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Alastair McGrath, Heresy
Introduction = our love affair with heresy
“For many religiously alienated individuals, heresies are now to be seen as bold +
brave statements of spiritual freedom to be valued rather than avoided”
- Stereotypes about how heresies lost
- Necessary corrections for past injustices
- Suppressed versions more attuned to contemporary culture
- “lure of heresy” (Peter Gay)
o Modern art as effort to offend tradition
- Heresy as radical + innovative
- Heretical minds as original
- Atheism as disillusionment + disenchantment
- “deep seated postmodern suspicion of corrupting influence of power
permeated… contemporary discussions of heresy” (2)
o Walter Bauer (1877-1960)
o Heresy = suppressed orthodoxy
o Orthodox = ideas that won
o Heresy = ideas that lost
- Orthodoxy as securing religious power of Christian church in Roman
Empire
o Dan Brown + Sir Leigh Teabing
o Jesus never thought divine by early Christians
o Divinity of Christ as fabrication + ploy
o Divinity of Christ as fabrication of power + orthodoxy
o (historical picture much more complex)
- Heresy as theological victim
- Heresy’s new appeal
o Associations with lure of secret knowledge transgressing sacred
boundaries, eat forbidden fruit
o Transgression = challenge power + bring freedom
o Choice as defining characteristic of human existence
- 12th century rise of heresy
- “yet modern period has seen both rise of religious diversity in West and
erosion of church’s legal capacity to enforce uniformity”
- Heretical Imperative (1979) Peter Berger
o Traditional primitive cultures
o Foundation, legitimizing myth or assumptions
o “We are free to pick, choose, mix = essence of heresy”
2
- “heresy = being master of our own universe, choosing ways things are or
would like to be”
- Greatest appeal = challenge to authority
o Heresy as subversion of authoritarianism
o Yet heresies at least as authoritarian
- “Significance of heresy, not inherent but rather constructed within
relationship between original heresy + contemporary interpreter” (9)
o Suspicion transferred to biblical foundations
o Hoopla over Gospel of Judas
Secret dialogues between Jesus + Judas
Very Gnostic
o Actually Gnosticism was preserving old ideas (see NT Wright)
o The NT is truly radical
- Emerging picture = heresy is not malignant attach on Orthodoxy nor
principled alternative that was suppressed
- What is heresy?
o Form of Christian belief that subverts (more by accident) destabilizes
destroys core of Christian faith
o A way of making sense of part of Christian faith later discovered to
have potential damage
o (analogy = trying to preserve Parthenon with iron rods)
- All attempts to put realities of God into human words fall short, some more
reliable and trustworthy
- Orthodox + heresy-heterodox mark extremes of theological spectrum
- In between a range from adequate to questionable
- Heresy lies in “shadow lands of faith”
- Failed attempt at Orthodoxy whose intentions likely honorable but outcomes
discovered to be as corrosive as Balainos’s iron clamps
- Broader use of “heresy”
- Secular = potentially dangerous ideas that pose a threat to dominant
orthodoxies
- Beyond realm of ideas
o Transposed to social, political
o Enforcing ideas by force, suppress liberty, violate rights
o Who decides? What is definitive or dangerous?
o How are these decisions made?
What is heresy? Faith, creeds, Christian gospel
3
- “if there is a heart beat of Christian faith it is sheer delight + excitement
caused by person of Jesus of Nazareth”
- In their creeds, even more in worship + adoration
- Worship sustains an incandescence of enthusiasm for Jesus Christ that
nourishes the theological task while at same time calling into question
capacity to live up to the brilliance of the ultimate object” (17)
- Imagination… yet remains an intellectual core
- “Will to Believe” by William James (1842-1910)
o We all need hypotheses to make sense
o Importance of “working hypotheses”
o “nice to hear a tune (not noise)”
- Christianity not just ideas but experience
o Leads to theological formulations
o Secondary to experience
- Stanley Hauerwas -> treating Christianity as collection of statements distorts
its character
o Distinctive way of life made possibly by Holy Spirit
o We need framework to see world of behavior
o By extended reflection on Christian narrative
o (to see things as they truly are)
o So Christian faith as way of seeing the world
o Reflects + crates cohesion
- Sees world as God’s creation
o “transformed by renewing of minds”
o Mind is illumined, energized through faith
o World as transignified
o Faith… -> see things in a Christian way
o We see same thing as secular -> but different
Nature of faith = trust in God
- Leads to commitment
- Belief = believe God can be trusted
- Faith in Christ = recognize Christ as one can be trusted
- Hence Gospels address why Jesus can be trusted
- Disciples understand more about Jesus over time
- Later supplemented by beliefs concerning identity
o ~ doctrinal statements
- So faith <-> belief
o (relationally) <-> (conceptually)
o Belief attempts to express substance of that faith
4
- Early Christian statements were short, terse
o Historical narrative woven with interpretation
o Christians also believe certain things
o “Christians don’t just believe in Jesus, they believe certain things
about him”
o 2nd
century importance of sustaining a secure doctrinal core for
maintaining Christian identity + coherence (23)
- Consolidation of faith
o Consolidation of its beliefs was early challenge
o Rise of controversy forced increased precision
o Earlier formulations seen as not good enough
o Creation from chaos -> out of nothing
o Church already knew what was important about Jesus (incarnation)
o Problem was constructing a framework that did justice
o Distortion of early simplicity? *no*
o Charles Gore: later formulations gradually unfold ideas and themes
already present
o Need to challenge existing understandings of faith to ensure they
adequately accommodate the mystery of faith
- “Fundamental claim of Christian orthodoxy to tell truth about things can’t be
maintained without asking whether the truth is being fully + properly
articulated through existing doctrinal formulations” (27)
Preserving the mysteries of faith
- Doctrinal development not winners-losers but a quest for authenticity
- Process produced creeds -> consensus of the faithful
- Earlier not always better
- Mistakes were made + later corrected
- From beginning Christians knew what mattered about God + Jesus
o Difficulty = theoretical framework to make sense of this
o Intellectual scaffolding not entirely through divine revelation
o (dominant theme = church knew things, problem was how to make
sense of them)
- Council of Nicaea safeguarded what Christians already knew to be true
o Doctrine preserves central mysteries and allows them to be explained
and explored
o Mystery = something too vast to be grasped by human mind
Theology always proves inadequate to do justice
Gospel cannot be reduced to words or ideas (Andrew Louth)
5
o Doctrinal formulation set out NT statements in a new form for
protective purposes
o When a doctrine doesn’t protect but undermined?
o “A heresy is a doctrine that ultimately destroys, destabilizes, distorts a
mystery rather than preserving it”
Heresy’s fault is unwillingness to admit failure
o Statements originally meant to defend + preserve later discovered to
weaken and corrupt)
Heresy as contaminant, pollutes + defiles
Walls + fences protect community identity
Group identity maintained by excluding those who threaten its
ideas or values
Origin of idea of heresy
- Concepts die when (1) cease to correspond to perceived needs or reality
o (2) or persist because express ideas meaningful, resonate with
experience
- Heresy = (2)
- Heresy expresses important idea
- Every movement must determine center + boundaries
- Heresy not unbelief but form of faith that is subversive or destructive
- Indirectly leads to unbelief
- A constructed notion
- Must explore how + why ideas were judged to be a threat
- Look at ideas and social pressures
- Socially embodied notion
- Theme = heresy smuggles rival accounts of reality into household of faith
- “Trojan horse, establish alternative belief system within the host”
- ~ virus, appears Christian, yet sows seeds of destruction
- Threat comes from within community of faith
o More serious than challenges from outside
o Movement both insider and stranger (Lester Kurtz)
- Can destabilize from within *or* identify problems that lead to modification
(Pierre Bourdieu)
- Unintentionally assists external opponents
- Every worldview has orthodoxies + heresies
o Sometimes heresies become orthodoxy
o (Darwinian theory, medical science)
6
- Heresy as destabilizing or destructive form of faith?
o “Act of choosing” -> choice, preferred action
o Neutral -> as in NT (faction, group)
Concern is factionalization that destroys Christian unity\
“sect” (Tyndale, 1526)
o Heretical ideas originated apostolic era
Heresies, hairesis no longer neutral
“choice” preferring speculative ideas over mind of community
“other”
o 2nd
century “heresy-orthodoxy” to exclude groups and people from the
church
o Now school of thought developing ideas subversive of Christian faith
Chapter 3 = Diversity: The background of early Christianity
- Why did earl Christianity
- How to distinguish between inevitable diversity and heresy?
- Helps to reflect on nature of 1st century Christianity
o Series of reports + interpretations ot words + deeds of Jesus
o (Leading urban centers, sect within Judaism)
o Not recognized by Roman authorities
o Why? Unclear
o Christian communities could not enforce conformity
- (1) how did they maintain identity in local contexts?
o Shared identity against general society
- (2) how did they understand themselves as part of larger community? “the
church”
o (a) they believed they shared a common faith
o “complex network… in difficult social, cultural, linguistic contexts”
o Yet a fundamentally unifying stand
o “deposit of faith” identifiable (HEW Turner)
o Why diversity? As well as unity?
- (1) uncertainty over which resources authoritative
- (2) diversity within documents later the NT
- (3) divergent interpretations thereof
- (4) diverse patterns within early worship
- (5) inability to enforce comformity
- (1) authoritative resources
o Christians had penchant for writing, interpreting books (Lucian of
Pontus)
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o Yet more than what later part of NY
Drawn from OT
Extra-canonical writings
Liturgical, theological texts
Question of apocrypha in early 2nd
century
Established canon to eliminate dubious writings
Need to identify works with normative status
Athanasius of Alexandria
Heresy could arise from apocryphal sources
- Diversity within NT
o Subtly variegated range of understandings
o Diversity doesn’t entail fundamental unity
o An identifiable core of ideas
God of Israel to be lord, trusted
Jesus sent by God to reveal + redeem
Trust in God’s redemptive work in Christ… (ethics)
Saved person to love + care about others
Body of believers = extended fellowship
o Evangelism – yes or no? 18th
-> 19th
century
Proliferation of heresy (John Dryden, 1631-1700, 1782)
Protestants had no notion of meta-authority
Scripture did not disclose rule of interpretation
Iranaeus, church = authoritative interpreter
Heresy = teachings “antithetical to consolidation of the
church under bishop’s authority”
Or Irenaeus’ concern = continuity with apostolic era
Vincent of Lerins (d 450) developed checklist
(1) everywhere
Always
By all believers
- Diversity in worship
o By 2nd
century liturgy developed beyond NT
o Worship + doctrine interconnected
- 4th
century orthodoxy
o Nicaea 325 = 1st step of uniform imperial church
o Doctrine defined publicly by creeds
o Compare Islam + eradication of variant Qur’ans
o Hence Walter Bauer -> orthodoxy arose through impositions by
Roman church in 2nd
century
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o “Theological latitude does not equal heresy, yet provides context
within which heresy may arise”
o Confirms HEW Turner (1954) that early Christianity not a “single
melodic theme, rather a symphony, or confluence of tributaries into a
single stream”
- Early Christians belonged to same family, basic kit of beliefs, values,
attitudes toward worship
o Outside observers saw as coherent unity (and therefore threat)
- Difficult to speak of “orthodoxy” in late 1st early 2
nd centuries
o Emergent explored intellectual options
o Beginning of process of crystallization of orthodoxy
- Key = later “heretics” were active committed participants of Christian
communities
o Some writers tried to portray them as outsiders
o Irenaeus, heretics as imposters, pretenders
o “We must confront that every major heresy began as exploration of
dynamics of faith within the church” (59)
Early development of heresy
- 144, Marcion of Sinope wanted clean break with Judaism
- Evidence = leaders in Rome thought he was wrong but did not expel him
- Marcion dissociated himself! Founded a sect
- Both sides wanted to champion orthodoxy
- Heresy not neutral concept
- Determined by prior understandings of proper Christianity
- Tertullian’s narrative about Marcion is suspect
- Official narratives focus on moral character or motivation of heretics
Received view on origins of heresy
- (1) church founded by apostles was unsullied, undefiled
- (2) What is older is more authentic
- (3) heresy as deliberate deviation
- (4) fulfills NT prophecies of defection + deviation
- (5) love of novelty, jealousy, envy
- (6) internally inconsistent
- (7) geographically + chronologically restricted
- (8) dilution of orthodoxy with pagan philosophy
9
- Received view accepted until early 19th
century
o Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560)
Return to first + true
o Emerging awareness that Christian doctrine developed
o Heresy part of process of development
Development of doctrine
- Pressure that led to heretical outcomes
- (a) archaism – not accepting that development is necessary
- Repeating earlier formulas was inadequate
- Church must restate and reinterpret (?)
- Loyalty to Christian traditional demands innovation (Athanasius of
Alexandria)
- What forms of innovation are required to preserve integrity of the faith
- Unease regarding “development” idea
- Teaching of church evolved before crystalizing into system expressed at
Chalcedon 451
- 1830s-40s University of Tubingen
o Organic approach like biological seed
- Developed by John Henry Newman (Oxford 1843)
o Reflection through which new insights emerge
- Was “faith once delivered” (Jude 3) a system or a seed from which system
grows?
- Demand for vigilance connected to development
o “orthodoxy is made as generations inherit ways… respect yet wish to
examine certain approaches and regarded as helpful may have to be
set aside as unacceptable or heretical”
o Church must put everything to the test
- Outsider or insider?
o Traditional account depict heresy as invader
o Alien ideas influence the church
o Incorrect (generally)
o Stimulus might come from outside
o Heresy’s development happens within the church
o “Heresies seem to have been developed by Christians… particularly
to ensure that the church remain culturally engaged” (71)
o Montanism
Chapter 5 = Is there an essence of heresy?
10
- What distinguishes heresy from wrong or questionable?
- (Bayer’s schema) heresy basically an earlier orthodoxy fallen out of favor
- This view is difficult to sustain
- Really about emerging consensus that they are inadequate
- Impossible to offer an essence of a socially constructed or negotiated entity
- Social identities -> a means of safeguarding identity of a community
- Yes judging as “other” but not solely on will of one who names but
characteristics of what is named
- “heretical” = negotiated + constructed
- Not arbitrary but act of discernment -> ideas a ultimately destabilizing or
destructive
- By 4th
century teaching from within community yet is ultimately destructive
of that faith
o Not unbelief
o Vulnerable, fragile form of Christianity that can’t sustain itself in the
long term
o Not questionable practices or ethics!
o Therefore intellectually defective vision of Christian faith
o Seeds might come from outside
o But they root in church’s garden
o Heresy + orthodoxy share common doxa (assumptions of community)
(Pierre Bourdieu)
o Dangerous because of implications for future of Christianity itself
o Orthodoxy had greater survival potential
- Threats to early Christianity
o (1) physical
Heresy + orthodoxy relatively minor
o (2) intellectual, religious assimilation
Danger of assimilation to groups already well established
Church had to maintain identity + distinctiveness (Tertullian’s
concerns)
Marcion came from the Stoics
Heresy as quest for worldly wisdom
Sets up secularization of Christian ideas
o (3) intellectual incoherence
Formidable criticisms about coherence
Leading doctrines could not be taken seriously by learned
people
o (2) and (3) are in tension
11
Arius (253-336) offered philosophically rigorous
Yet irreconcilable with orthodoxy and worship
(Arius left Christianity vulnerable to criticism on one hand,
cultural erosion on the other)
Could have become like Islam
- Heresy + orthodoxy as doctrinal concepts
o Christian response to Judaism = shift toward orthodoxy and rejecting
existing orthopraxy
o So desire to distinguish Christianity from Judaism and other
communities
o 1st Christians formed communities based on shared loyalties, specific
commitments
o “sociological distinctions, set apart from the world”
o Distinction forced on Christian communities
o “Doctrine increasingly represented way Christians distinguish from
world around them”
Irenaeus of Lyons + Tertullian
NT canon, apostolic rule of faith
Early emphasis on center of the faith
Rather than policing the periphery
“Jesus = Lord” linked to resurrection
o Who could set limits? Determined how?
“hedges” (a) cultic
(b) ethical
© theological
From mid 2nd
century more focus on police the perimeter
Threats to integrity conceived ~ “right thinking”
“sound” doctrine edifying to the church
Heresy’s threat?
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
- Model of heresy
o Responding to Enlightenment
o Contra reduce theology to rationalist platitudes
o Heresy = anything that contradicts essential identity of Christianity
(outward appearance thereof)
o Appearance of Christianity yet denies its essence
o Okay so what is the essence?!?
Jesus of Nazareth
God has redeemed us through Christ
12
o What is Christian or not -> this principle
o Heresy-orthodoxy? How principle is understood
o So heresy affirms the statement but reduces it to incoherence
o Jesus of Nazareth’s centrality… interpreted in ways that denies or
renders inoperable
Richard Hooker (1554-1600)
o 4 “natural types” of heresy
Either Jesus human nature or role as redeemer defined such
that…
Therefore heresy = counterfeit faith that lacks intellectual
coherence of orthodoxy
- Difficulties
o Heresies can arise in other areas of doctrine
o Treats heresy as purely intellectual phenomenon
Historic social dimensions
o Incoherence? How do we adjudicate that?
When does incoherence -> heretical?
Who decides?
o “heresy” requires core ideas, reasons and procedures they are held
dangerous and destructive
o Doesn’t deal with heresy as Trojan horse
o Unhelpful to develop theory of heresy without looking at concrete
examples
Chapter 6 = Early classic heresies
Ebionitism, Docetism, Valentinism
- Christianity’s origins as Judean
o Continuation of Judaism
- Early 1st century established in east Mediterranean
- Intellectual and geographical expansion
- Soon confronted other intellectual movements and Greek religion +
philosophy
- “Pressure to identify most authentic reliable ways to articulate and explain
the Christian faith”
- Some ways powerful + resilient
- Some dead ends
- 1st 5 centuries = crystallization of heresy + orthodoxy through intellectual
exploration
- Need to weave statements into coherent pattern
13
- Recent scholarship on patristic interpretation of Bible + how much doctrinal
formulations rest on biblical foundations
o How biblical texts woven into dogmatic statements
o Contested, multiple outcomes, each tested against “authentic
Christianity”
o Heresies started with genuine concern
o Problems when movements regarded as inadequate
o Movements saw themselves as suppressed
- Classic heresies emerged 1st five centuries = *patristic*
o “heresy” used Middle Ages more legal sense
o Seen as threats to power
o Perhaps “heresy” not appropriate (Herbert Grundmann, 1935)
o Expanded definition means of social control
- How heresy emerged
o Distinctive features
o How + why considered inadequate
- Ebionitism = Jewish model for Jesus of Nazareth
o 1st to early 2
nd centuries
o Limited identity of Jesus to categories from Judaism
o Jesus as prophet
o Within matrix of contemporaneous Judaism
o Difficult to identify best “conceptual framework”
Tendency to take existing categories
NT does the same
o Little knowledge thereof – mainly from its critics
o “low Christology”, Jesus > humans but not distinct
o Later “ebionitism” associated with Gnosticism
o Why rejected as inadequate?
Failed to do justice to Jesus of Nazareth
Mark 2 specifically undermines this approach
“healing of paralytic is dramatically primary and theologically
secondary”
Followed by new wine and old wineskins
Traditional ways of thinking cannot grasp
Ebionism constrained innovation
Karl Barth
o Ebionism not simply refusing implicit divinity
o Arianism + Ebionitism historically and
sociologically distinct
Ebionism saw no reason to assert Christ’s divinity
14
“unacceptable” by 135
Concerns? (1) form of Jewish Christianity
Gentile Christians saw Ebionitism as new form of
Judaism
Yet Christianity distinct from Judaism
Rise of Jewish Christianity today
- Docetism = illusory humanity of Jesus of Nazareth
o ~ 90, idea that Jesus not human at all
o “Docetism” < Serapion bishop of Antioch (190-203)
o Ideas associated with Corinthus of Ephesus
o (unclear) distinguish human Jesus + divine Christ
o Ignatius of Antioch (35-107) bishop of Syria
Concern over Judaizers + Docetists
Valentinus, Jesus did not excrete
o Difficult to find a “coherent Docetism”
Two types
(1) Jesus not properly human, no way human + divine in one
being
(2) Christ human but did not really suffer
o Ronnie Goldstein + Guy Sroumsa
Classical mythology
Greek heroes replaced by doubles before death
Helen of Troy as eidolon
Studied reluctance to allow that Jesus suffered indignity of
death
- Valentinism = Gnosticism and Christianity (117)
o Rome hub of vast empire late 1st century
o Reverse colonization took root
o Religious movements from Greece, Levant, beyond
o Church in Rome? Collection of individual congregations meeting in
homes
o Independent associations with no central control
- Eleusinian mysteries <- cults of Demeter, Persephone
- Mithraic mysteries <- Anatolia? Iran?
- Gnosticism resonates well with contemporary North America
o Dislike of any authority, ecclesiastical
o Why did church see Gnosticism as threat?
o “Advanced knowing God through experience rather than formal
doctrines”
15
o Not well defined
o Broad to point of not well defined, specific
o “Gnostic” won’t support single, monolithic definition (Karen King)
o “family of religious doctrines + myths”
o (1) cosmos result of evil or ignorant creator
o (2) salvation is a process in which believers receive knowledge of
divine origin… able to return to realm of light after being freed from
physical limitations
- Valentinus originator of Gnostic Christianity
- Rome, ca 135 <- Egypt?
o Claimed = disciple of Theodas, pupil of Paul
o Justin Martyr of Rome condemned his ideas
o Little evidence he was formally condemned
Discipline tightened in late 2nd
century?
Interpret, develop Christian ideas in a Gnostic manner
Especially matter = subordinate, creator God as subordinate
Jewish creator God not same as Jesus’ God
o Greatest interpreters = Ptolemy, Theodotus, Heracleon
Two schools, Italy and the east
Nag Hammadi texts 1945 = “Sethian”
Pleroma = dwelling place of true God
Eternal beings in perfect harmony
Sofia destroyed the cosmic harmony
(Rw – much like Melkor)
Wisdom created a Demiurge + expelled
(also Greek philosophy, Plato’s Timaeus)
Demiurge made physical world without knowledge of the true
God
(Complex description of Sethian Gnosticism)
Humanity has divine spirit, able to connect with highest God
Therefore superior to creator God
Soma sema = body is a tomb
Christ is redeemer who awakens divine spark
So can find way back home
Savior let himself be conceived with body and soul
Savior or logos descended from pleroma to visible world
o Why did church reject?
Seen as attempt to subvert church from within (effect not
intention)
Mainstream and Valentinian Christians
16
Part of same church, spoke + acted similarly
But interpretation differed
o “Valentinian’s use of NT looks consistent with majority view within
Christian scholarship” (!!!)
o Saw himself as enriching Christianity by using Gnostic ideas as means
to deepen its appeal to contemporary culture + give it intellectual
depth” (122)
o Did not make Christianity congenial to Gnostics
o Irenaeus of Lyons = “economy of salvation”
Emerging doctrine of Trinity articulates
o articulates divine continuity through history
and safeguard unity of Scripture
sacramental uuse of matter utterly contradicts Gnosticism
“place clear blue water between Gnosticism and church”
concern for method (interpretation of Scripture)
landmark = heretics interpret Bible according to their own taste
orthodox interpret in ways apostles would approve
apostolic authors handed on a way of reading and
interpreting
tradition is guarantor of faithfulness
church safeguards (a) text
o (b) interpretation
leads to emergence of creeds
o 5th
century Vincent of Lerins
clear sense that orthodoxy is earlier than
Gnostic thought church still too close to Jewish roots
- Marcionism = Judaism + the gospel
o relationship of Christianity to Judaism?
o model = fulfills hopes of pagans + Jews in Christ
o Justin Martyr = story of Jesus could not be told in isolation
must tell other stories show how they interlock and interrelate
(1) God’s creation + world
(2) God’s call of Israel
(3) human quest for meaning, significance
- “Jesus is focal point from which all other stories to be seen and on which all
finally converge”
o this theme fascinated theologians
o Alexandria – schools of thought based on Plato
o how can we enter the ideal world?
17
o highly cultured Jews sensitive to this
Torah of critical importance
yet Torah as interim measure
fulfillment, the Messiah
o “fundamental continuity between old and new covenants emerged as
dominant idea, late 1st – early 2
nd century
idea of type -> event or person anticipates NT and Jesus
Justin Martyr (100-165)
o not all shared this vision
progress of Christianity impaired by correction to Judaism
Marcion of Sinope d160 (Pontus, Asia Minor)
gave 200,000 sesterces to church in Rome
Marcion left church + started his own
o God of OT is not God of NT
OT God inferior, defective in light of Christian views
Jesus not “Messiah” sent by Jewish God
God of OT delights in wars, fickle, inconsistent, incompetent
most extreme statement of *newness* of Christianity
(Rw – boy this all sounds disturbingly familiar)
o connections between Marcion + Gnosticism
o inclined to Docetic Christology
o emerging NT writings referred to Jewish Scriptures
o alternative canon
no OT
no 10 Pauline letters
no Luke
edited what was left to remove Jewish connections
Marcion thought he was removing Jewish additions -> restoring
them
o why such a threat?
denied Christianity’s roots in Judaism, Jesus’ Jewishness
refused to accept Jesus = human or Jew
(Rw – so a kind of anti-semitism? or at least anti-Judaism?)
o Christian theologians developed approaches to OT that allow them to
respect its moral, religious insights, also neutralize its more
problematic aspects” (130, see Morgan and Barton, Bertrand de
Margerie) (Rw – wait so people who attack the OT as in conflict with
NT have not done their homework? have not attempted to learn how
the early church dealt with these issues?)
o Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) tried to revive Marcion
18
o (Rw – this guy’s name shows up now and again – take note)
o Marcion was never condemned or expelled
o Marcion left the church to start his own sect
- Reflections on early heresies
o common themes = relationship of Christianity to other groups
o judged to be heretical before permanent authority structures
o before NT, canon formally agreed
- we don’t entirely understand how “heretics!” worked
- was difficult to organize campaign against heretics
- we don’t know about manner of consensus authority, of Scripture which
ideas promoted or “secondary”
o reflected power politics of the age
o does not fit Bauer’s schema (Rw – important! there are false teachers
among us who peddle Bauer without necessarily knowing or naming
him)
o quality of ideas played role in their evaluation
- what of later heresies?
Late classic heresies
- early heretical movements when church lacked robust leadership structures
- emerging sense of theological and ethical norms
- “If heresy can be regarded as simply the outcome of theological uncertainty
or confusion, its causes were steadily diminishing with emergence of early
form of orthodoxy” (136)
- process of doctrine like exploring new pathways
- some were dead ends or declared out of bounds
- by 5th
century theology caught in imperial politics
- Imperial politics and heretics of the age
o “religio” what held Roman society together
o Christian refusal to integrate with official religion
o sporadic harassment
o 249, Decius
Rome could recover glory by ancient religion
Edict of Decius 250
certificate issued if sacrifice to Roman gods
o 303, Diocletian
destruction and cessation of Christianity
o 311, Galerius ended the persecution
Christianity now legal
19
o Constantine, 285-337
313 Edict of Milan ordered restoration
conversion of emperor radically changed status of Christianity
Byzantium aka Constantinople
saw lack of unity especially in North Africa
what to do with lapsed clergy
Christian disputed now became political
- Arianism – identity of Christ
o weaving threads of NT witness to identity of Jesus into coherent
tapestry
- “Christological methods from Judaism focused on idea of Jesus as endorsed
communication from God” (141)
- quest = how to make sense of Jesus without reducing to theological
stereotypes
o logos as promising
o logos as intermediary between ideal + real
o church reacted against Jesus as God’s deputy
o church needed a model good enough to express significance of Jesus
o concept of incarnation = God entered history taking human nature
- how could immutable God enter history?
o (proved a barrier to cultural pagans)
o Arius (c 270-336) forced to issue
o Thalia (banquet) lost fo us
o (1) Son + Father do not have the same ousia
o (2) Son = created being ktisma, ποιημα + ποιεμα although 1st in rank
o (3) Son = creator but a time when the son was not
- futility of biblical prooftexting
- how are an ensemble of biblical texts to be integrated
- Jesus Christ not divine but 1st among creatures
- no intermediate or hybrid species (between God and creatures)
- Son was changeable, developed
- but God is immutable
- God cannot be known by any creature (!)
- like Ebionitism but within framework of Greek philosophical monotheisms
- motivated partly by concern educated Greeks could not accept
- Athanasius of Alexandria -> rius destroyed internal coherence of
Christianity
- (1) only God can save
- (2) NT + Christian worship Jesus Christ as Savior
20
- salvation involved divine intervention
- (2) Christians worship + pray to Jesus Christ
- orthodoxy maintains a view of Jesus Christ completely consistent with
worship-patterns
- yet Arius not against worshiping Jesus
- therefore rendered Christian worship incoherent
- fundamental characteristic of heresy = maintain outward appearance with
subversion of inward identity
- Constantine wanted this controversy resolved
o unprecedented -> council of bishops in Nicaea 325
o decisively voted against Arius
o expand creed
o disputed over homoiousios? homoousos
o why did Constantine favor Arianism?
1935 Erik Peterson
direct analogy with single God “monarchia”
o Arius’ understanding of Christ differed so greatly it constituted a
separate religion
- if Christ is God then Christ can both disclose what God is like + what God
wants
- key = Arianism failed to maintain Jesus as a bridge to connect with God,
authentic knowledge of God, or salvation promised by the gospel
o Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957)
if Christ is only man then he is irrelevant to any thought about
God
(Rw – wow that’s a strong claim… he can’t even be a great
teacher who teaches true things about God? no? why not?)
- Docetism = nature of the church
o concerns aspects of the church + sacraments
o “culture of martyrdom” in African church?
o Mensurius bishop Carthage + archdeacon Caelians (? Caecilianus?)
stood against this
o some saw as collaboration with Roman authorities
o strong emotions regarding those who surrendered Christian books ->
traditores
o Mensurius took lenient line
o hardliners wanted a hard line replacement
o moderates elected Caecilianus (!)
o many refused to recognize his consecration
o rigorists deposed the bishop + anointed Majorinus
21
o Constantine intervened on behalf of Caecilianus
o Cyrprian of Carthage (251) =
o (1) schism totally unjustified
no salvation outside the church
o (2) lapsed or schismatic bishops deprived of right to administer
sacraments
any sacraments they perform now invalid
o what if a lapsed bishop repents?
o sin of apostasy? or restored to grace?
o mixed up with politics of time and region
(heretical movements linked with suppressed nationalisms?)
- Augustine consecrated bishop of Hippo 396
o emphasized sinfulness of Christians
o church is a mixed body of saints + sinners
o separation takes place at end of time (Matthew 13)
o is threshing flood the church or world?
o how can church be “holy”?
Augustine = holiness of Christ
Donatism emphasized too much qualities of human agent
insufficient weight to grace of Christ
- validity of sacraments independent of merits of agents who administer
- why “heretical”?
- amounted to salvation indirectly dependent on human purity
- ministers + sacraments are channels of grace
- major theme = human nature is fallen
o needs healing + restoring grace of God
o church = hospital
o Christian life = process of being healed from sin
- Donatism = refuse to appreciate that all humanity in need of healing that
gospel provides
- Pelagianism = human nature + divine grace
o Augustine’s spiritual pilgrimage in Confessions
o convinced his conversion not of his own choosing
o grace of God preceded, nudging toward conversion
- sinful fractured humanity totally dependent on gracious loving God
- some did not care for Augustine’s approach
- Pelagius 355-435, British monk
- Pelagianism = mixture of ideas, some from Pelagius
- debate in Rome on ideas of Origen (399)
o Rufinus + Caelestius ->
22
o (1) Adam’s sin harmed only him
o (2) children born in same state as Adam before fall
o (3) Mosaic Law can lead us to heaven
- Pelagius more concerned with moral behavior
o 405 Pelagius offended by “give what you command, command what
you will”
o strikes at his reforming program
o denies human quest to seek perfection
- Pelagius: we are masters of our own destiny
o we can stop sinning
o believers should live according to 10 Commandments + example of
Jesus Christ
o did God not create humanity well?
o resonated with many in Rome
o vision of self-improvement strong spiritual core
- Augustine: human nature contaminated because of the fall
o we have freedom and it is limited
o for free well to be healed requires divine grace
o (Rw – sounds like Wesleyan theology? nach Campbell)
o human free will is biased toward evil
o sin causes sins
o sinfulness causes acts of sin
o sin ~ hereditary disease
o salvation understood in essentially medical terms
- Pelagianism: “grace” = natural human faculties
- so human reason + will can choose not to sin
- God demands perfection + provides specific guidance
- Augustine: grace is divine assistance to humanity
o real, redeeming presence of God in Jesus
o Pelagianism is telling a blind man to see
it is naïve moralism
- (great paragraph on 171) heretic groups made important points
o orthodoxy needed correction not rejection
- “Debate + criticism catalyze leading to crystallization of orthodoxy around
its core themes”
- their motivations not the problem but the outcomes of their theological
exploration
- Undoing (?) impact of heresy
o heresy arose through desire to preserve the gospel
23
o more disturbing = heresies originate from natural well intentioned
benign motivations
o heresy + cognitive science of religion
- cultural + intellectual motivation for heresy
o no grounds for supposing heresy was outcome of malevolent arrogant
apostates plotting to destroy Christianity
o stereotype in most 9th century accounts
o John Henry Newman (1801-90)
o we should see heresies as outcomes of journeys of exploration
intending to make Christianity relate better to contemporary culture
o disturbing: heresy originate from natural well intentioned benign
motivations
o therefore this is not a past problem ***
- Heresy + cognitive science of religion
o how religious ideas are shaped + developed
o basic cognitive structure of beliefs
o assumption = reflect the deeper patternings within the mind
o “naturalness” of certain beliefs
o which of several options has appeal?
- heresy results from “naturalization” of Christian belief
o danger of thinking “natural” for what was culturally dominant for a
long time
o Christianity could adapt to more “natural” thinking without losing its
distinctiveness
Justin Martyr + platonic categories
o risk: collapse Christian ideas into Platonic equivalents
o Platonism could influence back!
o Augustine’s analysis of faith + secular thought
like leaving Egypt with “gold and clothes”
o okay but how does church decide?
distinctively Christian language
- desire to communicate faith to other groups…
o and incorporate “best” wisdoms, is fundamental cause of heresy (180)
o pressures in genesis of heresy
o (1) cultural norms
o (2) rational norms
o (3) social identity
o (4) religious accommodation
o (5) ethical concerns
- contemporary social norms
24
o what are points of tension?
o why not jettison aspects that are a liability?
o example: Pelagianism and “grace”
o secular notions of justice (Cicero) at odds with God’s justice in
Scripture
o justice + righteousness linked with salvation
o “justice of God” – God’s fidelity to gospel promises
o Julian’s concern was apologetic
o (Rw – do we want to change gospel so it appeals more to us?)
- Heresy and secular reason
o rational argument doesn’t create belief, maintains climate in which
belief may flourish
o danger = some core themes of the faith appear indefensible before
contemporary “rational” thought
- 16th century anti-Trinitarianism
o hallmark of radical reformation in Iesous
o Fausto Sozzini aka Socinus
o Jesus as divinely inspired person with exceptional abilities to keep the
commands of God
o scientists and heterodox beliefs
o tension between orthodox belief and methods of a community
o (Arianism and early modern scientists)
o (Rw – key = how can we even identify this?)
- social identity
o religion in communal self-definition
o defining limits of and conditions to enter a community
o did some communities adopt heretical views to mark their identity?
Donatism
o some movements had essentially religious basis
o political and social issues helped shape their sense of identity
- Religious contextualization
o early Christianity in complex social situation
o tried to build bridges to communities
o risk of reconceptualizing Christianity itself
o unclear what motivated Valentinus
o but seen as distortion of Christianity
- Ethical discontent
o Christianity offers moral vision that sees social world a certain way…
leads to modes of action
o some heresies saw orthodoxy as repressive
25
o but others saw it as lax, permissive
Pelagianism
altered the theological framework
Benedict of Nursia created an environment grounded in
orthodoxy yet fostering morality
aspirational in goals, realistic assumptions
heresy is not intrinsically liberating
cultural pressures may lead to heresy
supported by work of HEW Turner: dilution, truncation,
distortion, archaism, evacuation
- to what extent are heresy + orthodox because of power struggles?
Chapter 8 = Orthodoxy Heresy and Power
- “Heresy is orthodoxy of history’s losers” (Bauer)
- role of power in determining orthodoxy
- heresy = an orthodoxy that had bad luck to get with wrong people
- theological victory rested with those who had power
- helps explain growing interest in, sympathy for heresies
o heresy = lucky voice of suppressed downtrodden
o rehabilitating heresy as moral action
o difficult to defend this view
- Christian understanding = outward form of gospel yet subvert its essence
o renders faith incoherent and unstable
o “heresy” not only a Christian phenomenon
o “critical realism” = interaction of ideas and social contexts
- Sociological approaches
o traces back to Karl Marx (1818-83)
o ideologies express social, economic factors
o “Ruling ideas” those of ruling class
o heresy as ideology of defeated, oppressed
o Friedrich Engels (1820-95), Peasant War in Germany (1850)
heresies as manifestations of class conflict
- so alternative social movements had to use religious language
o heresy + orthodoxy need distinguish themselves
o real issue is beneath the “ideas”
o heretical ideas = superstructure erected on sociological foundation,
not primary
o so issue not right or wrong but power to enforce
26
- power, heresy, patristic age
o early church had no political power
o early heresy not subject to coercion
o formation of canon as struggle for power (Max Weber 1864-1920)
o so heresy arises from different canons
o but power doesn’t apply to proto-orthodoxy
o retrojects later struggles into 2nd
century
- yes church cares about threats + authenticity
o process concerned with crystallization of perceptions not imposing
predetermined (202) ***
o Constantine didn’t care about theological issues
o he cared about division, instability
o preferred to let church sort out its affairs
o state didn’t define orthodoxy, although was prepared to enforce it
- enforcement of orthodoxy would have applied if “heretical” movements had
won
o Constantine tried to enforce Arianism
o this undermines Bauer’s thesis
- Arianism was imposed by imperial authority
- becoming clear it was not best intellectual option
- *power, heresy, and Middle Ages*
o church played decisive role in settling disputes
o medieval church at heart of Western Europe’s social, spiritual,
intellectual life
o salvation had been institutionalized
o so heresies “outside” the church and therefore of salvation
o heretical movements represented alternative visions of church +
society
o 11th century rise of heresies
some renewed, modified old heresies
some more political
Waldensianism, John Wyclife (1320-81)
Scripture threatened power of church
“heresy” as institutional not theological threat
o (Rw – this is an important point, that “heresy” in early Christian
history is rather different from “heresy” in middle ages. McGrath
seems to have sympathy (?) for “heretical” movements in later
Christian history – there really are social, political factors)
- Protestantism
o Martin Luther as heretic = threat to papal authority
27
o Appeal to the Christian Nobility
church shields itself by erecting defensive walls
democratization of faith
all believers are priests
clergy are laity with gifts + role
clergy as office holders
every Christian can interpret Scripture and raise questions
biggest danger = laity can demand a reforming council
o Luther regarded alignment with patristic writings as essential
- Protestantism and problem of heresy
o Protestantism as recovery of orthodox faith of early church
o how would Protestants distinguish heresy-orthodoxy?
o Protestants could appeal to ecumenical councils
o but what of new heresies?
o problem = if Scripture is supreme no interpretive authority is above
Scripture
o (Rw – yup… this might be the Achilles’ Heel of Protestant
Christianity)
o yet “heresy” is judgment of entire church
o “orthodox” interpretation of Scripture that seems right to a Protestant
conscience
o (Rw – unfortunately Protestant Christianity often if not ultimately
ends up as “truth is what I’m comfortable with”)
- Postmodernism heresy and suspicion of power
o concept of heresy is linked with power but
o is not defined by those with power
o or heresy has no intellectual essence
o not ultimately sociological or political
o they are theological dead ends
- many heresies were more authoritarian and morally rigorous
- new cultural fascination with heresy in the West
- (1) orthodoxies as outcome of power
- (2) attempting to close debate is improper
- Foucault’s critique of privileged viewpoints
o concepts of “truth” subverted in interests of power
o “heresy” applies well to early church
o a matter for the church not powerful interests
o Hilary Lawson, permanent state of openness
o okay orthodoxy is robust and coherent enough that interrogation leads
to confirmation
28
o Council of Chalcedon marked new beginning to Christian reflection
on Christ (so Karl Rahner)
- Christian orthodoxy is as much an ongoing process
- orthodoxy is unfinished
- represents best manner of formulating living faith of any given time
- ***key paragraph 221a***
- it is not possible to claim that orthodoxy simply represents establishment’s
preferred outcome
o later heresy did have no associations
o became movements of social protest because of political context
o made space for social function of “heresy”
o postmodern sympathy for heretical movements grounded in lingering
cultural memory
Heresy and Islamic view of Christianity
- Christianity and Islam have distinct understandings of divine revelation
- Christianity -> center on person of Jesus Christ
- Islam -> book Qur’an
- Qur’anic representation of Christianity reflects knowledge of heretical
versions of Christinity
- current misperceptions of early heresies
o Gnosticism ore egalitarian (Pagels)
- “lure of the religious forbidden on social, psychological grounds”
o Western Orthodoxy as full, damaging
o can orthodoxy be sprinkled with stardust?
o “… need to demonstrate that theological orthodoxy is both necessary
and appropriate for well being of Christian communities”
o problem lies at level of imagination + feelings
o challenge = demonstrate orthodoxy is imaginatively compelling,
emotionally engaging, aesthetically enhancing, personally liberating
(234)
