num_pages: 352
description: In Heretics Jonathan Wright charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church through the stories of some of its most emblematic hereticsfrom Arius a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin. As he traces the Churchs attempts at enforcing orthodoxy from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Churchs lingering conflicts Wright argues that heresy by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the worlds most formidable and successful religions. Today all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as have Luthers once outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world.
language: English
title: Heretics: The Creation of Christianity from the Gnostics to the Modern Church
publisher: Mariner Books