I'm trying to create a list of splits in the Church history that created heresies rather than a new

MJ. Smith · 2024-06-20T18:02:48+00:00

My chart [quote] HeresyOriginPeak InfluenceMarginalizedDocetism1st century AD2nd-3rd centuries ADNever fully formalized as a distinct movementGnosticism2nd century AD2nd-3rd centuries AD4th-5th centuries ADMarcionismMid-2nd century AD (c. 144 AD)Mid-2nd century AD4th-5th centuries ADMontanismMid-2nd century ADLate 2nd…

MJ. Smith

My chart

[quote]

Heresy	Origin	Peak Influence	Marginalized
Docetism	1st century AD	2nd-3rd centuries AD	Never fully formalized as a distinct movement
Gnosticism	2nd century AD	2nd-3rd centuries AD	4th-5th centuries AD
Marcionism	Mid-2nd century AD (c. 144 AD)	Mid-2nd century AD	4th-5th centuries AD
Montanism	Mid-2nd century AD	Late 2nd century AD	4th century AD
Manicheans	3rd century AD	3rd-7th centuries AD (Roman Empire, Asia)	Gradually declined after founder's death
Arianism	318 AD	Mid-4th century AD	10th century AD
Donatism	311 AD	4th century AD (North Africa)	7th century AD
Pelagianism	Early 5th century AD	Early 5th century AD	Mid-5th century AD
Nestorianism	5th century AD	6th-7th centuries AD (Middle East, Asia)	Still exists as an Eastern Christian tradition
Paulicians	7th century AD (Armenia)	8th-9th centuries AD (Byzantine Empire)	11th century AD
Bogomilism	10th century AD (Bulgaria)	10th-15th centuries AD (Balkans)	15th century AD and beyond (assimilation/decline)
Catharism	11th century AD	12th-13th centuries AD (Languedoc)	14th century AD
Valentinians	2nd century AD	2nd-4th centuries AD (Roman Empire)	Suppressed by Church authorities

Are there other significant heresies that belong on my list?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Mark

You always have interesting and thought provoking posts!

Rosie Perera

Are there other significant heresies that belong on my list?

Simonians - followers of Simon Magus; there's a good article on this in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Origenism - a reaction against Gnosticism; there's a section on this in Arianism and Other Heresies by Augustine of Hippo (in the Introduction to "Memorandum to Augustine and to Orosius"). That book would be good to look through for other heresies.

Apollinarism - there's a good article on it in the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Volumes I-XIII, edited by James Hastings, which includes this line positioning it chronologically: "Apollinaris, the younger, of Laodicea († c. 390), was the founder of a heresy which forms the connecting link between Arianism in the 4th and Nestorianism and Monophysitism in the 5th century." That book would also be good to look through for other heresies. I've been merely dabbling here to come up with this list for you.

Monophysitism - there's a good article on it in Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

Molinism - there was significant debate in the late 16th and early 17th centuries between the Molinists and the Dominicans; Molinism was never officially condemned as heresy by the Catholic Church, and remains a theological variant, particularly within the Jesuit tradition. There's an article on this too in Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics

Monarchianism - see also Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics

A few others for you to look into:

Modalism, Sabellianism, Adoptionism - related to Monarchianism but each different and all condemned as heresies

Monothelitism - closely related to Monophysitism

Albigensianism (another name for Catharism, which you already have)

Amalricians (also known as Brethren of the Free Spirit) - seven of them were burned at the stake

Waldensians - condemned as heretics at the Council of Verona (1184) and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), later became influential on the Protestant Reformation; in 2015, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the Catholic Church's historical persecution of the Waldensians

Euchites (aka Messalians) - condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431)

MJ. Smith

Thanks, Rosie. The sort order leaves something to be desired but:

Heresy	Origin	Peak Influence	Marginalized
Docetism	1st century AD	2nd-3rd centuries AD	Never fully formalized as a distinct movement
Heresy of the Judaizers	15th century AD (Russia)	Late 15th century AD	Suppressed by the Church
Simonians	1st century AD	1st century AD	Never gained widespread acceptance
Gundolfo	11th century AD (Italy)	11th century AD	Suppressed by the Church
Henricans	11th century AD (France)	11th century AD	Condemned by Church
Catharism	11th century AD	12th-13th centuries AD (Languedoc)	14th century AD
Arnoldists	12th century AD (Italy)	12th century AD	Suppressed by the Church
Humiliati	12th century AD (Italy)	12th-14th centuries AD	Suppressed by the Church
Neo-Adamites	12th-13th centuries AD (Europe)	Scattered outbreaks	Suppressed by the Church
Tondrakians	12th century AD (Bulgaria)	12th century AD	Suppressed by the Church
Waldensians	12th century AD	12th-14th centuries AD	Persecuted but some elements continued
Petrobinsians	12th century AD (France)	12th century AD	Suppressed by the Church
Lollardy	14th century AD (England)	14th-15th centuries AD	Suppressed by the Church
Strigolnichestvo	14th century AD (Russia)	14th-15th centuries AD	Suppressed by the Church
Hussites	14th-15th centuries AD (Bohemia)	15th century AD (Reformation)	Gave rise to the Unity of the Brethren
Adoptionism	2nd century AD	3rd century AD	4th century AD
Gnosticism	2nd century AD	2nd-3rd centuries AD	4th-5th centuries AD
Marcionism	Mid-2nd century AD (c. 144 AD)	Mid-2nd century AD	4th-5th centuries AD
Montanism	Mid-2nd century AD	Late 2nd century AD	4th century AD
Valentinians	2nd century AD	2nd-4th centuries AD (Roman Empire)	Suppressed by Church authorities
Monarchianism	3rd century AD	3rd century AD	Condemned as heresy
Origenism	3rd century AD	4th-6th centuries AD	Condemned as heresy
Manicheans	3rd century AD	3rd-7th centuries AD (Roman Empire, Asia)	Gradually declined after founder's death
Arianism	318 AD	Mid-4th century AD	10th century AD
Donatism	311 AD	4th century AD (North Africa)	7th century AD
Euchites (Messalians)	4th century AD	4th-6th centuries AD	Condemned as heresy
Pelagianism	Early 5th century AD	Early 5th century AD	Mid-5th century AD
Nestorianism	5th century AD	6th-7th centuries AD (Middle East, Asia)	Still exists as an Eastern Christian tradition
Paulicians	7th century AD (Armenia)	8th-9th centuries AD (Byzantine Empire)	11th century AD
Bogomilism	10th century AD (Bulgaria)	10th-15th centuries AD (Balkans)	15th century AD and beyond (assimilation/decline)

Christian Alexander

Basilideanism https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02326a.htm

Tritheism https://carm.org/uncategorized/tritheism/

Subordinationism https://www.theopedia.com/subordinationism

Jansenism https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08285a.htm

These are some that come to mind. And I will look through my stuff in my notebooks from Church history classes.

Ryland Brown

This is helpful! Thank you!

Ryland Brown

This is helpful! Thank you!

Daniel Yoder

Pneumatomachianism is another heresy that could, I think, be added to this list.

DMB

I'll probably get in trouble, but I can't see the primary one ... kicking the Jerusalem group out (eg James, and later smaller pieces that the Fathers nailed). After that the church was largely a gentile operation, empowering Marcion.

MJ. Smith

I'll probably get in trouble, but I can't see the primary one

Ah, yes, there are a couple of other major ones. What I am trying to capture is the groups that don't show on a denominational histories chart. I cheated a bit but . . .

Christian Alexander

Great work MJ. This is also well informed by your research. Collyridianism, Priscillianism, and Audianism are three others that come to mind after doing some reading of notes in my previous studies.

Christian Alexander

Another example comes from the Byzantine Empire in the eighth century. Iconoclasm is a conflict that emerged about the usage of images in worship. The iconoclasts argued that this was idolatry and a breach of the second commandment, so they burned all of the icons in their churches. The Second Council of Nicea in 787 opposed the iconoclasts and defined the distinction between worship which was only reserved for God alone and reverence or veneration which was allowable for saints and icons. Let me know if I am not on the same side of the tracks here.

Also this article might pique your fancy https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2023/09/how-the-ancient-christian-heresies-lasted-a-thousand-years-longer-than-we-think/ I have not read Phil Jenkins newest book called A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World but it looks good.

You also might find this interesting Heinrich Von Staden, "Hairesis and Heresy: The Case of the `haireseis iatrikai'," in Jewish and Christian Self-Definition: Self-Definition in the Greco-Roman World, ed. B. F. Meyer and E. P Sanders, (London: SCM Press, 1982). it can be found here https://archive.org/details/jewishchristians0000unse

Rosie Perera

Another one I thought of is:

Christadelphians - if you have Swedenborgianism, Mormons, Christian Science, Unification Church, and Unitarian Universalism, then you need to include them. When looking them up (found a section on them in Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Exploring Belief Systems through the Lens of the Ancient Christian Faith, another good source for your project), I also found
Jehovah's Witnesses in the chapter on "Non-Mainstream Christians" (along with those others you have already).

Here are some more that ChatGPT came up with for me when I asked it to list the heresies that Irenaeus wrote against in his "Against Heresies":

Sethianism - A Gnostic sect that revered Seth, the third son of Adam, as a spiritual ancestor and savior figure.

Basilidianism - Basilides: Another Gnostic teacher who proposed an elaborate cosmology involving multiple heavens and a remote supreme God.

Ophitism - (just for completeness; another name for Naassenes)

Emanationism - The idea that the divine being progressively emanates lower beings or aeons, leading to a complex hierarchy of divine entities.

You'll also find plenty of rabbit holes to go down if you look into the evangelical cult watchers. They keep lists of sects and groups that are heretical, in their view. Since you include a whole slew of these that would appear in their lists (Christian Science, Mormons, Unification Church, etc.)

ChatGPT provides this list of well-known cult-watching organizations:

Christian Research Institute (CRI):
- Founded by Walter Martin, CRI is one of the most well-known evangelical organizations dedicated to researching and addressing cults and new religious movements.
Apologetics Index:
- An online resource providing information on a wide range of cults, new religious movements, and related topics from a Christian perspective.
Watchman Fellowship:
- An independent Christian research and apologetics ministry focusing on cults, the occult, and new religious movements. They publish the "Watchman Fellowship Profile" series, which provides overviews of various groups.
Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP):
- An evangelical organization that publishes research and analysis on new religious movements, cults, and alternative spiritualities.
Institute for Religious Research (IRR):
- Focuses on providing resources and research on a variety of religious movements, with a special emphasis on groups like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM):
- Founded by Matt Slick, CARM provides articles and resources addressing cults, world religions, and theological issues.
Center for Apologetics Research (CFAR):

Works internationally to equip Christians to respond to cults and new religious movements.

I do not endorse any of these, nor even the practice of cult-watching as a rule (it can become an obsession; I'd rather focus on what is good and true and beautiful and where God is at work). Some groups have gotten blacklisted by these folks for strange reasons and don't belong on the lists. Others have previously been quite cultish but have become orthodox through a recognition by later followers that their leader had made mistakes (Worldwide Church of God, for example, which rebranded itself Grace Communion International; I met one of their pastors my first summer at Regent College; he'd been sent there to learn historic evangelical theology as part of this huge about-face the organization, now I suppose a denomination, was going through). So anyway, I take what they say with a grain of salt. But you might find some more items for your list from their websites.

Rosie Perera

I came across another book that might help you in your list if you're still working on curating it:

https://www.logos.com/product/243716/a-history-of-medieval-heresy-and-inquisition

Darrell Todd Maurina

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1302197#Comment_1302197

I know this kind of work is incredibly difficult and judgment calls need to be made, but I'd want to qualify two items:

Waldensians	12th century AD	12th-14th centuries AD	Persecuted but some elements continued

Huguenots	16th century AD (France)	16th-17th centuries AD	Largely ceased to exist after revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

Both of these groups do continue to exist as formal denominations. The Huguenots remain as several different Reformed denominations in France with a sister-church in Quebec and a few scattered French Reformed congregations elsewhere. The Waldensians also remain with two synods, one in Italy and the other in South America (mainly Argentina), with two remaining Waldensian churches in the United States out of what was once a much larger group serving the Italian immigrant community.

Certainly not large groups, but with tens of thousands of members, they're not tiny, either. The National Union of Protestant Reformed Evangelical Churches of France has about 10,000 members and the Waldensians have about 35,000 members in Italy and about 15,000 in Latin America. There is also the United Protestant Church of France, a joint Lutheran-Reformed church with about 250,000 members today; when the merger happened about a decade ago, the former Reformed Church of France had about 300,000 members prior to the Lutherans joining, but obviously the merged denomination continues to lose members.

MJ. Smith

Thanks for the additional information on their current size/status/name. I had hoped that my wording did not suggest that they no longer existed. I appreciate your posts today bringing attention to the Waldensians.

NichtnurBibelleser

From RGG4:

Islam: "Ein interessanter Sonderfall ist die durch → Johannes von Damaskus Johannes von Damaskus geprägte Einordnung des → Islam in das christl.-häresiologische Schema (Johannes hielt den Islam für eine Variante des Arianismus [→ Arius/Arianismus]). Diese Herangehensweise wurde im orientalischen Christentum breit rezipiert und 787 durch die VII. Ökum. Synode aufgenommen: Der Islam wird hier in einer Reihe christl. Häresien anathematisiert. Im Unterschied zu radikaleren Vorwürfen der Apostasie oder des Heidentums wird er dadurch prinzipiell in den Rahmen des christl. Monotheismus gestellt."

Flaggelants: "Die F. waren als Bruderschaften mit festen Riten organisiert; sie schufen ein eigenes volkssprachliches Liedgut. Obwohl → Clemens VI. 1349 die Geißler verbot, konnten sie sich in Italien als bis ins 18. Jh. lebendige Konfraternitäten institutionalisieren. Diese vollzogen die Autoflagellation öfftl., aber vermummt, an den Kirchenfesten. In Spanien wurden die F. bes. von → Vincentius Ferrer (1350–1419) gefördert. Die v.a. in Thüringen auftretenden Kryptoflagellanten des Spät-MA wurden dagegen aufgrund klerus- und dogmenkrit. Einstellung häretisiert (auf dem Konzil von → Konstanz) und verfolgt. Nach der Reformation nahmen F. in den kath. Ländern auch nördlich der Alpen bis in den Barock an Karfreitags-Prozessionen teil und kommen noch heute z.B. auf den Philippinen vor."

Hutterites: "Auch hier entstanden bisweilen unabhängige Gemeinschaftsformen, namentlich die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (→ Brüder-Unität:II.)"

"die → Neuapostolische Gemeinde/Kirche, die → Swedenborgianer, die → Lorber-Gesellschaft, die → Mormonen, die → Christian Science, die Gemeinschaft der Siebenten-Tags- → Adventisten, die → Zeugen Jehovas, die → Johannische Kirche, die → Gralsbewegung und die → Christengemeinschaft."

NichtnurBibelleser

From RGG4:

Hutterites: "Auch hier entstanden bisweilen unabhängige Gemeinschaftsformen, namentlich die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (→ Brüder-Unität:II.)"

Michael

Thanks for this very interesting post. It reminds me of the need for tables in Logos so I can keep this in a note. Is there a good book or dictionary that covers all of this? Seems like this would be a very helpful resource.

NichtnurBibelleser

Digging a bit into John of Damascus on Islam. The PG work is found here, an English translation of the passage in question is here.

Darrell Todd Maurina

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1355740#Comment_1355740

Meaning a good book on Waldensian history, or something else?

There is an entire Waldensian Library on Logos for about $80. One of the better (though older) introductions to Waldensian history is J.A. Wylie, "History of the Waldenses," written in 1880 by a professor at the seminary of the Free Church of Scotland when the Free Kirk was involved in missions to Italy through the Waldensians.

You can get that individual book on Logos, but it's also widely available for free on the internet and is still in print via various publishing companies. If I were you, I'd read Wylie and then consider buying the Waldensian Library via Logos to do more research on books about Waldensianism that have been out of print since the 1800s and are not widely available elsewhere.

I'm in the final stages of putting together a republication of the historic Waldensian confessions and catechism, but I don't have a date when that will be available, other than that it will probably be this year unless something else goes wrong to cause further delays.