Traditionally,
orthodoxy and
heresy have been viewed in relation to the "orthodoxy" as an authentic lineage of tradition. Other forms of Christianity were viewed as deviant streams of thought and therefore "
heterodox", or heretical. This view was dominant until the publication of
Walter Bauer's ("Orthodoxy and heresy in ancient Christianity") in 1934. Bauer endeavoured to rethink early Christianity historically, independent from the views of the church. He argued that originally unity was based on a common relationship with the same Lord rather than on formally defined doctrines and that a wide variety of views was tolerated. With time, some of these views were seen as inadequate. He went on to attribute the definition of "orthodoxy" to the increasing power and influence of the Church of Rome. In 1959,
Henry Chadwick argued that all Christian communities were linked by the foundational events which occurred in Jerusalem and continued to be of defining importance in the forging of doctrinal orthodoxy. McGrath comments that historically Chadwick's account appears to be much more plausible. For convenience the heresies which arose in this period have been divided into three groups:
Trinitarian/Christological;
Gnostic; and
other heresies.
Trinitarian/Christological heresies The term
Christology has two meanings in theology: it can be used in the narrow sense of the question as to how the divine and human are related in the person of Jesus Christ, or alternatively of the overall study of his life and work. Here it is used in the restricted, narrow sense. The orthodox teaching concerning the
Trinity, as finally developed and formally agreed at
Constantinople in 381, is that
God the Father,
God the Son, and the
Holy Spirit were all strictly one being in three
hypostases, misleadingly translated as "persons". The Christological question then arose as to how Jesus Christ could be both divine and human. This was formally resolved after much debate by the
Ecumenical Councils of 431, 451 and 680 (Ephesus, Chalcedon and Constantinople III).
Gnosticism Gnosticism refers to a diverse,
syncretistic religious movement consisting of various
belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine
souls trapped in a
material world created by an imperfect god, the
demiurge, who is frequently identified with the
Abrahamic God. Gnosticism is a rejection (sometimes from an
ascetic perspective) and vilification of the human body and of the
material world or
cosmos. Gnosticism teaches duality in Material (Matter) versus Spiritual or Body (evil) versus Soul (good). Gnosticism teaches that the natural or material world will and should be destroyed (total
annihilation) by the true spiritual God in order to free mankind from the reign of the false God or Demiurge. A common misperception is caused by the fact that, in the past, "
Gnostic" had a similar meaning to the current usage of the word
mystic. There were some Orthodox Christians who as mystics (in the modern sense) taught
gnosis (Knowledge of the God or the Good) who could be called gnostics in a positive sense (e.g.
Diadochos of Photiki). Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Gnosticism may have been earlier than the 1st century, thus predating Jesus Christ. It spread through the
Mediterranean and
Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, becoming a
dualistic heresy to Judaism (see
Notzrim), Christianity and
Hellenic philosophy in areas controlled by the
Roman Empire and
Arian Goths (see
Huneric), and the
Persian Empire. Conversion to
Islam and the
Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the
Middle Ages, though a few isolated communities continue to exist to the present. Gnostic ideas became influential in the philosophies of various
esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.
Other Early Church heresies == Medieval heresies ==