Heresy of the Week: Heliocentrism

This week's heresy is actual not a heresy at all, but an interesting piece of church history nonetheless.

Heliocentrism is a Renaissance-era “heresy” that teaches (correctly) that the sun is the center of the solar system. It was deemed heretical because it was thought to contradict several Bible passages. Nicholas Copernicus was the first to write about this, but Galileo Galilei was perhaps most famous for his confrontations with the Church over this. It was never officially declared a heresy, although books on the subject were put on the index of forbidden books. In 1992, Pope John Paul II issued an apology on behalf of the Vatican over the “Galileo affair”.

Heresy of the Week: Novatianism

This week's heresy reveals an interesting piece of early church history, with the first big "split".

Novatianism (also known as Sabbatianism) was a 3rd century heretical sect that is connected with Albigensism and Donatism. They wanted to reject giving communion to baptized Christians who denied their faith or performed the formalities of pagan sacrifice under Roman pressure of persecution, calling them “Lapsi” or “lapsed Christians”. They also held that second marriages were unlawful. The leader, Novatian, was the first antipope after he challenged the election of Pope Cornelius in 251. They called themselves the “katharoi” or “Puritans”. They went so far as to rebaptize (like Anabaptism) their converts to separate themselves from the “corrupt Catholic Church”. They were condemned as heretical by a synod in the 4th century.

Heresy of the Week: Audianism

After many months of being busy, I decided it was time to make this a priority again.  Welcome back to Heresy of the Week!

Audianism is a 4th century heresy with two main teachings: first, that God has a human form (an idea known as anthropomorphism, which refers to giving human qualities and characteristics to any non-human), and second, that Jesus’ death should always be celebrated during the Jewish Passover (on the date 14 Nisan in the Jewish calendar, also known as Quartodecimanism). While the Quartodecimanism practice was outlawed at the 325 Council of Nicaea, Audianists continued anyways. It soon died out, although it enjoyed a brief revitalization in 10th century Italy.

Heresy of the Week: Elcesaitism

Some heresies are very distinct.  Others borrow from all different branches of heresy and muddle them together.  This weeks heresy is one of the latter.

Elcesaitism (also known as Elchasaitism, Elkasitism, or Elkesaitism—the spelling depends upon who you are reading) was an early church Jewish-Christian heresy closely related to Ebionitism. From the little that was written about Elcesaites that survived, it appears they, too, believed in a Monophysitism-style angelology, claiming that the Son of God was a giant angel and His sister was the Holy Ghost, another giant angel. They believe, in a somewhat Gnosticism twist, that they had a special Gospel that fell out of the sky just for them and they reject many portions of the Bible, particularly the writings of the Apostles. There have also been connections made between this sect and Mandaeism.

Heresy of the Week: Anglo-Israelism

This week's heresy gets into some dispensationalism/Messianic Jewish ideas.

Anglo-Israelism (also known as British Israelism) is a 19th-21st century protestant heresy that forms the basis of the Christian Identity Movement and purports that the English (in specific) and white people (in general) are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They subscribe to something called the “Two House Theology”, meaning all Jews are Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews. They believe that the Jews descended only from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. There is documentation to show that even the British Monarchy believes itself descendants of King David. While the Catholic Church has no official stance on this heresy, many sects and denominations have rejected Anglo-Israelism.

Heresy of the Week: Eudoxianism

What do you mean, at some point all the posts I queued up end?  Yes, I forgot to add more this weekend.  So here is your day-late heresy of the week!  Since we are getting close to my favorite saint feast day (6 December), you'll start to notice a theme with the next few heresies...

Eudoxianism is a Semi-Arianism heresy. It teaches that Christ is very like, perhaps even exactly like, God the Father, but that Christ does not share in the exact same being as the Father. Originally, it was seen as a compromise offered to the Arianism sect, that, had they accepted the compromise, would have made it possible to avoid their condemnation as heretics and splitting from the church. However, since this, too, is a heretical doctrine, it was condemned at the first Council of Constantinople in 381 as a Semi-Arianism heresy.

Heresy of the Week: Anabaptism

This week's heresy is one of the three main categories of protestantism.

Anabaptism is a 16th-21st century protestant heresy which teaches that Jesus did not derive his humanity from his human mother, Mary. This is known as the “doctrine of heavenly flesh” and “Incarnational Christology”. They believed that if Jesus was human like us, because of the fall of Adam, that redemption was impossible through the “seed of the Devil”. Some sects of Anabaptism also deny the trinity in the vein of Socinianism. Additionally, many of the other teachings of the “Radical Reformed” church are suspect. They believe in “believer baptism” only, meaning a public confession of faith must occur first, and if that didn’t happen (as in the case of an infant or Roman Catholic baptism), one must be re-baptized. Anabaptists adamantly deny being “rebaptizers”, since they consider the initial baptism to be invalid. Holy Communion was viewed as merely symbolic or memorial (see Symbolism). They taught that Christians should be separated from the world, should not make oaths or hold political office of any kind and should not exercise self-defense or ever go to war (pacifism). These teachings are still prevalent in churches who trace their roots back to the Radical Reformed churches, such as the Amish.