Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.
As Christianity became established as a church, it defined orthodoxy and combated deviation from it by developing ecclesiastical, universal, and ecumenical councils. Excommunication, inquisition, and execution (by civil authorities) were used against heretics who refused to recant, and major heresies were sometimes dealt with by military crusades. With the growth of toleration and ecumenicalism, inquisitions have been abandoned.
The first Christian executed for heresy was Priscillian in 385 AD, and the last was Cayetano Ripoll, (accused of Deism) in 1826 AD. Some notable heresies in Christian history have been Arianism, Marcionism, Donatism, Catharism, Docetism, Gnosticism, Pelagianism, Nestorianism, and Conciliarism.
Etymology 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,Oxford English Dictionary 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, 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.
Definition
Heresy (in Christianity) is used today to denote the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faithJ.D Douglas (ed). The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church Paternoster Press/ Zondervan, Exeter/Grand Rapids 1974, art Heresy as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 art Heresy It is distinguished from both apostasy and schism, apostasy being nearly always total abandonment of the Christian faith after it has been freely accepted,Prümmer, Dominic M. Handbook of Moral Theology Mercer Press 1963, sect. 201ff and schism being a formal and deliberate breach of Christian unity and an offense against charity without being based essentially on doctrine.Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 arts apostasy, schism
Early Christianity (1st century – c. 325)
Development of orthodoxy
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the early Church and early heretical groups is a matter of academic debate. Walter Bauer, in his Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (1934/1971), proposed that in earliest Christianity, orthodoxy and heresy did not stand in relation to one another as primary to secondary, but in many regions heresy was the original manifestation of Christianity. Bauer reassessed as a historian the overwhelmingly dominant view that for the period of Christian origins, ecclesiastical doctrine already represented what is primary, while heresies, on the other hand somehow are a deviation from the genuine (Bauer, "Introduction").
Scholars such as Pagels and Ehrman have built on Bauer's original thesis. Drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics and Marcionites, they argue that early Christianity was fragmented, and with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies. Ehrman's view is that while the specifics of Bauer's demonstration were later rejected, his intuitions are broadly accepted by scholars and were confirmed beyond what Bauer might have guessed.
According to H. E. W. Turner, responding to Bauer's thesis in 1954, "what became official orthodoxy was taught early on by the majority of church teachers, albeit not in fully developed form." According to Darrell Bock, a Christian apologist, Bauer's theory does not show an equality between the established church and outsiders including Simon Magus.Bock, Darrell L. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities / According to Mitchell et al., each early Christian community was unique, but the tenets of the mainstream or catholic Church ensured that each early Christian community did not remain isolated.Frances M. Young (2006), The Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1: Origins to Constantine, Series: Cambridge History of Christianity .
Diversity
The Ante-Nicene period (2nd–3rd century) saw the rise of a great number of Christian sects, cults and movements with strong unifying characteristics lacking in the apostolic period. They had different interpretations of Scripture, particularly the divinity of Jesus and the nature of the Trinity. Some of the major sects, cults and movements with different interpretations of Scripture from those of the Proto-Orthodox church were: Gnosticism (particularly Valentinianism) – reliance on revealed knowledge from an unknowable God, a distinct divinity from the Demiurge who created and oversees the material world. Marcionism – the God of Jesus was a different God from the God of the Old Testament. Montanism – relied on prophetic revelations from the Holy Spirit. Adoptionism – Jesus was not born the Son of God, but was adopted at his baptism, resurrection or ascension. Sabellianism – Belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three synonymous one person of God, rather than three distinct "persons" within one God. Also known as Modalism and Patripassianism. Docetism – Jesus was pure spirit and his physical form an illusion.
Proto-orthodoxy
Before AD 313 there was no true mechanism in place to resolve the various differences of beliefs within the early Christian Church. Heresy was to be approached by the leader of the church, according to Eusebius, author of the Church History.
Late Antiquity (313–476) and Early Middle Ages (476–799)
Christology
The earliest controversies in Late Antiquity were generally Christological in nature, concerned with the interpretation of Jesus' (eternal) divinity and/or humanity. In the 4th century, Arius and Arianism held that Jesus, while not primarily mortal, was not always divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than God the Father. Arianism was condemned at the Council of Nicea (325) but nevertheless was widely believed in the church of that century. Trinitarianism held that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with three hypostases. The Euchites, a 4th-century antinomian sect from Mesopotamia, held that the triune God transformed himself into a single hypostasis to unite with the souls of the perfect. Euchites were anti-clerical and rejected baptism and the sacraments, believing that the passions could be overcome and perfection achieved through prayer.
Many groups held dualistic beliefs, maintaining that reality was composed of two radically opposing parts: matter, usually seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Docetism held that Jesus's humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation. Others held that both the material and spiritual worlds were created by God, and therefore both were good, and that these two realms were represented in the unified divine and human natures of Jesus.R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 58
Legal suppression of heresies
The legalisation of Christianity under Constantine I in AD 313 led to the uniformity of proto-orthodox beliefs and the formulation of dogma through canons from the ecumenical councils. The first known usage of the term 'heresy' in a civil legal context was in 380 by the "Edict of Thessalonica" of Theodosius I. Before the issuance of this edict, the Church lacked state-sponsored support for any specific legal mechanism to address what it identified as 'heresy.' With this edict, the distinction between the Church and the Roman government became less clear. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was a sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and State authorities, with the state enforcing what it determined to be orthodox teaching. Within five years of the official criminalization of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic, Priscillian, was executed in 385 by Roman officials.
A few decades later, the edict of Theodosius II (435) provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius. Those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death.
Ecumenical councils
Seven ecumenical councils were convened between 325 and 787. These were primarily concerned with Christological disputes: The First Ecumenical Council - ordered by Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325, with Pope Alexander I of Alexandria presiding over more than 300 bishops who condemned Arius' view that the Son is a created being inferior to the Father. The Second Ecumenical Council - held at Constantinople in 381 by initiative of Emperor Theodosius I, with the patriarchs of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Antioch presiding over 150 bishops. It decided and declared that the Holy Spirit is as divine as the God the Father and Son of God, and is co-equal Holy Trinity. This council also condemned Apollinarianism. The Third Ecumenical Council - held in Ephesus by the initiative of Emperor Theodosius II, in 431 with Pope Cyril of Alexandria presiding over with 250 bishops. It was mired in controversy because of the absence of the patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch, the absence of the Syrian clergy, and violence directed against the archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, and his supporters. It affirmed hypostatic union and that Mary is the "Bearer of God" (), contrary to the teachings of Nestorius, whom it anathematized. The Council also anathematized Pelagianism which followers were granted asylum by Nestorius The Fourth Ecumenical Council - held in Chalcedon by the initiatives of Emperor Marcian in 451, with the Anatolius of Constantinople presiding over 500 bishops. This council affirmed that Jesus has two natures: God and man, distinct yet always in perfect union. It was based largely on Pope Leo I's Tome. It condemned both eutychian and miaphysite forms of monophysitism espoused by Eutyches and Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria respectively. The Fifth Ecumenical Council - held in Constantinople in 553 by the initiatives of Emperor Justinian I. It was presided by Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople interpreted the decrees of Chalcedon and further explained the relationship between Jesus's two natures; it also condemned the teachings of Origen on the pre-existence of the soul. The Sixth Ecumenical Council - held in Constantinople in 681 by Emperor Constantine IV and was presided by Patriarch George I of Constantinople, declaring that Jesus had two energies and two wills of His two natures, human and divine, contrary to the teachings of the monoenergist and monothelites. The Seventh Ecumenical Council - called by Empress Regent Irene of Athens in 787 and held in Nicaea. It was presided by Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople and promulgated the veneration of icons while forbidding their worship. It was reinforced by "The Triumph of Orthodoxy" after end of second Iconoclasm.
Not all these Councils have been universally recognised as ecumenical. In addition, the Catholic Church has convened numerous other councils that it deems have the same authority, making a total of twenty-one Ecumenical Councils recognised by the Catholic Church.
The Assyrian Church of the East accepts only the first two, and Oriental Orthodoxy only three. Pope Sergius I rejected the Quinisext Council of 692 (see also Pentarchy). The Fourth Council of Constantinople of 869–870 and 879–880 are disputed by Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Present-day nontrinitarians, such as Unitarians, Latter-day Saints and other Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, reject all seven Councils.