The Great Heresies
From Christianity’s beginnings, the Church has been attacked by those
introducing false teachings, or heresies. The Bible warned us this would happen. Paul told his young protégé,
Timothy, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to
the truth and wander into myths" (2 Tim. 4:3–4).
What Is Heresy?Heresy is an emotionally loaded term that is often misused. It is not
the same thing as incredulity, schism, apostasy, or other sins against
faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "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).
To commit heresy, one must refuse to be corrected. A person who is ready
to be corrected or who is unaware that what he has been saying is
against Church teaching is not a heretic.
A person must be baptized to commit heresy. This means that movements
that have split off from or been influenced by Christianity, but that do
not practice baptism (or do not practice valid baptism), are not
heresies, but separate religions. Examples include Muslims, who do not
practice baptism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not practice valid
baptism.
Finally, the doubt or denial involved in heresy must concern a matter
that has been revealed by God and solemnly defined by the Church (for
example, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence of Christ in
the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Mass, the pope’s infallibility, or
the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary).
It is important to distinguish heresy from schism and apostasy. In
schism, one separates from the Catholic Church without repudiating a
defined doctrine. An example of a contemporary schism is the Society of
St. Pius X—the "Lefebvrists" or followers of the late Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre—who separated from the Church in the late 1980s, but who have
not denied Catholic doctrines. In apostasy, one totally repudiates the
Christian faith and no longer even claims to be a Christian.
With this in mind, let’s look at some of the major heresies of Church
history and when they began.
The Circumcisers (1st Century)
The Circumcision heresy may be summed up in the words of Acts 15:1: "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.’"
Many of the early Christians were Jews, who brought to the Christian
faith many of their former practices. They recognized in Jesus the
Messiah predicted by the prophets and the fulfillment of the Old
Testament. Because circumcision had been required in the Old Testament
for membership in God’s covenant, many thought it would also be required
for membership in the New Covenant that Christ had come to inaugurate.
They believed one must be circumcised and keep the Mosaic law to come to
Christ. In other words, one had to become a Jew to become a Christian.
They were wrong. God made it clear to Peter in Acts 10 that Gentiles are
acceptable to God and may be baptized and become Christians without
circumcision. The same teaching was vigorously defended by Paul in his
epistles to the Romans and the Galatians—to areas where the Circumcision
heresy had spread.
Gnosticism (1st and 2nd Centuries)
"Matter is evil!" was the cry of the Gnostics. This idea was borrowed
from certain Greek philosophers. It stood against Catholic teaching, not
only because it contradicts Genesis 1:31 ("And God saw everything that
he had made, and behold, it was very good") and other scriptures, but
because it denies the Incarnation. If matter is evil, then Jesus Christ
could not be true God and true man, for Christ is in no way evil. Thus
many Gnostics denied the Incarnation, claiming that Christ only
appeared to be a man, but that his humanity was an illusion. Some
Gnostics, recognizing that the Old Testament taught that God created
matter, claimed that the God of the Jews was an evil deity who was
distinct from the New Testament God of Jesus Christ. They also proposed
belief in many divine beings, known as "aeons," who mediated between man
and the ultimate, unreachable God. The lowest of these aeons, the one
who had contact with men, was supposed to be Jesus Christ.
Montanism (Late 2nd Century)
Montanus began his career innocently enough through preaching a return
to penance and fervor. His movement also emphasized the continuance of
miraculous gifts, such as speaking in tongues and prophecy. However, he
also claimed that his teachings were above those of the Church, and soon
he began to teach Christ’s imminent return in his home town in Phrygia.
There were also statements that Montanus himself either was, or at least
specially spoke for, the Paraclete that Jesus had promised would come
(in reality, the Holy Spirit).
Sabellianism (Early 3rd Century)
The Sabellianists taught that Jesus Christ and God the Father were not
distinct persons, but two aspects or offices of one person. According to
them, the three persons of the Trinity exist only in God’s relation to
man, not in objective reality.
Arianism (4th Century)
One of the greatest heresies the Church has ever fought was Arianism.
Arius taught that Christ was less than divine, that he was a creature
made by God. By disguising his heresy using orthodox or near-orthodox
terminology, he was able to sow great confusion in the Church. He was
able to muster the support of many bishops, while others excommunicated
him.
Arianism was solemnly condemned in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea,
which defined the divinity of Christ, and in 381 at the First Council of
Constantinople, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit. These two
councils gave us the Nicene creed, which Catholics recite at Mass every
Sunday.
Pelagianism (5th Century)
Pelagius, a Welsh monk, began this teaching that bears his name. He
denied that we inherit original sin from Adam’s sin in the Garden and
claimed that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful
community into which we are born. Conversely, he denied that we inherit
righteousness as a result of Christ’s death on the cross and said that
we become personally righteous by instruction and imitation in the
Christian community, following the example of Christ. Pelagius stated
that man is born morally neutral and can achieve heaven under his own
powers. According to him, God’s grace is not truly necessary, but merely
makes easier an otherwise difficult task.
Semi-Pelagianism (5th Century)
After Augustine refuted the teachings of Pelagius, some tried a modified
version of his system. This, too, ended in heresy by claiming that
humans can reach out to God under their own power, without God’s grace;
that once a person has entered a state of grace, one can retain it
through one’s efforts, without further grace from God; and that natural
human effort alone can give one some claim to receiving grace, though
not strictly merit it.
Nestorianism (5th Century)
This heresy about the person of Christ was initiated by Nestorius,
bishop of Constantinople, who denied Mary the title of Theotokos
(Greek: "God-bearer" or, less literally, "Mother of God"). Nestorius
claimed that she only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb, and
proposed the alternative title Christotokos ("Christ-bearer" or
"Mother of Christ").
Orthodox Catholic theologians recognized that Nestorius’s theory would
fracture Christ into two separate persons (one human and one divine,
joined in a sort of loose unity), only one of whom was in her womb. The
Church reacted in 431 with the Council of Ephesus, defining that Mary
can be properly referred to as the Mother of God, not in the sense that
she is older than God or the source of God, but in the sense that the
person she carried in her womb was, in fact, God incarnate ("in the
flesh").
There is some doubt whether Nestorius himself held the heresy his
statements imply, and in this century, the Assyrian Church of the East,
historically regarded as a Nestorian church, has signed a fully orthodox
joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and rejects
Nestorianism. It is now in the process of coming into full ecclesial
communion with the Catholic Church.
Monophysitism (5th Century)
Monophysitism originated as a reaction to Nestorianism. The Monophysites
(led by a man named Eutyches) were horrified by Nestorius’s implication
that Christ was two people with two different natures (human and
divine). They went to the other extreme, claiming that Christ was one
person with only one nature (a fusion of human and divine elements).
They are thus known as Monophysites because of their claim that Christ
had only one nature (Greek: mono = one; physis = nature).
Orthodox Catholic theologians recognized that Monophysitism was as bad
as Nestorianism because it denied Christ’s full humanity and full
divinity. If Christ did not have a fully human nature, then he would not
be fully human, and if he did not have a fully divine nature then he was
not fully divine.
Iconoclasm (7th and 8th Centuries)
This heresy arose when a group of people known as iconoclasts
(literally, "icon smashers") appeared, who claimed that it was sinful to
make pictures and statues of Christ and the saints, despite the fact
that in the Bible, God had commanded the making of religious statues
(Ex. 25:18–20; 1 Chr. 28:18–19), including symbolic representations of
Christ (cf. Num. 21:8–9 with John 3:14).
Catharism (11th Century)
Catharism was a complicated mix of non-Christian religions reworked with
Christian terminology. The Cathars had many different sects; they had in
common a teaching that the world was created by an evil deity (so matter
was evil) and we must worship the good deity instead.
The Albigensians formed one of the largest Cathar sects. They taught
that the spirit was created by God, and was good, while the body was
created by an evil god, and the spirit must be freed from the body.
Having children was one of the greatest evils, since it entailed
imprisoning another "spirit" in flesh. Logically, marriage was
forbidden, though fornication was permitted. Tremendous fasts and severe
mortifications of all kinds were practiced, and their leaders went about
in voluntary poverty.
Protestantism (16th Century)
Protestant groups display a wide variety of different doctrines.
However, virtually all claim to believe in the teachings of sola
scriptura ("by Scripture alone"—the idea that we must use only the
Bible when forming our theology) and sola fide ("by faith alone"—
the idea that we are justified by faith only).
The great diversity of Protestant doctrines stems from the doctrine of
private judgment, which denies the infallible authority of the Church
and claims that each individual is to interpret Scripture for himself.
This idea is rejected in 2 Peter 1:20, where we are told the first rule
of Bible interpretation: "First of all you must understand this, that no
prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation." A
significant feature of this heresy is the attempt to pit the Church
"against" the Bible, denying that the magisterium has any infallible
authority to teach and interpret Scripture.
The doctrine of private judgment has resulted in an enormous number of
different denominations. According to The Christian Sourcebook,
there are approximately 20-30,000 denominations, with 270 new ones being
formed each year. Virtually all of these are Protestant.
Jansenism (17th Century)
Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, France, initiated this heresy with a paper
he wrote on Augustine, which redefined the doctrine of grace. Among
other doctrines, his followers denied that Christ died for all men, but
claimed that he died only for those who will be finally saved (the
elect). This and other Jansenist errors were officially condemned by
Pope Innocent X in 1653.
Heresies have been with us from the Church’s beginning. They even have
been started by Church leaders, who were then corrected by councils and
popes. Fortunately, we have Christ’s promise that heresies will never
prevail against the Church, for he told Peter, "You are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). The Church is truly, in Paul’s
words, "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).
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