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Heresies and Heretics: Difference between revisions
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Below is a list of well-known heresies and heretics found within real life religions.
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* The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' has an official definition of ''heresy'', which it juxtaposes against its definitions of incredulity, schism, and apostasy.
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** You may have noticed something important in that definition -- the heresy is only a heresy when it knowingly and willfully contradicts established Catholic teaching. The Catholic Church has a habit of not granting strict definitions to doctrine until it becomes a major issue, due to issues of opportunity and urgency -- the divinity of Christ, while held and intuited by a large portion of Christians to varying degrees, wasn't formally defined until after Constantine legalized Christianity in the early 4th century, for example.
** '''NOTE''': Since the following points illustrate the history of the Catholic Church's view of heresies, the point-of-view of the history and reasoning is ''Catholic''. [[Flame Bait|You have been warned.]]
** An early, [[The Bible|biblical example]]: "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’" -Acts 15:1
*** This counts as a heresy, in spite of its earliness, since it was previously established God's grace could be applied to all regardless of circumcision. "And the faithful of the circumcision, who came with Peter, were astonished, for that the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also." -Acts 10:45 (Acts 10 is good for general context). Paul also has to deal with the Circumcisers in his Letters to the Romans and the Galations.
** [[
*** Its antipathy for the material universe, which contradicts God's satisfaction with his work as explicit in the first Creation story of Genesis.
*** Instead of human beings being ontologically good creatures in and of themselves, they are spiritual creatures trapped in material form by the Demiurge.
*** Said antipathy for matter likewise denies the Incarnation, which denies Jesus the status of being both True God and True Man.
*** We earlier mentioned the Demiurge trapping human beings in physical form (possibly with well-meaning but ill-fated help from his "mother", Sophia); the Demiurge is also claimed to be the true nature of the monotheistic deity worshiped by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who falsely claims [[God|lordship over all existence]] and [[God Is Evil|manipulates humanity into violence and misery]] [[For the Evulz|for shits and giggles]]. [[I'm a Humanitarian|And food]].
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** Nestorianism, the teachings of Nestorius (there are several of these that share their author's name), and another 5th century issue, to boot, holds that the Virgin Mary was ''not'' in fact, the Mother of God<ref>''Theotokos'' in the original Greek, which literally means "God-Bearer"</ref>, and only bore Christ's human nature in her womb<ref>Nestorius proposed ''Christotokos'' as a useful term, "Christ-bearer" or "Mother of Christ".</ref> A lot of people quickly recognized that this left ''two'' Jesuses running around, one man-of-woman-born and one divine, connected via some sort of [[Sharing a Body|loosely-defined union]]. The Council of Ephesus in ''431'' declared that it was indeed legitimate to refer to Mary as ''Theotokos'', not because she predated or generated God, but because she bore God ''[[God in Human Form|incarnate]]''.
*** There is some doubt as to whether or no Nestorius himself actually believed or understood the full ramifications of his statements; the Assyrian Church of the East, historically Nestorian, recently signed a joint document on Christology with the Catholic Church and now rejects Nestorianism.
** Monophysitism was largely concurrent with Nestorianism, mainly because it was a [[The New Rock and Roll|a powerful reaction to and rejection of it]]. Horrified by the implications of two Christs running around, the monophysites basically leapfrogged themselves to the other end of the spectrum, claiming Jesus had only ''one'' nature<ref>Greek: ''mono'' = one; ''physis'' = nature</ref>, part divine and part human, something akin to a [[Classical Mythology|demigod]]. This was likewise rejected on the grounds that, if Jesus was not fully human, he could not fully participate in and thus represent humanity, and if he was not fully divine, he could not fully participate in and thus represent [[God]]; in short, since he was neither truly God or truly Man, he could not join the two, and thus he could not fix the problem of Original Sin (see above), and humanity was still basically screwed.<ref>Yes, the Catholic Church's official position is that Christ is ''both'' completely God and completely Man. Yes, it understands [[Divide
** Iconoclasm ("icon smashing") first showed up in the 7th and 8th centuries claiming it was sinful to make pictures or statues of Christ and the saints, despite [[The Bible|God commanding]] the creation of religious statues (Ex. 25:18–20; 1 Chr. 28:18–19), including symbolic representations of Christ (cf. Num. 21:8–9 w/ John 3:14). Showed up briefly in the initial stages of the Protestant Reformation, but largely disappeared over the years.
** Catharism's vogue occurred in the 11th century; technically a mixture of non-Christian religions reworked with Christian terminology, there were a few joining principles that connected the various sects under the name: ''very similar'' to Gnosticism above, the Cathars held a fierce antipathy for the material universe, which they held was created by an [[God of Evil|evil deity]] (hence, matter is evil), but there exists a [[God of Good|Good Deity]] who should be worshipped instead.
*** One of the largest Catharist sects was that of the Albigensians, who held the spirit was created by the good God, but imprisoned by the evil one in a physical body. Hence, the bearing of children -- the imprisoning of another human soul in a body -- was one of the greatest possible evils; logically, marriage was forbidden... not so logically, fornication was not. There were plenty of fasts that bordered on willful starvation and lots of severe mortification was practiced; leaders went about in voluntary poverty.
** [[
*** An early force in the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther, a monk who famously nailed his ''95 Theses'' to the door of the Church for the attention of the Bishop. Unfortunately for historical purposes, this event is sometimes [[The Theme Park Version|simplified]] to where Martin Luther is depicted as an ostentatious rebel for doing so; however, it was common practice to do so, as the local church was the one place people were going to go by default, so it served as a proto-bulletin. Martin Luther actually put them there in hopes of discussion and debate, but they were quickly copied and spread, leading to a controversy -- and bloodshed -- [[My God, What Have I Done?|he hadn't intended to spread]]. It would be several years until he officially split off.
** Jansenism -- 17th century. Jansenius, the bishop of Ypres, France, wrote a paper on Augustine that redefined the doctrine of grace. Among other things, the Jansenists taught the Christ died only for those who would ultimately be saved, and not for all men. This and other errors were condemned in 1653 by Pope Innocent X.
* "Galileo was famously tried before a court for an issue regarding the veracity of heliocentrism" is about as neutral as the popcultural understanding of the actual sequence of events is likely to get; most people seem to think Galileo was declared a heretic. Let's start with the context:
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** Galileo not only refused to present his version of heliocentrism as theory, he insisted on taking his "factual" understanding of the universe onto theological grounds, and began insisting Scripture be reinterpreted to suit the theory he couldn't prove (if you haven't caught on, people are touchy about their religion; Galileo really wasn't helping himself); so a non-theologian was essentially going around telling theologians they ''must'' take Scripture in a certain sense. In 1616, he appeared before Pope Paul V; the pope, weary of controversy, turned things over to the Holy Office, which condemned the theory. Later, Galileo made a request of a friend - Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit; he was granted a certificate that allowed him not to hold or defend heliocentrism, [[Loophole Abuse|but to conjecture it]]. Later, he met with another pope (and a personal friend), Urban VIII, in 1623; he was granted permission to write on the subject, but was cautioned not to advocate it, instead presenting the arguments for or against it. [[Running Gag|Not happening]]. What Galileo actually wrote (in the form of a dialogue) was clearly in favor of heliocentrism, and the arguments against it -- including the one offered by his friend the pope -- were placed in the mouth of the character named "Simplicio" (i.e. "Idiot"), who was a debater of obviously inferior intelligence and status than the one arguing heliocentricism.
** Having publicly mocked his friend and necessary benefactor, alienating the Jesuits to boot with attacks on one of their astronomers, Galileo's actions resulted in the famous trial. While he eventually recanted his teachings, he was not tortured; he was actually merely placed under house arrest... and given a manservant. Indeed, ''The Directory For Inquisitors'' (1595) lays down regulations that prevented torture instruments from being used in the circumstances. Galileo was not explicitly declared a heretic, though he was found to be "''vehemently suspect''" of it; the testimony from his trial (Galileo was tried before an ordinary tribunal) was brought before a group of ten cardinals. Three of them refused to sign his verdict, but his works were eventually condemned.
** To keep it short, the Church of Galileo’s day issued a [[The Pope|non-infallible]] disciplinary ruling concerning a scientist who was advocating a new and still-unproved theory and demanding that the Church change its understanding of Scripture to fit his. However, it is perhaps just as well, considering both parties were partly right and partly wrong; accepting Galileo's theories would have the Church declaring the sun was the fixed center of the universe as Galileo had. However, the Catholic Church acknowledges its mistake, and has for some time. In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV granted an imprimatur to the first edition of the complete works of Galileo. In 1757, a new edition of the Index of Forbidden Books allowed works that supported the Copernican theory, as science had reached the point where the theory could be proven. Pope John Paul II famously apologized for the fiasco, but there was a second, less well-publicized apology issues about a century earlier; also, the Church has [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|published two stamps in his honor]].
* Joan of Arc was also examined for any possible heretical beliefs. (She got [[Burn the Witch|burned]] on a technicality, dressing as a man.)
* Origen, a Christian mystic, was accused of Heresy for believing in [
** Which is actually false. He is still regard a church father (though not a saint) [
=== Islam ===
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=== Other religions ===
* Pre-Christian example: the [[Ancient Egypt|18th-dynasty pharaoh]] Akhenaten radically and single-handedly overhauled the Egyptian religion from polytheism into sort of a proto-monotheism. He got away with it at the time because, well, [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|he was the king]], but the religion reverted immediately after he died and Akhenaten got the [[Unperson]] treatment from his successors.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Heresies And Heretics]]
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