Heresiology

Abstract

This polemical theological genre was created within ancient Christianity in order to define and promote certain ideas as “right belief” (orthodoxy) and to exclude others as innovative, demonic, and false (heresy). Entwined with its development was the emergence of concepts such as tradition, canon of scripture, and apostolic succession as well as that of negative labels and classifications of the theological errors that were repeated and embellished over several centuries by a variety of authors. Given the constant and divisive nature of theological debate among Christians, the discourse did not achieve the ideals of unity and stability but rather revealed a continued intellectual negotiation with contemporary culture, religious multiplicity, and political change in Roman society. After the establishment of orthodox Christianity as the sole religion of the Roman Empire, heresiological categories became the basis for the criminalization of religious dissent and difference in Roman law.