Keep Moving Foward
Published about a year ago, Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s Flee from Heresy: A Catholic Guide to Ancient and Modern Errors gives Catholics an excellent opportunity to equip themselves against the doctrinal ambiguities present in the post-conciliar era. While the word “heresy” is often used today to indicate an “obstinate denial or doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith,”1 the Kazakhstani prelate explains that, for centuries, “any idea that deviated from the authentic Christian teaching and practice of the Apostles” was considered heretical.2 As a result, His Excellency utilizes this broader sense of the term throughout the book, denouncing doctrinal errors from before the birth of Christ all the way to the twenty first century.
For instance, monism, a pre-Socratic school of philosophy, “denies discrete entities or real distinctions in the universe,” claiming that all beings are merely illusory manifestations of “the One”. 3 While such an idea sounds absurd, Catholics who fail to recognize monism as a threat may eventually adopt pantheism, an eighteenth-century heresy which proposes that “all things are God and have the very substance of God”.4Therefore, if we are to rebuild Christendom, it is vital that we are aware of the Enemy and his deceptions. To quote Saint Peter: “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8; Douay-Rheims Bible).