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Heresy and Christianity

The remarkable thing about the desert fathers, following their own spritual path before the early Church became organized and eventually took control of the Egyptian monasteries, was that the monks practiced their own individualized spirituality without a cloak of dogma or interference from the organized Church. And it appears from their sayings that they were remarkably successful in their efforts to experience communion with the Divine.

Unfortunately as the early Church fathers began formulating and structuring doctrine that was very specific in describing what beliefs concerning the nature of God constitute a "true" Christian and imposing those specific beliefs on the monasteries during the 4th century led to dissension among the Neoplatonic monks educated in the Alexandrine schools and the uneducated monks. Eventually the worldly politics of theological speculation invaded the cloistered world of the desert fathers.

Around this time (4th century) a new definition for the word "heresy" emerged. Traditionally up to that time heresy meant a choice or opinion, but as a Christian orthodox position (or "true belief") was established, heresy eventually came to mean an incorrect theological belief. Anything not Orthodox Christian was pagan. From the Orthodox Christian viewpoint, there was no middle ground. Anyone, monks included, not "Christian" in the emerging orthodox sense were heretics and became targets for persecution.

Ironically an individual on a most devout spiritual path leading to communion with the Divine, could be a heretic in the eyes of orthodox Christianity if they did not profess the true belief, leading one to wonder if perhaps even God, himself, could be a heretic!

Sadly, the monks became sharply divided leading to open hostilities. Those monks who were unwilling to accept or adapt to early Church doctrines concerning the precise nature of the Divine were banished from the monasteries in Egypt in what became known as the "Trinitarian controversies" and later the Christological Controversies.
Heresy: any opinion...opposed to official or established views or doctrines. An example of the most divisive heresy in early Christianity was Ariansim; a heresy that even today splits Islam and Christianity.
Heretical beliefs stand in opposition to orthodox beliefs and produce division within the church at the very points where the church should be unified. Though some believe that "beliefs" are irrelevant to Christian identity, history suggests otherwise:

Heretical beliefs stand in opposition to orthodox beliefs and produce division within the church at the very points where the church should be unified. Though some believe that "beliefs" are irrelevant to Christian identity, history suggests otherwise:

"But there is a very good and positive reason why Christianity has been so concerned about orthodoxy, or right belief. From its very beginnings, Christianity said that neither your race, nor your sex, nor your social class, nor your age could ever be a bar to full membership of Christ's body, the Church. Anyone could be a Christian... This was radical stuff. What, though, was left to mark a Christian out from a non-Christian? The answer was: your faith - what you believed in, as embodied in your practices and confessed with your lips... That's why heresy was a matter to be taken seriously, because it called those convictions into question. It threatened a crucial thing that bound the Church together and made Christians Christians. (1-2)
Quote from: Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe
source: TheoCentric
The word "heresy" comes from the Greek...αἵρεσις, hairesis (from αιρεομαι, haireomai, "choose"), which means either a choice of beliefs or a faction of dissident believers. It was given wide currency by Irenaeus of Lyons in his tract The Detection and Refutation of False Knowledge (commonly known by the title of the Latin translation, Contra Haereses (Against Heresies) to describe and discredit his opponents in the early Christian Church. He described his own position as orthodox (from ortho- "right" + doxa "glory" or "belief") and his position eventually evolved into the position of the early Christian Church.

While the term is often used to indicate any nonorthodox belief such as Paganism, by definition heresy can only be committed by a person who considers himself a Christian, but rejects the teachings of the Christian Church. A person who completely renounces Christianity is not considered a heretic, but an apostate; a person who renounces the authority of the Church, but not its teachings, is a schismatic, while an individual outside of the Orthodox Church who considers himself to be Christian might be called Heterodox.

Heretics usually do not define their own beliefs as heretical. Heresy is the expression of a view from within an established belief system. For instance, Roman Catholics held Protestantism as a heresy while some non-Catholics considered Catholicism the "Great Apostasy." While the term is often used to indicate any nonorthodox belief such as Paganism, by definition heresy can only be committed by a person who considers himself a Christian, but rejects the teachings of the Christian Church. A person who completely renounces Christianity is not considered a heretic, but an apostate; a person who renounces the authority of the Church, but not its teachings, is a schismatic, while an individual outside of the Orthodox Church who considers himself to be Christian might be called Heterodox.

Heretics usually do not define their own beliefs as heretical. Heresy is the expression of a view from within an established belief system. For instance, Roman Catholics held Protestantism as a heresy while some non-Catholics considered Catholicism the "Great Apostasy."

Heresies confronting the early Church:source: OrthodoxWiki
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