Heresies and Heretics: Difference between revisions

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{{tropeUseful Notes}}
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.
{{quote| Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. '''Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same'''; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him" (CCC 2089).}}
** 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.
** [[Useful Notes/Gnosticism|Gnostic]] interpretation of Jesus' teachings were declared heretical (in fact, the very ''word'' "heresy" was popularized in the Christian world by Christian theologian Irenaeus and his anti-Gnostic tracts), and Gnosticism in general also counts for:
*** 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.<ref>[[Star Wars|Luminous beings are we! Not this crude matter!]]</ref>
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** 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.
** [[Useful Notes/Christianity|Protestantism]]: You've probably heard something about a Reformation in the 16th century, in which thousands of Christians broke with the Catholic Church. Protestantism is not a specific doctrine or belief-set but rather an umbrella term for thousands of different theological divisions (which can generally be un-splintered into less than two dozen religious "traditions"), that share doctrines of ''Sola Scriptura'' (theology should be formed solely by consideration of scripture) and ''Sola Fide''<ref>Human beings are justified "by faith alone" -- centuries of poor definitions and raised tempers led this to be a major point of contention between Catholics and Protestants, who argue over what role "work" has in human entry into heaven; the assumption was that Catholic emphasis on placing "work" besides "faith" led to an overemphasis on the role of human action similar to Pelagianism, which was rejected long ago -- [[Not So Different|it turns out that]] in the Protestant definition of "faith", human participation in God's will is part and parcel of the consideration, whereas Catholics refer to "faith" as something along the lines of mere intellectual belief. In short, there's really not much of a difference along those lines, as exhibited when the Catholic Church and a number of Lutheran "bishops" signed a joint declaration of faith several years ago.</ref>. The great diversity of Protestantism has two primary roots: a general distrust for authority and the "doctrine" of private judgment, the latter of which denies the Church its claim to the infallible right to interpret Scripture, and indeed pits the Church ''against'' Scripture.
*** 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.
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* 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 [[wikipedia:Universal redemption|Universal Redemption]].
** Which is actually false. He is still regard a church father (though not a saint) [[wikipedia:Origen#Origen.27s influence on the later church|in most of mainstream christainity.]] Universal Redemption was a widely accepted doctrine taught by many saints and church fathers at the time (including his teacher [[wikipedia:Clement of Alexandria|St. Clement of Alexandria]]). The real reason was that about 2 centuries later some of his ideas (deemed "too platonic" were condemned [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.xii.ix.html by the church] for various reason, but universal redemption was not one of them.
 
=== Islam ===
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Useful Notes]]
[[Category:Heresies And Heretics]]