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heresy

Heresies are beliefs that do not agree with the official beliefs of a particular religion; heresy is the maintaining of such contrary beliefs.

Heresy can be used figuratively: To disagree with the school committee's decisions is considered pure heresy by the faculty. This noun is from Middle English heresie, from Old French, from Late Latin haeresis "school of thought, sect," from Greek, "action of taking, choice," from hairein "to take, choose." A person who believes or speaks heresies is a heretic.

DEFINITIONS OF: heresy

n a belief that rejects the orthodox tenets of a religion

Synonyms:: unorthodoxy

Types:: show 12 types...; hide 12 types...; Arianism
heretical doctrine taught by Arius that asserted the radical primacy of the Father over the Son; Marcionism
the Christian heresy of the 2nd and 3rd centuries that rejected the Old Testament and denied the incarnation of God in Jesus as a human; Monophysitism
a Christian heresy of the 5th and 6th centuries that challenged the orthodox definition of the two natures (human and divine) in Jesus and instead believed there was a single divine nature; Monothelitism
the theological doctrine that Christ had only one will even though he had two natures (human and divine); condemned as heretical in the Third Council of Constantinople; Nestorianism
the theological doctrine (named after Nestorius) that Christ is both the son of God and the man Jesus (which is opposed to Roman Catholic doctrine that Christ is fully God); Pelagianism
the theological doctrine put forward by Pelagius which denied original sin and affirmed the ability of humans to be righteous; condemned as heresy by the Council of Ephesus in 431; Docetism
the heretical doctrine (associated with the Gnostics) that Jesus had no human body and his sufferings and death on the cross were apparent rather than real; Gnosticism
a religious orientation advocating gnosis as the way to release a person's spiritual element; considered heresy by Christian churches; tritheism
(Christianity) the heretical belief that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate gods; Albigensianism, Catharism
a Christian movement considered to be a medieval descendant of Manichaeism in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; characterized by dualism (asserted the coexistence of two mutually opposed principles, one good and one evil); was exterminated for heresy during the Inquisition; Zurvanism
a heretical Zoroastrian doctrine holding that Zurvan was the ultimate source of the universe and that both Ahura Mazda and Ahriman were Zurvan's offspring; Mandaeanism, Mandeanism
a Gnostic religion originating the 2nd and 3rd centuries that believes John the Baptist was the Messiah and that incorporates Jewish and Christian elements into a framework of dualistic beliefs

Type of:: cognitive content, content, mental object
the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned

n any opinions or doctrines at variance with the official or orthodox position

Synonyms:: heterodoxy, unorthodoxy

Antonyms:: orthodoxy
a belief or orientation agreeing with conventional standards

Types:: iconoclasm
the orientation of an iconoclast; nonconformance, nonconformism, nonconformity
a lack of orthodoxy in thoughts or beliefs

Type of:: orientation
an integrated set of attitudes and beliefs

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