Heresy and Orthodoxy
We in the West have highly prized “right-belief” as the definition of orthodoxy. In fact, for us, orthodoxy is right-belief. We have made it a litmus test of faith. If you believe the right thing, if you can give assent to the list of right beliefs in the Creeds, then you are a true Christian, and therefore, orthodox. If you cannot (or don’t) then you are a heretic—outside the boundaries of Christianity. It is a harsh arbitration and has been used for centuries as the means of defining Truth.
It is clear that, by this definition, Yeshua was never a Christian, and certainly not one in personal practice. And neither was he an orthodox Jew. In fact, it is clear that his own tradition treated him as an outsider, and called him “a heretic.” He was martyred for that very reason, “He makes himself equal to God!” (A heresy, of course).
Looking deeper we see that for Yeshua the crucial matter was never about “right belief,” in the first place, but right being and therefore, right action. He did not teach doctrines, nor did he correct people’s beliefs. But over and over again, he did seek to change both the actions and the inner being of his followers. To Nicodemus he says, “You must be born from above.” To another he says, “Go and sell all you have, then come and follow me.” Born, go, sell, and follow," are all verbs. Yeshua wanted inner and outer action, not correct beliefs.
It was the same for his brother James. In his letter, he calls right-belief without action, “dead.” In our current theology we have turned even this statement into a theological premise about right belief (faith versus works for salvation). But the point Yeshua and James are both making is that right action (not right belief)—the doing of something versus the belief about something is at the heart of change. You can believe things all day long, but if you never take them into your being and act on them, nothing will change. If you dare not break free from the confining rules of religious dogmatism and live the life of a heretic, then nothing is transformed.
In this sense the heretic loves Truth more than religion. The heretic seeks to be truer to his or her own inner vision than to the established religious order. How strange that this path to God often seems to be blocked or criticized by the very institution that claims to champion that Reality. The moment religion forms a fixed idea of a thing, and successfully catches at least one of its aspects, invariably it suffers from the illusion of having caught the whole. To be a follower of the Master, then, we must act (and live) like a heretic, if we are ever to reach the wholeness of the truth of Yeshua.
It is clear that, by this definition, Yeshua was never a Christian, and certainly not one in personal practice. And neither was he an orthodox Jew. In fact, it is clear that his own tradition treated him as an outsider, and called him “a heretic.” He was martyred for that very reason, “He makes himself equal to God!” (A heresy, of course).
Looking deeper we see that for Yeshua the crucial matter was never about “right belief,” in the first place, but right being and therefore, right action. He did not teach doctrines, nor did he correct people’s beliefs. But over and over again, he did seek to change both the actions and the inner being of his followers. To Nicodemus he says, “You must be born from above.” To another he says, “Go and sell all you have, then come and follow me.” Born, go, sell, and follow," are all verbs. Yeshua wanted inner and outer action, not correct beliefs.
It was the same for his brother James. In his letter, he calls right-belief without action, “dead.” In our current theology we have turned even this statement into a theological premise about right belief (faith versus works for salvation). But the point Yeshua and James are both making is that right action (not right belief)—the doing of something versus the belief about something is at the heart of change. You can believe things all day long, but if you never take them into your being and act on them, nothing will change. If you dare not break free from the confining rules of religious dogmatism and live the life of a heretic, then nothing is transformed.
In this sense the heretic loves Truth more than religion. The heretic seeks to be truer to his or her own inner vision than to the established religious order. How strange that this path to God often seems to be blocked or criticized by the very institution that claims to champion that Reality. The moment religion forms a fixed idea of a thing, and successfully catches at least one of its aspects, invariably it suffers from the illusion of having caught the whole. To be a follower of the Master, then, we must act (and live) like a heretic, if we are ever to reach the wholeness of the truth of Yeshua.
posted by Lynn Bauman at 8:21 AM
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