return to the purity of the life of Adam by living communally, practicing social and religious nudity, embracing free love and rejecting marriage and individual ownership of property.
Neo-Adamites
– a 14th-century Swiss leader who, after a spiritual experience, taught that he had the authority to use episcopal and priestly powers (even though he was not ordained), that submission to his direction was necessary for attaining spiritual perfection, and that his followers could not sin even though they committed crimes or disobeyed both the Church and pope.
Nicholas of Basel
– the 14th century followers of John Wycliffe. They advocated translating the Bible into English, rejected baptism and confession, and denied the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Lollards
Keating, Karl (1990), Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on Romanism by Bible Christians, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 9780898701777
ISBN
Clifton, Chas S. (1992). . New York: Barnes and Noble Books. ISBN 0-7607-0823-1.
Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics
Slade, Darren M. (January 2014). (PDF). American Theological Inquiry. 7 (1): 43–53. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
"Arabia Haeresium Ferax (Arabia Bearer of Heresies): Schismatic Christianity's Potential Influence on Muhammad and the Qur'an"
Latinovic, Vladimir (2020). . Palgrave. ISBN 978-3-030-53425-7.