Heresy (from Greek αἵρεσις, which originally meant "choice") is an accusation levied against members of another group which has beliefs which conflict with those of the accusers. It is usually used to discuss violations of religious or traditional laws or codes, although it is used by some political extremists to refer to their opponents. It carries the connotation of behaviors or beliefs likely to undermine accepted morality and cause tangible evils, damnation, or other punishment. In some religions, it also implies that the heretic is in alliance with the religion's symbol of evil, such as Satan or chaos.[1] It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause,[2] and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion.[3] The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy, are known as heretics. Heresiology is the study of heresy.
The word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies something slightly different in each. In certain historical Christian and Jewish cultures, heresy was punishable by law. In modern times, the word heresy is often used in jest and without religious context.
Heresy in the abstract
Non-religious use of the English term heresy began no later than Geoffrey Chaucer (late 1300s).
Heresy is an opinion held in opposition to that of authority or orthodoxy. It is primarily used in a religious context, but by extension (and with increasing frequency), to secular subjects. The term assumes the existence of an orthodoxy.
Scientist/author Isaac Asimov considered heresy as an abstraction [4]; mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies. He divided scientific heretics into endoheretics (those from within the scientific community) and exoheretics (those from without). Characteristics were ascribed to both and examples of both kinds were offered. Asimov concluded that science orthodoxy defends itself well against endoheretics (by control of science education, grants and publication as examples), but is nearly powerless against exoheretics. He acknowledged by examples that heresy has repeatedly become orthodoxy.
In a secular multi-polar world, the term heresy has lost utility outside of a well-defined (usually religious) context. In an argument among the religious, the scientific, the political and the economic, all groups can defend different orthodoxies. Within Christianity, Catholics and Protestants also defend different orthodoxies. While heresy is pejorative in a religious context (and in some political contexts), it may be complimentary in other contexts where innovation is more welcome.
Even in semi-religious context, heresy is not necessarily a pejorative. Religious heresy is a historical fact and Christianity was a major influence in Western History. The studies of the philosophy, politics, sociology, economics and psychology of religion may all consider heresy dispassionately.
Religious heresy
Christianity
The use of the word heresy in the context of Christianity was given wide currency by Irenaeus in his tract Contra Haereses (Against Heresies) to describe and discredit his opponents during the early centuries of the Christian Community. He described the community's beliefs and doctrines as orthodox (from ὀρθός, orthos "straight" + δόξα, doxa "belief") and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical. He also pointed out the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments[5].
Heretics usually do not perceive their own beliefs as heretical. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church holds Protestantism as espousing numerous heresies[clarification needed], while some Protestants retrospectively considered Roman Catholicism the "Great Apostasy". The Roman Catholic Church derives claims of heresy from a system of ecclesial authority while Protestants view the Bible alone as authoritative.
Constantine I, acceptor of Christianity as a religion of the Roman Empire, the first baptized Roman Emperor, set precedent for later policy. The Emperor was, by Roman law, Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of all recognized religions. Constantine established Christian orthodoxy by councils of bishops and enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority[6].
The first known usage of the term in a secular legal context was in 380 AD by the "Edict of Thessalonica" of Theodosius I[7]. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy". By this edict, in some sense, the State's authority and that of the catholic Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was the sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and state authorities. At its most extreme reach, this new secular reinforcement of the Church's authority gave Church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the Church considered heretical.
Within five years of the official "criminalization" of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic to be prosecuted, Priscillian was executed in 385 by Roman officials. For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were also known to execute those whom they considered as heretics, including Catholics. The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Roman Catholic Church was Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities"[clarification needed] is not known. [note 1]
The Roman Catholic Church had always dealt harshly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 12th century these tended to centre around individual preachers or small localised sects. By the 12th century, more organised groups such as the Waldensians and Cathars were beginning to appear in the towns and cities of newly urbanized areas. In western Mediterranean France, one of the most urbanized areas of Europe at the time, the Cathars grew to represent a popular mass movement and the belief was spreading to other areas.[13] The Cathar Crusade was initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc.[14][15]Heresy was a major justification for the Inquisition and for religious wars associated with the Reformation. The division in Christianity has had lasting impact on Western History.
Perhaps due to the many modern negative connotations associated with the term heretic, such as the Spanish inquisition, the term is used less often today. There are however, some notable exceptions: see for example Rudolf Bultmann and the "character" of debates over ordination of women and gay priests. The subject of Christian heresy opens up broader questions as to who has a monopoly on spiritual truth, as explored by Jorge Luis Borges in the short story "The Theologians" within the compilation Labyrinths.[16]
A few early modern scientists were accused of heresy by the Catholic Church. Giordano Bruno, who believed that the universe contained numerous suns, planets, and worlds similar to Earth, and that other such worlds could contain sentient beings, was condemned as a heretic by the Church and burned at the stake by secular authorities. Some sources claim that Bruno's scientific views motivated his prosecution, but other sources say that only his theological views motivated it, in particular, "that Christ was not God but merely an unusually skillful magician, that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the world, that the Devil will be saved, etc."[17][18] Galileo Galilei was also brought before the Inquisition for alleged heresy, but recanted and was condemned a life time house arrest instead of being burnt at the stake.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism considers views on the part of Jews which depart from the traditional Jewish principles of faith to be heretical. In addition, the more right-wing groups within Orthodox Judaism hold that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics.[19] As such, most of Orthodox Judaism considers Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism to be heretical movements, and regards most of Conservative Judaism as heretical. The liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy is more tolerant of Conservative Judaism, particularly its right wing, as there is some theological and practical overlap between these groups.
Islam
Many in the two main bodies of Islam—Sunnis and the Shi'as—have regarded the other as heretical. Groups like the Ismailis, the Hurufiya, the Alawis, the Bektashi and even the Sufis have also been regarded as heretical by some, such as the ultra-conservative Salafi. Although Sufism is often though not completely accepted as valid by Shi'a and many Sunnis, the relatively recent movement of Wahhabism view it as heretical.
Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to heretics and those who antagonized Islam as zindiqs, the charge being punishable by death.[20]
Other religions
The concept of heresy does not exist or is much subdued in many other religions. Hinduism ignored or absorbed its heretics. The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter XVI) makes passing reference to heretics (as the Unheavenly). The Shwasamvedyopanishad opposes standard but diverse Hindu beliefs. Buddhism defines wrong views (micchā diṭṭhi). Buddhist literature mentions a wrathful conquest of Buddhist heretics (see Padmasambhava) and a Buddhist theocracy once existed. Neo-Confucian heresy has been described.[21] Taoism has apocryphal books. These religions have long coexisted peacefully.
Contemporary heresy
Recent religious heresies have been handled as internal Church matters, sometimes with little publicity. Contemporary religious heresies are discussed in detail elsewhere.
Today, heresy can be without a religious context as the holding of ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with the status quo in any practice and branch of knowledge. Religion is not a necessary component of the term's definition. The revisionist paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who published his findings as The Dinosaur Heresies, treated the mainstream view of dinosaurs as dogma.[22] He is an example of a recent scientific endo-heretic. Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exo-heretic; He did not have appropriate scientific credentials or publish in scientific journals. His books, scientific arguments against his books, rebuttals and extensive commentary are available. While the details of his work are in scientific disrepute, the concept of catastrophic change (extinction event, punctuated equilibrium) has gained acceptance in recent decades.
The term heresy is also used as an ideological pigeonhole for contemporary writers because by definition heresy depends on contrasts with an established orthodoxy. For example, the tongue-in-cheek contemporary usage of heresy, such as to categorize a "Wall Street heresy" a "Democratic heresy" or a "Republican heresy", are metaphors which invariably retain a subtext that links orthodoxies in geology or biology or any other field to religion. These expanded metaphoric senses allude to both the difference between the person's views and the mainstream, and the boldness of such a person in propounding these views.
Variance from orthodox Marxism–Leninism is described as "right" or "left deviationism". The Church of Scientology uses the term "squirreling" to refer to unauthorized alterations of its teachings or methods.
Selected quotations
- Thomas Aquinas: "...a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas" (Summa Theologica, c. 1270)
- Thomas Aquinas: "Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death." (Summa Theologica, c. 1270)
- Isaac Asimov: "Science is in a far greater danger from the absence of challenge than from the coming of any number of even absurd challenges."[4]
- Augustine of Hippo: "For it is the wrongdoing of the opposing party which compels the wise man to wage just wars" (City of God, Chapter 7, c. 426)
- Gerald Brenan: "Religions are kept alive by heresies, which are really sudden explosions of faith. Dead religions do not produce them." (Thoughts in a Dry Season, 1978)
- Geoffrey Chaucer: "Thu hast translated the Romance of the Rose, That is a heresy against my law, And maketh wise folk from me withdraw;" (The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, c. 1386)
- G. K. Chesterton: "Truths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion." (Heretics, 12th Edition, 1919)
- G. K. Chesterton: "But to have avoided [all heresies] has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect." (Orthodoxy, 1908)
- Benjamin Franklin: "Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not. It is so. It is not." (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1879)
- Helen Keller: "The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next." (Optimism, 1903)
- Lao Tzu: "Those who are intelligent are not ideologues. Those who are ideologues are not intelligent." (Tao Te Ching, Verse 81, 6th century BCE)
- James G. March on the relations among madness, heresy, and genius: "... we sometimes find that such heresies have been the foundation for bold and necessary change, but heresy is usually just new ideas that are foolish or dangerous and appropriately rejected or ignored. So while it may be true that great geniuses are usually heretics, heretics are rarely great geniuses."[23]
- Montesquieu: "No kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ." (Persian Letters, 1721)
- Elie Wiesel: "The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference." (unsourced, from WikiQuote)
See also
Notes
- ^ The records to estimate the number of executions resulting from first millennium heresy convictions do not exist. The absence of records does not prove the absence of prosecutions. Priscillian is the only known case of capital punishment for heresy in the first millennium.[8] The charge of heresy is a weapon that fits many hands. A century and a half after heresy was made a state crime, the Vandals (a heretical Christian Germanic tribe), used the law to prosecute thousands of (orthodox) Catholics with penalties of torture, mutilation, slavery and banishment. [9] The Vandals were overthrown; Orthodoxy was restored; "No toleration whatsoever was to be granted to heretics or schismatics." [10] Heretics were not the only casualties. 4000 Roman soldiers were killed by heretical peasants in one campaign. [11] Better records are available in the second millennium. To estimate the fatalities associated with Christian heresies requires careful definitions and careful accounting. Lists of heretics and heresies are available. Thousands were burned at the stake by the Inquisition - a search for heresy that lasted centuries.[12] Heretics were burned at the stake by an enraged populace without the official participation of Church or State.[8] Religious Wars slaughtered millions. The degree to which heresy was a motivation for these wars (as opposed to other religious charges or politics) is subject to debate. The application of the term heresy to witchcraft trials and antisemitism is more controversial.
References
- ^ Definition of "heresy" at Free Online Dictionary
- ^ Definition of "apostasy" at Dictionary.com
- ^ Definitions of "blasphemy" at Dictionary.com
- ^ a b Donald Goldsmith (1977). Scientists Confront Velikovsky. ISBN 0-8014-0961-6. Asimov's views are in Forward: The Role of the Heretic.
- ^ W.H.C. Frend (1984). The Rise of Christianity. Chapter 7, The Emergence of Orthodoxy 135-93. ISBN 978-0800619312. Appendices provide a timeline of Councils, Schisms, Heresies and Persecutions in the years 193-604. They are described in the text.
- ^ Paul Stephenson (2009). Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor. Chapter 11. ISBN 978-1-59020-324-8. The Emperor established and enforced orthodoxy for domestic tranquility and the efficacy of prayers in support of the empire.
- ^ Charles Freeman (2008). A.D. 381 - Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. ISBN 978-1-59020-171-8. As Christianity placed its stamp upon the Empire, the Emperor shaped the Church for political purposes.
- ^ a b Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. page 778.
- ^ Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 37, Part III.
- ^ W.H.C. Frend (1984). The Rise of Christianity. page 833. ISBN 978-0800619312.
- ^ Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 21, Part VII.
- ^ James Carroll (2001). Constantine's Sword. page 357. ISBN 0-618-21908-0.
- ^ "Massacre of the Pure." Time. April 28, 1961.
- ^ Joseph Reese Strayer (1992). "The Albigensian Crusades". University of Michigan Press. p. 143. ISBN 0472064762
- ^ Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. Chapter XXVIII, The Early Inquisition: 1000-1300.
- ^ Borges, Jorge Luis (1962). Labyrinths. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. pp. 119–126. ISBN 0-08112-0012-4.
- ^
"Giordano Bruno". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
- ^ Sheila Rabin, "Nicolaus Copernicus" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online, accessed 19 November 2005).
- ^ The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised, by Marc B. Shapiro, ISBN 1874774900, A book written as a contentious rebuttal to an article written in the Torah u'Maddah Journal.
- ^ John Bowker. "Zindiq." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997
- ^ John B. Henderson (1998). The construction of orthodoxy and heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and early Christian patterns. ISBN 978-0791437605.
- ^ Robert T. Bakker (1986). The Dinosaur Heresies. ISBN 978-0806522609. "I have enormous respect for dinosaur paleontologists past and present. But on average, for the last fifty years, the field hasn't tested dinosaur orthodoxy severely enough." page 27 "Most taxonomists, however, have viewed such new terminology as dangerously destabilizing to the traditional and well-known scheme..." page 462 This book apparently influenced Jurassic Park. The illustrations by the author show dinosaurs in very active poses, in contrast to the traditional perception of lethargy.
- ^ Coutou, Diane. Ideas as Art. Harvard Business Review 84 (2006): 83–89.
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