Heresies and Heretics: Difference between revisions

 

* The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' has an official definition of ''heresy'', which it juxtaposes against its definitions of incredulity, schism, and apostasy.

** 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.]]