Book Study: The Great Heresies by Hilaire Belloc, Chapter 1

Each summer, our Bible study group meets and we choose a particular study.  We have studies such books as St. Benedict's Rule, St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa, Dante's Inferno, St. Augustine's Trinity, and G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, and epic poem Lepanto.  Last summer, we decided to forego studying a book and visited the Holy Doors around our archdiocese.

A member of our group suggested Hilaire Belloc.  While not as well known today as G.K. Chesterton, in his lifetime he was extremely well known and a Catholic Historian.  If you are interested in knowing more about his life, Joseph Pearce wrote a biography of Belloc entitled, Old Thunder.

The following are notes from the first chapter of Belloc's book, THE GREAT HERESIES.

Chapter 1 organized to outline the main points of each chapter.

The Great Heresies

by Hilaire Belloc

her·e·sy

ˈherəsē/ this is the popular definition today but is too limited in regards to how Belloc uses the term.  We briefly discussed the definition, including the boundaries, of the term as used in this book.

noun

1.     belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine.

"Huss was burned for heresy"

synonyms:

dissension, dissent, nonconformity, heterodoxy, unorthodoxy, apostasy, blasphemy, freethinking; More

o   opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.

"cutting capital gains taxes is heresy"

Chapter 1. Heresy

This is the popular definition today but is too limited in regards to how Belloc uses the term.  We briefly discussed the definition, including the boundaries, of the term as used in this book.

her·e·sy   ˈherəsē/    noun

1.     belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine.

"Huss was burned for heresy"

synonyms:

dissension, dissent, nonconformity, heterodoxy, unorthodoxy, apostasy, blasphemy, freethinking; More

o       opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.

"cutting capital gains taxes is heresy"

Why is understanding heresy important?

*          It is important in the understanding of both the individual and society

*          Heresy in Christian doctrine is of special interest for anyone who would understand

            Europe and the story of Europe, the history of Europe

What is a heresy?

·      Heresy is the dislocation of some complete and self-supporting scheme by the introduction of a novel denial of some essential part therein (p. 2) (a truth taken to extreme, a truth with an essential element missing)

·      Heresy means, then, the warping of a system by “exception” by “picking out” one part of the structure and implies that the scheme is marred by taking away one part of it, denying part of it, and either leaving the void unfilled or filling it with some new affirmation (p. 2)

·      The word is derived from the Greek verb Haireo, which first meant “I grasp” or “I seize,” and then came to mean “I take away.”  (footnote p. 2)

Based on a video on YouTube:  “The Great Heresies Part 1 Teaser” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlBoTr4txG8&t=9s

3 components of heresiology (study of heresies).

1.      Somehow related to something larger than themselves.  They are part of a system they have adapted and taken a part of.  Heresies don’t have to be Christian but they react to Christianity.  Every heresy is an offshoot of the faith (whether distorts or adapts to it)

2.     Why do we argue about them?  Is it just theology?  Belloc says it is really sociology.  Heresies shape and change society in a powerful way.  He wrote many books about how Europe and Western civilization was shaped by Christian theology.  It is not just about getting “the last word” regarding theology.  So “all of our problems are theological problems.”  Belloc, “they will produce a way of living and a social character that is at issue with irritating and perhaps kill the way of living that is produced by orthodoxy and authentic Christianity.

3.     Written in the 1930s.  Belloc says, Societies cannot function without a Creed (set of beliefs).  Individual people can live without a creed but societies cannot.

Belloc’s first chapter is meant to explain

*          the modern eras attitude about heresy and why it is wrong

*          why it is important for us to understand what heresy is and how theology impacts the culture

*          The self-evident fact that Western culture was formed by the religion Christianity.  It is           important to understand movements in history and culture and how the heresies have shaped the culture and how Christianity, if responsible for the culture, in order to preserve the culture, must preserve Christianity and not follow some heresy.

He gives excellent examples of a few modern heresies (p. 7)

·       Communism is the heresy against “dominion” a Christian belief.  Communism proposes that it is evil for the individual or family should have dominion over any property but property should be owned by all.  Communism would say that owning goods is immoral.  This is a rejection of the dominion over the earth of the individual.  It is a heresy because it is a taking away of the moral scheme of which we have lived of a particular part, the denial of that part, and the attempt to replace it. 

CCC response

ARTICLE 7
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not steal.¹⁸⁶

2401 The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one's neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor. For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the universal destination of goods and respect for the right to private property. Christian life strives to order this world's goods to God and to fraternal charity.

I. THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION AND THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF GOODS

2402 In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits.¹⁸⁷ The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.

2403 The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.

2404 "In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself."¹⁸⁸ The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.

·       Heresy of Divorce no one calls the mass of modern practice and affirmation upon divorce a heresy, but a heresy it clearly is because its determining characteristic is the denial of the Christian doctrine of marriage and the substitution therefore of another doctrine, to wit, that marriage is but a contract, and a terminable contract.

CCC

1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his mother's request - during a wedding feast.¹⁰⁵ The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence.

·       1614 In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts.¹⁰⁶ The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."¹⁰⁷

·       1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses.¹⁰⁸ By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.¹⁰⁹ This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.

·       1616 This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."¹¹⁰

·      Heresy of the “modern attack” this is a heresy that has become generalized and takes various forms.  This is a change by “exception” to affirm that nothing can be known upon divine things that all is mere opinion and that therefore things made certain by the evidence of the senses and by experiment should be our only guides in arranging human affairs.  Many who believe this may retain Christian morals, but because they deny certitude from Authority, which doctrine is a part of Christian epistemology, they are heretical.  It is not heresy to say that reality can be reached by experiment, by sensual perception and by deduction.  It is heresy to say that reality can be attained from no other source. 

Modernism is the most dangerous of all heresies because it destroys any basis for belief in a supernatural world, whereas previous heresies had restricted themselves to denying one or more teachings of the Catholic faith. (Pius X)

A Catholic Refutation of the Modernist Principles

For more than a century the Church has firmly and consistently fought against the erroneous philosophical principles of Modernism which now pervades the theological thought of the post conciliar Church to a greater extent.

There can be no doubt that religious indifferentism is the spirit which now pervades the ecumenical movement of the post-conciliar Church which was long ago condemned by Pope Pius XI in Encyclical Mortalium Animos and by the Syllabus of Errors (Dz 2918).

Cardinal Newman writing against the Liberals of his day put it well say" What is the worlds religion now? . . . it includes no true fear of  God, no fervent zeal for His honour, no deep hatred of sin, no horror  at the sight of sinners, no indignation and compassion  at the blasphemies  of heretics, no jealous adherence to doctrinal truth . . . and therefore  is neither hot nor cold but lukewarm (Newman Against the Liberals, pp. 110) 

 http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/modernism/modnsm.htm