Chronology of Heresies
A heretic is someone who denies part of Tradition and keeps part of Tradition.
In arguing with heretics, it is important to recognize and honor that part of the Tradition which they preserve while describing the part they reject with "clarity and charity" (motto of The Station of the Cross Catholic Radio).
In today's jargon, heresies are "memes" that circulate in our culture. Like genes, memes mutate and combine with other memes to produce new variants of the old heresies.
I have used "15 Major Heresies and Those Who Fought Them" as a springboard for the development of the table below.
| name | date | proponent | opponent | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pelagianism | 400-418 | Pelagius | St. Augustine | Pelagius "denied original sin as well as Christian grace. ... [He] regarded the moral strength of man's will (liberum arbitrium), when steeled by asceticism, as sufficient in itself to desire and to attain the loftiest ideal of virtue. The value of Christ's redemption was, in his opinion, limited mainly to instruction (doctrina) and example (exemplum), which the Saviour threw into the balance as a counterweight against Adam's wicked example, so that nature retains the ability to conquer sin and to gain eternal life even without the aid of grace."[1] |
| Semipelagianism | ||||
| Gnosticism | St. Irenaeus | |||