Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.51.15
Ἅιρεσις as a social phenomenon: the emergence of the Christian notion of “heresy” (Summary)
Marko Marina
Sažetak
The main purpose of the present paper is to analyse the history of the word “heresy” in the ancient world with special focus on the origin of the Christian concept of heresy. Heresy is a word that has changed its meaning. The reasons why this change occurred is one of the central themes of this paper. The conclusions drawn herein do not comply with those of most scholars who claim that the earliest evidence for the Christian notion of “heresy” can be found in the works of Irenaeus (late 2nd century) and Justin (mid-2nd century). They assume that the institutionalization of orthodoxy within the 2nd century church formed the context from which the Christian notion of “heresy” emerged.
Main thesis of the present paper, relying on research done by social scientists, can be defined as follows: even though the term “heresy” came to be used in the now-familiar pejorative sense in the 2nd century, the social and rhetorical dynamics reflected in this use of the term go back to the middle of the 1st century. These dynamics can be seen already in the New Testament epistles (such as Galatians, and 2 Peter). One of the main reasons for the early existence of these social and rhetorical dynamics is the character of the Christian faith. Because of the belief that Jesus Christ is the only source of ultimate truth and salvation, Christianity, unlike pagan “religions”, was marked by exclusiveness. That is the main reason why we see situations of internal conflict within 1st century Christianity. This is the context from which the conceptual category of heresy initially emerged. The present paper also endeavours to discern whether there may have been earlier causes for internal conflict that are analogous to these 1st century contexts. Relying on studies done by John M. Royalty and Tony Miller, this essay asserts that the earliest situations of internal conflict can be found in the dynamics of Second Temple Jewish discursive formations. These discursive formations involve labelling certain views and practices as unacceptably deviant. The examples of discursive formations highlighted in the paper are the Dead Sea Scrolls – ancient Jewish religious manuscripts found in the Qumran Caves in the West Bank near the Dead Sea. The scrolls were the product of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, who lived in nearby Qumran. In their texts (especially in the Damascus Document, and the Rule of the Community) we can see a community that constructed its identity around the ideology of difference, the rhetoric of separation, and condemnation of the other. The critical engagement with diversity in belief and practice can be dated to the earliest circles of the Jesus-movement precisely because it was a feature of the Jewish tradition that was the matrix of the early Christian movement.
In conclusion, the best explanatory hypothesis for the emergence of the Christian notion of “heresy” is not the institutionalization of the Church during the 2nd century or the existence of other forms of Christianity (such as Gnosticism or Marcionism), but highly complex social and rhetorical dynamics that can be traced back to the earliest layers of Christianity with the ultimate source in Second Temple Jewish discursive formations.
Ključne riječi
heresy; Orthodoxy; Early Christianity; etymology; Second Temple Judaism; sociology; deviance
Hrčak ID:
236008
URI
Datum izdavanja:
16.12.2019.
Posjeta: 1.415 *