Orthodoxy and Heresy

(Originally written November 12, 2006 in Book 11)

Heresy and Orthodoxy

Gradual Emergence of Orthodoxy

The Jesus Movement became a world religion through the ideas of orthodoxy, holiness, apostolic ideal and catholic universalism.

The orthodoxy of the early church developed by attacking individual doctrines deemed heretical. The forensic ability and dialectical skill of the Fathers had more to do with the formation of orthodoxy more than the merit of doctrines.

By the fourth century the outlines of orthodoxy had been drawn, but the orthodoxy was not yet in full effect.

The Gnostic Heresy

Gnosticism states that salvation is acquired through knowledge, not faith.

Gnosticism believed that there was one Supreme Being and This Being created larger supernatural beings. (One of these was YHWH).

These lesser beings are in rebellion against the Absolute god and hold man hostage. Christ descended to save man. Salvation comes to those who have a divine spark that enables the to understand the knowledge given to them.

The Knowledge which led to salvation was a secret knowledge. Plato used the term, but meant a public objective knowledge, whereas Gnostics meant a suprarational knowledge.

Gnosticism attempted to synthesize all the Neoplatonist and mystery cults into one unified entity. This obviously offended the catholic church.

The Gnostics interpreted every scripture as allegory, which also offended Christian sentimentalities.

Syncretism was a major component of Gnosticism. Christianity's method of rejecting all other views, rather then synthesizing then proved to be a lasting one.

The Arian Heresy

Arianism focused on the problem of a Triune Godhead. How could a monotheistic religion have three Gods?

Aries, the founder claimed that Jesus was the logos of God, but was not equal with God the Father. Jesus was a created entity.

Christ was the first creation who later became Incarnated.

Athanasius, the preeminent anti-Arian claimed that God and Christ are of the same substance. But to avoid another heresy (Patripassianism, which claimed God the Father was crucified) he held that the Father and the Son, through the same substance, were distinct persons. Catholicism concluded that God is three in one and how that is is simply a mystery that must be accepted.

Aries was a bit of a rationalist attempting to resolve the issue of three as one in the Godhead.

Tertullian, contra to Arius was completely against any rational attempt to understand the divinity.
He held that any attempt to understand was a mark of weak faith.

The Arian Heresy marks the Church's subversion of reason. The Church would face no controversy so long as man deprecated their ability.

The Pelagian Heresy

The Pelagian Heresy came from the Judaic conception of omnipotence and omniscience.

Both Arius and Pelagius believed they were teaching Christian Orthodoxy and both had some evidence on their side.

Pelagius preached free will in man and stated Paul's mysticism led men to be slothful in Christian living and making excuses for the vices Paul preached against.

If God is all powerful and all knowing man has no fee will. If man has no free will God is unjust for blaming us for sin. Pelagius believed free will was necessary for responsibility.

Pelagius was deemed a heretic, but the Pelagian heresy has reemerged numerous times in the history of the Church.

The Manichean Heresy

Mani tried to resolve the problem of evil. It was regarded as heretical because they employed reason and not the authorities to come to their conclusions.

Manicheanism was dualistic. God was all-good, but not all powerful. Satan created the physical world.

Mani and Christ were prophets went from God to free men from the evil of the body. Manicheanism was thus, very, very ascetic.

The Albigensian heresy in the late Middle Ages was a rearticulation of the Manichaen heresy.

Relation of faith to Reason

Athanasius called the Trinity a mystery that must be accepted as faith, but to appeal to the pagan masses and to confound heretics, Christianity needed a systematic theology. The relationship between faith and reason was critical in forming this theology.

Greek and Christian views contrasted

God is the primary, almost exclusive object of concern in Christianity. In Greek philosophy the concern was to give an account of man's relation to nature.

The shift in emphasis changed all of philosophical thought.

Christianity aimed at perfection, thus were constantly subject to failure.

Christianity is too pessimistic to the modern mind, but Greek philosophy is too naive and optimistic. The major goal of philosophy since the Renaissance is to find a mean between the two.

The methodology of Christian philosophy had to be radically different from the Greek. Exegesis became a large part of philosophy.