Heresy is a part of religious culture

In modern society, the problem of religious choice is still a matter of controversy. Heresy is a deliberate deviation of a person from religion, which is officially accepted by the society. Initially, this concept had nothing negative under it, meaning, if translated from Greek, "current", "direction." But already in the time of the New Testament his color became extremely negative. This state of affairs was dictated by the conditions of that world and the important role of the official church, which had not only spiritual but also secular power.

The causes of heresy

The problem of separating believers from the church really began to manifest itself in the 11th century, expressing the emergence in Western Europe of doctrines opposing the Catholic Church. Such teachings had to be eradicated for the domination of the church by a single one. Since the XV century, this was the work of the Inquisition. Now many martyrs who suffered from this cruel organization are known. The reasons for the appearance of heresies lie in the following:

1. The growth of cities.

2. Allocation of citizens to a special estate.

3. The sharp struggle of feudal lords and vassals.

Early directions

The centers of heresy in Europe are precisely those countries in which urban life was most developed. These include France, Italy, Germany, Holland. What were the first medieval heresies? First, they were distinguished by the poor organization of groups. Thus, the most famous heretic of that period were Albigenses. Their break from the church was called the heresy of the Cathars. Their sudden flowering, most likely, was associated with the Crusaders. Initially, the teaching arose in the East, from where it was cultivated by Europeans. The Albigenses claimed that everything around them was evil, which should be abandoned. Thus, they insisted on an ascetic way of life, in which one could be freed from all material things. For them, heresy is not just a teaching, but a way of life.

In their views, you can immediately note a kind of dualism, duality: there is always a struggle between good and evil, life and death, poverty and wealth. However, despite the desire for money-grubbing, only the leaders of the teaching adhered to this theory in practice. In addition to the middle class, they supported the Cathars and rich feudal lords who shared the idea of secularization of the church lands. When the Albigan was approaching the end of his life path, he performed a purification ritual, after which he became "perfect."

Waldenses and their teachings

Heresy is the emergence of new trends in religion. Thus, the Waldensian heresy became a real scourge of the 12th century society. Its name was given by the name of the merchant who gave everything he had received to the poor. Insisting on absolute poverty, this teaching became so popular with the plebeians, which created grandiose problems for the official church. Waldenses struggled with inequality and injustice of life, connected primarily with the excesses of the feudal lords. Initially, the followers of this teaching were called Lyons poor, although they spread throughout the south of Germany and France.

Heresies in the Christian Faith

Christianity is one of the largest strata of theism. Therefore, the number of different spikes from it was and will be the largest. Christian heresies can be conditionally divided into groups. The largest branches are trinitarian, gnostic and christological.

The Gnostic heresy was a whole worldview, which was based on belief in the divine origin of man, the mystery of his kinship with the Most High. Trinitarian doctrines were based on a distortion of the understanding of the Holy Trinity common to all believers. For example, it tried to generalize it with the help of the doctrine of the "dialectical logos" of the ancient Hellenes, which led to even greater confusion. The heresy, on the contrary, affected only the position of Jesus Christ in the system of biblical tales.

Deviations in Orthodoxy

The Orthodox Church was not overlooked by such a phenomenon as heresy. Mainly in it allocate strigolnikov and zhidovstvuyushchih. Strigolniki appeared in Pskov in the fifteenth century. They insisted on the abolition of bribery among churchmen and completely criticized the very fact of hierarchy. As a result, they separated from the official Orthodox Church, because they did not want to recognize the acting bishops as their teachers and pastors. They also denied going to the temples. It was replaced by its own assemblies, because the community principle was working where the elder was chosen.

The heresy of the Judaizers initially expressed the collective name of various breakaways from Orthodoxy. Later, by the eighteenth century, it acquired a more precise interpretation, hinting at the followers of Scharia and the "Subbotniks". The latter considered only the Old Testament to be true and expected the savior to come all his life.

Thus, heresy is a very multifaceted concept, which includes various kinds of beliefs. With the passage of time, it has increasingly evolved, in the modern world becoming only a part of the huge boiler of worldviews.