"Heretic" Sects ?

**LeftEyeNine** · 02-12-2006, 23:10

What are the heretic sects of Christianity, Islam and Judaism throughout the history ? I'd appreciate any info on them please.

**Watchman** · 02-12-2006, 23:24

Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and the innumerable brands of Protestantism immediately come to mind as far as Christianity goes. The Muslims have the Sunnis and Shi'ites.

**LeftEyeNine** · 02-13-2006, 03:22

Originally Posted by Watchman

Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and the innumerable brands of Protestantism immediately come to mind as far as Christianity goes. The Muslims have the Sunnis and Shi'ites.

Umm.. I was referring to more "weird" fractions that could even conflict with the main discipline the sect is said to be belonging to.

And I think we can add those that opposed the main religion as well. There used to be notices in specific turns of MTW about those sects rising disturbance. Actually, they are where the idea of the thread came from.

Thanks for the responses already and in advance. I'll check the links as soon as I get a tight sleep

**Reenk Roink** · 02-13-2006, 04:14

For Christianity:

Arianism - Founded by Egyptian bishop Arius. Doctrine of Jesus not being God since he was created. Denied belief in trinity, therefore extremely heretical. Spread among Germanic tribes but wiped out by 6th century.

Coptic Church - Jesus was only of one nature, completely God, not a man. Also extremely heretical, located in Egypt.

Docetism - very early Christian group, deeply influenced by Gnostics. Jesus was a disguise used by God while he was with man. Jesus's sufferings were illusionary, and he was not even nailed to the cross, it was an illusion/someone else took his place. Crushed by 4th century.

Donantism - not really a heritical sect, as the reaffirmed trinity doctrine, but they refused to acknowledge Rome's leadership. In North Africa, crushed in 412 though the belief lingered on.

Montanism - founded by Montanus around 170, spread through Turkey. God spoke directly through leaders and women were allowed higher positions in church. Lost popularity quickly...

Nestorianism - Nestorius of Syria (died 450) Jesus was made up of two persons one human, one divine. Mary was only the mother of the human Christ, not God. Fled towards Sassinan lands.

You know Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses but those are latter groups...

Also the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches both excommunicated each other around the 11th century.

And of course the Lutheran/Calvinist/Anabaptist movements...

Islam:

Shi'ites, Kharjites, Mutazalites, Ismailis, though I don't know the official position as Islam is very wary of rendering one apostate, and with the exception of probably Ismailis, the others are conserided deviants, not apostates.

**LeftEyeNine** · 02-13-2006, 21:04

Shi'ites and Sunnis can not be counted "heretic", can they ?

**Reenk Roink** · 02-13-2006, 21:25

Well I'm pretty sure that Sunni is an overwhelming majority, and has been that way Sunni Islam's history. Sunni is the following the path of Muhammad, while Shi'ites are the followers of Ali. Shi'ites originally formed after Ali's assassination, and believe that the direct heirs of Muhammad through his cousin Ali and daughter Fatima are unfalliable. The imam system came this way whether it be 12 imams or 9 or 7.

As for hereticalness...I think the bulk Shi'ites are considered within Islam, though deviant (by Sunnis). Some small groups (like Ismailis) are considered outside Islam.

By the way, for an MTW timeline, it would be great to put the Fatimids and the Assassins as extremist political groups (both are splintered from Shi'ites I think).

As for Christianity, I don't really see anything except the Catholic/Orthodox Schism in the timeline, though you could mention the Babylonian Captivity...

**Samurai Waki** · 02-12-2006, 23:25

I believe the Cathars are probably the best well known heretical sect in Christianity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathars

**Kralizec** · 02-13-2006, 00:02

The first movement to be comdemned as a heretical sect would probably be Arianism, the christians who refused to follow the decrees of the Nicean council.
Essentially, they denounced the trinity doctrine. They believed that Jesus was a sort of prophet, not an incarnation of God.

Another important early heretical sect is monophysitism. While Catholic and Orthodox (still one church at the time) doctrine states that Jesus was both fully man and fully Divine, monophysitism IIRC that he has only one nature, the Divine one.
Monophysitism was popular in Egypt and in other eastern territories, wich alienated it from the Byzanthine empire and paved the way for the Arab invaders.