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To: Usenet
From: Various writers
Subj: Christian Heresies (0000.hersies.var)
Date: unknown
-------------

From: Andy Byler
Quoting: |Dave Lewsid 
 
|Could someone please post a brief list and short definition of the
|more important heresies?

Arianism-The belief that Christ is not God, but is the first Creature
made by God, before the beginning of time and space.  Also implies that
the Holy Spirit is made rather than eternal.

Sabellianism-The belief that the Tritnity does not really exist, but
that God is supremely simple, and that after the judgement, will throw
off the cloak of Trinitarian terms.  Also called Paterpassianism because
Sabelians believe that as their is no Trinity, God died on the cross.

Origenism-The belief that all creation, even Satan and his demonic
legions will be reconciled to God in the end of time.

Pelagianism-The belief that man is able to do supernaturally good acts
without the grace of God, that man is able to act justly and keep all
the commandments without the grace of God, that there is no original sin
and hence no need to baptize infants and that they can reach eternal
life.

Montanism-The belief that the Church has become corrupt, and that
charismatic prophets represent the true sucessors of Christ and the
Apostles.  Very rigorist as regards sin, and similar to modern
Pentecostalists.

Nestorianism-The belief that Christ is two persons: the eternal Word and
Jesus the man, and that hence Mary was not Mother of God but only Mother
of Christ.

Monphysitism-The belief that there is only one nature in Christ, the
Divine, not two, the Divine and Human.  Also called Eutychianism.

Monothelitism-The belief that Christ has only one will, the divine, and
not two, the divine and human acting in perfect harmony.

Monoenergism-The belief that Christ has only one mode of action, the
divine, and not two the divne and human.

Gnosticism-The belief that other secret revelations were made too the
Apostles to be communicated only to select followers (the elect).  Led
to various bizarre beliefs including Marcion's differentiation of the
God's of the old and new testaments.

Donatism-That only the faithful who have never sinned after baptism are
part of the Church.  That there cannot be any system of penance to admit
the lapsed, especially those guilty of mortal and grevious sins.  That
violence is an acceptable method to influence Church decisions.

Iconoclasm-The belief that not only can honors of veneration not be
given to holy images, but that such images are wrong in and of
themselves.

Albigensianism-The belief in the evil nature of the material world, and
that hence acts and desires of the flesh are completely evil.  Denial of
the rights of temporal governments.  Denial of the holy state of
matrimony.

Lollardism-The belief that only worthy priests can confect the
sacraments.  Also denied infallibility of the Church,
transubstantiation, purgatory, intercession of the saints, visibility of
the Church.  Various other false beliefs concerning the nature of God. 
Only the elect are part of the Church.  The Church has not the right to
own property.  State and Church should be seperated and the Church made
into a democracy.

Protestantism-Denial of the Catholic system of graces and sacraments. 
Denial of purgatory, free will, intercession of the saints, visibility
of the Church.  Strictly predestinarian.  Scripture alone is the rule of
faith.  The Pope has not the primacy in the Church.

Jansenism-The belief that only the elect are part of the Church. 
Ordinary people are not holy enough to receive the eucharist.  Limbo is
a pelagian fantasy.  There is no grace given outside the Church.

Liberalism-The belief that the Church and State should be seperated. 
That the State is supreme and the source of rights, especially
concerning the Church, family, marriage, and education.  That the Church
and Pope should reconcile themselves to civilization as lately
conceived.  That there is a freedom to choose whatever religion one
wants.

Modernism-The belief that the Church has slowly created its dogma of
time, and that it is not all part of the deposit of faith.  Genesis 1-11
are poetic and not a true history.  Christ is not God.  The sacraments
were created by the Church, as was the heirarchical organization.  The
Bible is open to deconstructionist criticism, and that modern exegetes
know a truer sense of the meaning of scripture than traditional
interpretation.  That it is not necessary to pertain to the true Church
for salvation.  That morality can and should be updated with the times.

Old Order Catholicism/Anglo-Catholicism-That the Pope is not the supreme
head of the Church and infallible when speaking ex cathedra to the whole
church.  That there can exist branches of the true Church.  That the
Church is not infallible.

Andy Byler

{I assume it's obvious that this is a Roman Catholic list.  While some
of our readers may not regard some of these views as heretical, they
have all been defined as such by official statements.  This means that
"modernism" and "liberalism" are being used with specific technical
meanings, defined in the papal statements that declared them to be
heresies.  A number of Catholics would argue that certain aspects of
modernism are no longer considered heretical.  However when the word
"modernism" is used in Catholic discussions, it's important to
realize that it is a reference to the condemnation of this specific
set of views.  --clh}
---------------------

From: Miladus Edenessi

here is a quick list.  It is by no means exhaustive nor does it claim to  
represent all.  

Simon Magus and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies present a number of  
'heresies', including a variety of gnostic versions.
Marcion and his followers.
Montanus and the Montanists.
Donatus and the Donatists.
Arius and the Arian heresy.
Pelagius and the Pelagian heresy.
Monophysite and variations thereof.
Bogomils, Cathars, etc

There is a very interesting book by Alain Le Bouillec that traces all  
heresies via the expressions, metaphors, figures used by the Church  
Fathers to describe abd discuss heresies.
--

Miladus Edenessi
Barbelo|Derdeka|Sakla
Abrasax|Sablo|Gamaliel|Micheu|Michar|Mnesinous
zaina=silah=panoplia=armatura
-----------------------------

From: Martin M. Palo (as142@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Quoting: |db7n+@andrew.cmu.edu (D. Andrew Byler) 

|Arianism-The belief that Christ is not God, but is the first Creature
|made by God, before the beginning of time and space.  Also implies that
|the Holy Spirit is made rather than eternal.

That is the concept that theologist have written that Arius believed.
But that is not historically accurate. 

If you take the first part and change the wording slightly:

The belief that Christ is not the greatest diety, but is the first
being generated by the Father before the beginning of time.

What you have now is the belief of Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, 
the opponent of Arius.

Look it up. Read Alexander's and Athanasius' writings.

Martin M. Palo
as142@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
---------------------------

From: "--clh]"

I have read them both.  There is always some room for uncertainty,
because we have limited writings from many of the heterodox, including
Arius.  But we do have a couple of letters, one to Eusebius and one to
Alexander.  From that and a fairly long letter by Alexander, I think
at least some of the issues between them are clear.  (1) Arius does
not believe that the Son is eternal.  There was a time before he was
begotten.  Alexander denies this.  (2) Arius believes that the Son was
created from nothing.  While he uses the term "begotten", he also says
that the Son is "from nothing."  Alexander objects to this.  He
objects because in Alexander's view (which orthodoxy has followed),
the Father and Son have the same nature.  They are equally eternal and
equally everything else.  They differ only in that the Son is begotten
from the Father.  Alexander believes that Arius' insistence on the Son
coming from nothing means that the Son is a created being, not the
natural son of his Father.  I admit that there is a certain ambiguity
about the few pages we have of Arius' writings.  It is just barely
possible that he doesn't mean what Alexander thinks he means.  But his
insistence on "from nothing", and his use of the word "creature",
suggests that in fact he does think of the Son as something whose
nature is inferior to God.

In fact Arius does use the word "God" when speaking of the Son.
However in other places he distinguishes between God and the Son.
This suggests that saying "Christ is not God" is slightly too strong.
Arius thinks of him as God in a certain sense. William Rusch
characterizes it by saying that "God" and "Son of God" are "courtesy
titles" for him.

I have some questions about the beliefs you attribute to Alexander.  I
don't claim to be an expert on his thought, as I've read only one
letter (which however deals with these issues in some detail).  But at
least based on that, some of the phrases you use don't seem consistent
with what he said.  First, "not the greatest diety".  Alexander denies
that there is more than one diety, so I think he would not use this
exact phrasing.  The Father is greater than the Son only in the sense
that the Father is the source of the Son.  Other than that they are
equal.  "The first being generated" suggests a parallelism between
generation of the Son and other beings, which I would think Alexander
would not accept.  (At least he objects to suggestions of it in
Arius.)

In a number of cases there are questions about whether ancient
heretics really held the positions associated with them.  For example,
it's not entirely clear that Nestorius was a Nestorian, nor that
Pelagius was quite a Pelagian.  There may be a certain caricature
involved in Arius as well, but it does seem that he taught that the
Son is a creature, created from nothing and by nature inferior to the
Father.

--clh]
------ EOF