History of Christianity (Church History)

History of Christianity (Church History)
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History of Christianity (Church History)
Over the years and centuries, heresies have been a concept that has affected the church and Christianity. Royalty (2013) asserts that heresy has been a significant concern in Christian communities when the 2nd Epistles of Peter was written. In essence, about Christianity, heresies refer to the presence of formal denial or doubt towards a particular doctrine (s) of the religion's faith. They are beliefs that tend to be against the common doctrine defined by one or more Christian churches. In most cases, heresies are usually declared and forwarded by anathema (who are individuals who have been shunned or ex-communicated) from 'Fathers' (Apostolic and Church) due to their beliefs or ideologies. According to Royalty (2013), in the New Testament, the term heresy was used to mean a sect or division which sought to threaten the unity of Christianity. As a result, heresies have been identified as some of the concepts that tend to promote divisions and separation in the church.
Over the years, some heresies have existed, whereby some of them have even been corrected by the 'Fathers' (Apostolic and Church). Heresy cannot be described as an error; rather, it is a decision to abandon what is generally accepted in Christianity and embrace a new way of thinking or doing things. In the Bible, the concept of heresy is illustrated in the book of Galatians 1:9, which states, "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preaches any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Schremer, 2010) In essence, a concept or believe cannot be declared as heresy because it is deemed so by the church. Rather it becomes heretical if it adopts a pattern that tends to go against the "pattern of sound teaching." As a result, there tends to contradict what beliefs/ concepts should be termed as heresy and which one should not. In most cases, early Christian leaders believed in tracing heresy to other sources. Since heresy was perceived as a concept that endangered Christianity's essence, the church responded by developing tools that would be used to identify and curb heresy. In the early centuries, some of the tools used to identify heresy included: canon, creed, clergy, and councils. First, canon (scriptures) referred to a collection of writing that were considered to possess a certain degree of authoritative status (Schremer, 2010). On the other hand, the creed referred to integrated statements of essential beliefs that consisted of the dispersed churches' core beliefs. The clergy referred to the local bishops, priests, and deacons who were considered to be the principal authorities in defining the beliefs to be adhered to by the church. Lastly, councils referred to meetings or congregations by the bishops to regulate the faith. In most cases, creeds were approved by the councils, and heretics were usually tried and condemned at the council sessions.
There is a certain difference in how heresies were treated during the early centuries and the recent years related to Christianity. Notably, there were practices such as ex-communication, which were punishment to those identified to practice her...