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With the changes in Christian orthodoxy over the centuries, the term heretic has come to hold a wide range of meanings. Society condemned the first Christians, themselves, as heretics because they defied the doctrines of Judaism. Focusing specifically on Christian heresy, David Christie-Murray's cogent and lucid study surveys minority believers from the early Judaizers, who believed that salvation depended purely on the observation of Christian versions of "the law," through Gnosticism, Montanism, Monarchianism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, Pelagianism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and other movements and minorities, to the bewildering variety of heresies in the twentieth century. Based on extensive scholarship, and yet compulsively readable, Christie-Murray's book explains the differences between different shades of Christian thought, and also provides an exciting, continuous narrative of the development of Christianity through the ages.… (more)
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Because much about Christian doctrine is obscure, there have always been various interpretations -- and when the interpretations become sufficiently distinct, the result is heresy.
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In a way, though, the theme is still the same: A mysterious core of Christianity, balanced on a knife's edge, with many people falling off in one way or another. Often the true measure of heresy is simply how illogical is the result. (The Gnostics get very high scores here.)
Again, you won't find deep doctrinal arguments in this volume. But you'll get a good general picture of what the heretics meant, and it all moves quickly enough that you get a good overview, too. Maybe you won't be able to use this for footnotes for your doctoral thesis. But read it for a first look, then start digging into Irenaeus and Tertullian and the detailed modern studies.