Christian Heresies

[Billobob]

What are or were some "heresies" of Christianity. Any religion that sprouted from Christianity can be counted as a "heresy" in this thread.

[Old_Begonia]

First, I think we need to establish some definitions. Can you define what you mean by "Christian" and "Christianity". Please be specific.

[Billobob]

Here's the definition of Christianity that you asked for: Christianity is the beleif that man was created by God without sin, man sinned, and then Jesus came to redeem us or to save us from our sins. That is a basic definition. Of course that can't cover all the details so actually maybe we should develop a basic definition for Christianity in this thread unless there already is one on TORC.

[Portia1]

I think we are about to descend into a bog, here. There are a number of belief systems that can be called "heresies" and many are widely accepted. I think we need to accept that "Christianity" is a fairly big tent, and any other way to look at it can cause a remarkable amount of trouble.
Islam, IMO, is going through many of the stresses that Christianity went through hundreds of years, ago and that made Christianity more tolerant of variations.

I do not see a reason for this discussion to revive those stresses.

[Billobob]

Maybe we should not use the word heresy since that has a bad connatation instead let's use variation or offshoot because that's what a heresy is but those terms sound better.

[Old_Begonia]

Here's the definition of Christianity that you asked for: Christianity is the beleif that man was created by God without sin, man sinned, and then Jesus came to redeem us or to save us from our sins. That is a basic definition. Of course that can't cover all the details so actually maybe we should develop a basic definition for Christianity in this thread unless there already is one on TORC.

Yeah, I dunno if there's a definition already on TORC, but of all the 7 deadly sins, the one to which I am most prone is sloth. I'm not going to go looking for a definition, but you are more than welcome to do so.

I'd rather blather on here with my own thoughts, wouldn't you?

...man was created by God without sin, man sinned...

Sin? What is sin? Why should I care about sin? How did man sin, exactly?

...and then Jesus...

Who? Who/what is this "Jesus"?

...came to redeem us...

How? Why? Who cares about sin?

For the record, I am Roman Catholic and am deeply in love with Jesus Christ. I'm just trying to make the conversation interesting.

[Portia1]

And there is always the possibility that "heresies" are man made, and created for the primary purpose of allowing one Christian or group to feel superior or more righteous than another group.
WE really are playing with fire in defining any beliefs as heresies. Who says they are? WHO DIED AND APPOINTED YOU the "Decider"?

[Old_Begonia]

Wikipedia:
Heresy
Heresy is any provocative belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs.

So, for the lifelong vegetarian, the growing data surrounding the deficiencies of tofu may smack of heresy.

Oh, but Billobob propounded his question specifically about Christian heresies. So, in order to identify the variance, one must first identify the established norm.

As a point of reference, I was for twenty years a part of what was later discovered to be a cult, albeit a Christian one. It imploded and self-destructed all in one day. Very traumatic, took me decades to get over it. I do feel I have a unique point of view on the subject.

[Billobob]

When I say Heresy I mean an off sprout or a variant of Christianity because originally heresy just simply meant a variant of an offshoot but then mainstream Christians over the years eventually envisioned it as like a lunatics religion. Actually Christianity was considered a heresy of the predecessor of Judiasim.

[Old_Begonia]

A friend, and fellow survivor of the aforementioned cult, once described heresy in this way.

Imagine two lines running precisely parallel to one another. They go on continually, exactly parallel. Now imagine that one of them is off by .00001 degree. It would take a very long time for this aberration to appear. And a very long time for it to become severe. This is how she helped me understand how we started out so right, so full of joy, and so committed to God's truth, and wound up so very far away from truth or joy.

But for the purposes of discussion, rather than coming up with "new" or current "heresies" or variants, which may be fraught with toe-stepping and personal offense, perhaps it might be worth first discussing some previously identified and agreed upon heresies, e.g., Pelagianism, Manichaeism, Albingensianism, etc.

What say you?

[Billobob]

I agree Old Begonia we should probably discuss historic heresies to prevent confusion or offense.