HERESY:
in its loose sense it refers to the conscious, willful, rejection of any
doctrine held to be normative by a GROUP or institution. ROMAN CATHOLICISM defines a
heretic as any BAPTIZED person who, wishing to call himself a CHRISTIAN, denies the TRUTH
REVEALED to the CHURCH. Until the nineteenth century, PROTESTANTS generally regarded
heresy as the willful rejection of any truth taught in the BIBLE. With the rise
of BIBLICAL CRITICISM, defining heresy became a problem because the notion of a CANON and
ORTHODOXY itself came under increasing criticism. Although originally a religious term, it
is common today to talk about political, scientific and other forms of heresy to mean
deviation from the status quo or accepted ORTHODOXY.
