Heresies & How to Avoid Them

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Fr Austin discusses the book edited by Ben Quash and Michael Ward, with an eye toward why it matters what Christians believe.

There are a number of classic mistakes in understanding Christian faith (for instance, that Jesus is not really equal to God, or that Jesus has a human body but not a human mind). These are interesting not because Christianity wants to ‚Äúroot out‚Äù heretics (in fact, most heresies were initially held by people who were just trying to figure out the implications of Jesus’ birth, teaching, death, and resurrection). Rather, they are interesting in that they help us see why it matters what we believe.

This Sunday’s heresy is “adoptionism,” the claim that Jesus was adopted by God to be his Son (i.e., that he is not God’s Son by nature). The strength of this view is its emphasis on Jesus’ solidarity with all human beings, a point which is just stretched too far when it is taken to separate his humanity from his divinity by making the latter “adoptive.” Sunday is thus an opportunity for us to ponder and explore again, from this new angle, the mystery of our redemption by the one who is both God and one with us in our humanity.

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