Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth

by Alister McGrath

Overview

In Heresy, leading religion expert and church historian Alister McGrath reveals the surprising history of heresy and rival forms of Christianity, arguing that the church must continue to defend what is true about Jesus. He explains that remaining faithful to Jesus’s mission and message is still the mandate of the church despite increasingly popular cries that traditional dogma is outdated and restricts individual freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061959523
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/03/2009
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	344 KB

About the Author

Alister E. McGrath is a historian, biochemist, and Christian theologian born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A longtime professor at Oxford University, he now holds the chair in theology, ministry, and education at the University of London. He is the author of several books on theology and history, including Christianity's Dangerous Idea, In the Beginning, and The Twilight of Atheism. He lives in Oxford, England, and lectures regularly in the United States.

Table of Contents

foreword Dr. Rick Warren v

introduction Our Love Affair with Heresy 1

part 1 What is Heresy?

1 Faith, Creeds, and the Christian Gospel 17

2 The Origins of the Idea of Heresy 33

part 2 The Roots of Heresy

3 Diversity: The Background of Early Heresy 43

4 The Early Development of Heresy 61

5 Is There an "Essence" of Heresy? 81

part 3 The Classic Heresies of Christianity

6 Early Classic Heresies: Ebionitism, Docetism, Valentinism 101

7 Later Classic Heresies: Arianism, Donatism, Pelagianism 135

part 4 The Enduring Impact of Heresy

8 Cultural and Intellectual Motivations for Heresy 175

9 Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Power 197

10 Heresy and the Islamic View of Christianity 223

conclusion The Future of Heresy 231

Notes 235

Index 271

What People are Saying About This

Dallas Willard

“Alister McGrath helps us understand what heresy is and why it exercises a powerful attraction upon the human mind. It is full of illuminating historical discussions and insights into the motivations that lead people to adopt heresy as a style of life and a personal demeanor.”

Justo L. Gonzalez

“Not only a riveting story of ancient controversies, but also a much needed and timely correction to the commonly held notion that heretics were mostly free thinkers who challenged a narrow and closed orthodoxy.”

Editorial Reviews

McGrath (theology, religion, & culture, King's Coll., Univ. of London; Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century) has written a scholarly synthesis of recent studies on the history of heresy in the Christian church, incorporating social, cultural, and theological aspects. Although he individually examines numerous heresies (mostly from the patristic period), it is primarily to use them as case studies to illustrate salient points about heresy in general. This work is not intended to be a comprehensive history of heresies but a history of the development of the concept of heresy, including its implications for the church today. Throughout, McGrath contrasts his findings with various other perspectives from church history, including the currently fashionable view of heresy as the heroic suppressed victim of history's arbitrary winners, found in many newer works about noncanonical gospels, Gnosticism, or the historical Jesus. VERDICT Although there are sections in which McGrath seems to wander away from the book's principal focus, this is still a useful contribution to the dialog on the nature of heresy from an orthodox Protestant perspective. Recommended for students of theology.—Brian T. Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

Library Journal

"Not only a riveting story of ancient controversies, but also a much needed and timely correction to the commonly held notion that heretics were mostly free thinkers who challenged a narrow and closed orthodoxy."

Justo L. Gonzalez

Alister McGrath helps us understand what heresy is and why it exercises a powerful attraction upon the human mind. It is full of illuminating historical discussions and insights into the motivations that lead people to adopt heresy as a style of life and a personal demeanor.

Dallas Willard

Not only a riveting story of ancient controversies, but also a much needed and timely correction to the commonly held notion that heretics were mostly free thinkers who challenged a narrow and closed orthodoxy.

Justo L. González

A penetrating examination by an intellectual powerhouse.

Booklist