Heresy

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Heresy \Her"e*sy\, n.; pl. {Heresies}. [OE. heresie, eresie, OF.
     heresie, iresie, F. h['e]r['e]sie, L. haeresis, Gr. ? a
     taking, a taking for one's self, choosing, a choice, a sect,
     a heresy, fr. ? to take, choose.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. An opinion held in opposition to the established or


        commonly received doctrine, and tending to promote a
        division or party, as in politics, literature, philosophy,
        etc.; -- usually, but not necessarily, said in reproach.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              New opinions
              Divers and dangerous, which are heresies,
              And, not reformed, may prove pernicious. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              After the study of philosophy began in Greece, and
              the philosophers, disagreeing amongst themselves,
              had started many questions . . . because every man
              took what opinion he pleased, each several opinion
              was called a heresy; which signified no more than a
              private opinion, without reference to truth or
              falsehood.                            --Hobbes.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Theol.) Religious opinion opposed to the authorized
        doctrinal standards of any particular church, especially
        when tending to promote schism or separation; lack of
        orthodox or sound belief; rejection of, or erroneous
        belief in regard to, some fundamental religious doctrine
        or truth; heterodoxy.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Doubts 'mongst divines, and difference of texts,
              From whence arise diversity of sects,
              And hateful heresies by God abhor'd.  --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Deluded people! that do not consider that the
              greatest heresy in the world is a wicked life.
                                                    --Tillotson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) An offense against Christianity, consisting in a
        denial of some essential doctrine, which denial is
        publicly avowed, and obstinately maintained.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A second offense is that of heresy, which consists
              not in a total denial of Christianity, but of some
              its essential doctrines, publicly and obstinately
              avowed.                               --Blackstone.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: "When I call dueling, and similar aberrations of honor,
           a moral heresy, I refer to the force of the Greek ?, as
           signifying a principle or opinion taken up by the will
           for the will's sake, as a proof or pledge to itself of
           its own power of self-determination, independent of all
           other motives." --Coleridge.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  heresy
       n 1: any opinions or doctrines at variance with the official or
            orthodox position [syn: {unorthodoxy}, {heterodoxy}]
            [ant: {orthodoxy}]
       2: a belief that rejects the orthodox tenets of a religion
          [syn: {unorthodoxy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  107 Moby Thesaurus words for "heresy":
     Albigensianism, Arianism, Bohemianism, Catharism, Ebionitism,
     Erastianism, Gnosticism, Jovinianism, Lollardy, Manichaeanism,
     Manichaeism, Monophysism, Monophysitism, Pelagianism,
     Waldensianism, Wyclifism, aberrancy, aberration, agnosticism,
     ambiguity, ambivalence, antinomianism, antinomy, apostasy,
     asymmetry, atheism, beatnikism, defection, defectiveness, delusion,
     denial, deviancy, disbelief, discredit, disproportion,
     disproportionateness, dissent, dissidence, distortion, emanatism,
     equivocality, errancy, erroneousness, error, fallaciousness,
     fallacy, false doctrine, falseness, falsity, fault, faultiness,
     flaw, flawedness, fringiness, hamartia, heterodoxy, heterogeneity,
     hippiedom, hylotheism, illusion, impiety, inability to believe,
     incoherence, incommensurability, incompatibility, incongruity,
     inconsistency, inconsonance, incredulity, infidelity,
     irreconcilability, minimifidianism, misapplication, misbelief,
     misconstruction, misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation,
     misjudgment, nonbelief, nonconformability, nonconformism,
     nonconformity, nullifidianism, originality, oxymoron, pantheism,
     paradox, peccancy, perversion, rejection, revisionism, schism,
     self-contradiction, sin, sinfulness, unbelief, unbelievingness,
     unconformability, unconformity, unconventionality, unorthodoxy,
     untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness, wrong, wrongness
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Heresy
     from a Greek word signifying (1) a choice, (2) the opinion
     chosen, and (3) the sect holding the opinion. In the Acts of the
     Apostles (5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:5) it denotes a sect, without
     reference to its character. Elsewhere, however, in the New
     Testament it has a different meaning attached to it. Paul ranks
     "heresies" with crimes and seditions (Gal. 5:20). This word also
     denotes divisions or schisms in the church (1 Cor. 11:19). In
     Titus 3:10 a "heretical person" is one who follows his own
     self-willed "questions," and who is to be avoided. Heresies thus
     came to signify self-chosen doctrines not emanating from God (2
     Pet. 2:1).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  HERESY, Eng. law. The adoption of any erroneous religious tenet, not 
  warranted by the established church. 
       2. This is punished by the deprivation of certain civil rights, and by 
  fine and imprisonment. 1 East, P. C. 4. 
       3. In other countries than England, by heresy is meant the profession, 
  by Christians, of religious opinions contrary to the dogmas approved by the 
  established church of the respective countries. For an account of the origin 
  and progress of the laws against heresy, see Giannoni's Istoria di Napoli, 
  vol. 3, pp, 250, 251, &c. 
       4. in the United State, happily, we have no established religion; there 
  can, therefore, be no legal heresy. Vide Apostacy; Christianity.