What's your favorite heresy?

[John Anthony]

I’ve long been much interested in the wide variety of beliefs and doctrines upheld by Christians from earliest times to now. Recently I did a little more digging into the subject of ‘heresies’, and I decided that the most interesting ones for me were these:

Docetism–because it’s so imaginative
Marcionism–because I share its doubts about the ‘Old Testament’
Pelagianism–because I hope it’s mostly right about human nature and human guilt

Docetism is the belief that Jesus was entirely divine, and did not have a human body. His body as well as his crucifixion were illusions, part of a magic show put on by God for the instruction of mankind.

Marcionism reflects a different understanding of the roots of Christian belief than that commonly held today. In particular, while many modern Christians hold that Christianity is a natural evolution of Jewish belief, Marcion held that the Christ existed outside that context. The premise of Marcionism is that many of the teachings of the Christ are incompatible with what is now called the Old Testament.

Pelagianism is a belief that original sin did not taint human nature (which, being created from God, was divine), and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to Original Sin. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of us (thus counteracting Adam's bad example). In short, humanity has full control, and thus full responsibility, for its own salvation in addition to full responsibility for every sin (the latter insisted upon by both proponents and opponents of Pelagianism).

One heresy that doesn’t appeal to me at all is Encratism.

Encratites were ascetics who refrained from alcohol, animal products, and sex. It was not their ascetic practices which were heretical but rather the theology upon which their continence was based. Typically they reinterpreted the story of Adam and Eve and Christian documents such as 1 Corinthians 7:3-6 to support the idea that humans must abandon sexual intercourse in order to regain the Spirit of God that had been lost because of Adam and Eve's frailty. People were to be married to God, not to each other.

Links to info on heresies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heresy

http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/heresies.stm

http://www.cin.org/users/msmith/reforma ... esies.html

[mjmann]

Of historical heresies, Nestorianism is of note as it lead ultimately to the definition of the Blessed Virgin as the Theotokos - Mother of God - in support of the fully human and divine nature of Our Lord.

Of contemporary heresies, Protestantism deserves especial notice on account of its creativity despite being in its essential beliefs (e.g. in respect of its view of the Bible, Church and Sacraments) wrong.

[sehoy]

mjmann!: [edited] a loud cheer of delighted astonishment escaped her lips


your philistine cousin, sehoy

[john]

Pastafarianism (also known as Flying Spaghetti Monsterism):

1. The Universe was created by an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster. All evidence pointing towards evolution was intentionally planted by this being.

2. According to the pastafarians, the monster created the world starting with a mountain, trees and a very short person, and continues to guide human affairs with his "noodly appendage." Heaven is depicted as having a stripper factory and a beer volcano.

3. Global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct consequence of the decline in numbers of pirates since the 1800s. A graph showing the inverse correlation between the pirates and global temperatures was also provided. This component of the theory highlights the logical fallacy of correlation implying causation.

[tangent]

[mjmann]

[mjmann]

[Adam Linton]

Warm greetings to all here.

Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox all can (and have) done the bit on explaining (in cogent detail) how the other traditions are heretical.

The problem is this: too ready recourse to the words "heresy" and "heretical" empties these words of their meaning. If they are used for a position which we simply believe is mistaken (even very seriously mistaken), they are then no longer available in their classic sense: i.e., referring to a belief so alien to or so utterly corrosive of the church's historic faith that its adherent(s) can no longer meaningfully be understood to be Christian. Therefore, as I see it, "heresy" is a "choice" which really involves opting out of the project (albeit with at least some claim, mistaken, of continuing loyality to Christ). There might be valid disagreement about what these might be, of course. I would include in such a list Arianism, Docetism, and at least most of the more emphatic forms of Gnosticism. (None of these, by the way, would I at all list as "favorites" of mine.)

But I believe we need to distinguish between intra-confessional debate (itself an interesting and important thing) and the discusion of heresy. Otherwise, we find ourselves in the position where Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can label C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity as "heretical," Protestants and Eastern Orthodox label the Council of Trent as "heretical," and Roman Catholics and Protestants label the Eastern Orthodox as "heretical" for being unwilling to accept the late western addition to the Nicene Creed (i.e., the filioque.)

[jo]

Quite Adam :). Malcolm I was a bit surprised at your post .. heretical is a strong term, no? (well in my understanding of it which naturally might not be brilliant ;)). I can imagine you'd have been quite ticked off if someone had included Catholicism in the list of their favourite heresies... which isn't to say that I haven't sometimes seem people on here make similar judgements on the RC church but still, I don't think either side should do it.

Back to the OP .. I'd never heard of any of the traditions mentioned. Interesting stuff :)

[Karen]

[mjmann]

[Adam Linton]

[David Jack]

[John Anthony]

[Adam Linton]