Heresy

by Alister E. McGrath

Book Overview

Why the Church must defend the truth.

Our ongoing fascination with alternative Christianities is ondisplay every time a never-before-seen gospel text is revealed, an archaeological discovery about Jesus makes front-page news, or anew work of fiction challenges the very foundations of the church.Now, in a timely corrective to this trend, renowned church historianAlister McGrath examines the history of subversive ideas, overturningcommon misconceptions...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061998990
• ISBN13: 9780061998997
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Insights into 'Heresy" and Why It's Important

"Heresy" is actually a Greek word, originally meaning a "school of thought," and then meaning a "division" caused by a different school of thought. In church history a heretic was one who taught a variation of Christianity that the church condemned. "Heresy" is an unpopular category today, in the sense that it considered intolerant and narrow minded to accuse someone of heresy. On the other hand, it can be popular to be the heretic. This same attitude has made its way into historical studies of the Christian church. Movements within the church that were called heretical and were denounced and suppressed in the church are now considered to be equally valid streams of mainstream Christianity. The modern idea is that the "winners" determine what orthodoxy is; the "losers" are then labeled as heretics. Alister McGrath has done a great service in this book. He shows that this modern perspective is false--that the heretics were designated as heretics for a very good reason: their versions of Christianity contradicted its essential core, and, if adopted, would have been destructive to Christianity. Alister McGrath is professor in theology, ministry, and education at the University of London, and has written extensively on theology and related fields. McGrath defines and traces several early heresies in Christian history, three early ones (Ebionitism, Docetism, and Valentinism) and three later ones (Arianism, Donatism, and Pelagianism). He notes that these all sprang up from within the church; they were not rival movements from outside the church. They all were responding to cultural and intellectual pressures and threats to the church. Their proponents were not willfully trying to harm the faith, but rather to strengthen it in its struggle against other beliefs. A key principle the book develops is the nature of heresy. A heresy, as historically understood and has McGrath defines it, is a belief that varies from the mainstream Christian faith in such a way that, if consistently believed and followed, it would destroy the Christian faith itself. It attacks a necessary and foundational truth. There were many various beliefs held by Christians, but most of them did not affect these foundational truths, and therefore were not labeled as heresies. McGrath has done a masterful job outlining many of the early Christian heresies, and, more importantly, showing what the concept of heresy means and its importance for the continuation of the Christian church. His book is well documented, with 35 pages of notes and an index. I recommend this book to all students of Christian history and theology.

Because truth matters

The important subject of heresy has not been given much attention of late. Harold O. J. Brown provided a detailed historical study of it in his 1984 volume, Heresies. A shorter volume by G. R. Evans, A Brief History of Heresy, came out in 2003. More recently a brief theological treatment edited by Quash and Ward appeared: Heresies and How to Avoid Them (2008). Thus McGrath deserves credit for broaching this important subject, given that so few others have been inclined to tread here. In this volume McGrath takes an historical, theological, and apologetic approach. He is seeking to convince us of why the very concept of heresy must be regained and appreciated. For example, there has been a major attempt of late to push alternative Christianities, Gnostic gospels, and revisionist Christologies. Even popular works of fiction such as The Da Vinci Code have fuelled the fires by making all sorts of wild claims concerning what Christian orthodoxy is and is not. And with the postmodern rejection of the concept of truth and its embrace of epistemological relativism, the whole task of reframing and reaffirming historic Christian truth claims has become even more urgent. McGrath defines the concept of heresy by suggesting it is not unbelief (the rejection of core biblical beliefs), but a type of faith which is destructive and subversive, which often leads to unbelief. Of course McGrath acknowledges that Christianity is not merely propositional and rational in nature. But it is also not less than that. Biblical Christianity is both about theological truth and personal involvement. He distinguishes between faith (a personal and relational commitment) and belief (a cognitive or conceptual commitment). Both aspects make up the Christian walk. But when wrong beliefs and theological concepts are entertained and promoted, that has a very real and detrimental impact on faith. Thus "Christians do more than simply trust in God or in Christ. They also believe certain quite definite things about them." It is when these core beliefs are skewed or undermined that heresy arises. As an historical theologian, McGrath explains the story of how the early church grappled with its new-found faith, and how it sought to both understand it and to protect it from error. He rightly notes that there was from the earliest times a recognisable and agreed to core of basic Christian beliefs. Contrary to the claims of many contemporary critics (and their popularisers such as Dan Brown), there was always a shared common faith: "Right from the beginning, Christians knew what really mattered about God and about Jesus of Nazareth." But that had to be articulated, codified and theologically defined. Sure, there was diversity in the early Church, but it was a diversity based on a shared consensus about the basics of what the Gospel was all about. While there certainly existed differences in social, linguistic and cultural contexts, "there was a fundamental unifying strand in early Ch

A powerful historical perspective perfect for Christian collections strong in historical debates

Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth comes from a church historian and religion expert who argues that the church must preserve categories of heresy and orthodoxy when considering lines and boundaries of sanctioned Christian beliefs. From heretical beliefs and practices that proved more repressive than rival orthodox claims to multiple alternatives rejected when the church had no power to enforce one view over another, HERESY is a powerful historical perspective perfect for Christian collections strong in historical debates.

The Defense Against Heresy: The History

Prolific author Alister McGrath in the volume: "Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth," aptly defines, expounds, and defends Christianity against the sundry errors of men and intellectual darkness. Dr. McGrath displays his intellectual might while supplying the historical background of various heresies which challenged the Christian faith. He describes and identifies an assortment of religious errors as he exposes the similarity of past doctrinal inaccuracies with present day wrong-headed philosophical notions. This text of 288 pages offers: - A forward by Rick Warren - Christian analysis of several heresies (including Arianism and Gnosticism) - Refutation of false forms of religious conviction - The solution to the problems of modern man This book invites you to improve your religious discernment in an easy-to-read presentation. One Way to God: Christian Philosophy and Presuppositional Apologetics Examine World Religions

Timely history

Alister McGrath sets out to do two things in his Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth. The first is to explain the origins and significance of heresy. The second is to defend the notion of orthodoxy from the postmodern infatuation with heretical ideas. Along the way, he corrects many popular misunderstandings and busts a fair number of myths. The prevalent notion of early Christianity--thanks only in part to Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, and the Gospel of Judas--is of a plurality if competing "Christianities" which were eventually subsumed and stamped out by the Catholic Christianity, as practiced in Rome and championed by the emperor Constantine and set in stone at the Council of Nicaea. Heretical groups and leaders were ostracized and condemned and their ideas and writings suppressed by straight-laced, rigid groups that, by chance, had "access to power" and could therefore impose their version of Christianity upon the others. The truth, McGrath points out, is far different. First of all, no Christian group of the first several centuries of the Church could be said to have any form of power, coercive or otherwise. It was simply beyond possibility for one Christian church to force its views upon another. And while McGrath concedes that, yes, the early Church was a much looser, less theologically policed entity than it was to become, orthodox ideas were already present and generally agreed upon. It was as the church solidified that heresy originated. Heresy, McGrath says, is a set of ideas--or even a single idea--that maintains the form of orthodox Christianity while inadvertently undermining it. The church fathers who spent enormous energy in combating heresy characterized heresy as the intrusion of damaging outside ideas into orthodoxy, McGrath demonstrates that most heresy originated within the church as Christianity gradually found its footing and attempted to articulate precisely what it believed, especially on important or unclear issues. Of all the early heresies that confronted the Church, McGrath says, "Not one of them can conceivably be considered as the outcome of malice, egotism, or some kind of personal theological depravity. . . . all rest on serious attempts to engage major points of religious and spiritual importance" (p.171). A case in point is Arianism, a heresy involving the identity and deity of Jesus Christ that began as an earnest effort by the Alexandrian Bishop Arius to make Christianity and Greek ideas--especially Neoplatonism--mutually intelligible. Greco-Roman thought held matter to be the creation of a lesser deity and therefore irredeemably bad. Christian orthodoxy held that God, in the form of Jesus Christ, became flesh and suffered as a physically real human being. In reconciling these ideas, Arius held Jesus to be physically human by not divine, since true divinity, that of the superior god rather than the lesser creator, could not be corrupted by flesh. Arius did not, however, decry the worship or adoratio