Christian Heresy in The 20th Century - Protestant and Anglican Churches: Overview

Protestant and Anglican Churches: Overview

In modern times, formal heresy has become largely an internal, professional issue for most Christian churches. Before and during the English Reformation, actions for heresy could be brought against both clergy and laity, and could be brought by the national established church against a minority faction or new sect. Since the late seventeenth century, active persecution of one denomination by another has largely ceased, and dissenting groups have been free to split off from the mother church and establish new denominations. Different denominations are free to craft their own interpretation of Christianity, and although each may consider itself to be the "one true faith", they usually avoid open criticism of one another. Doctrinal discipline has become a matter internal to each denomination, and has increasingly focused on the pastoral and academic clergy, as the professional spokespersons for the denomination. Within the Anglican and Methodist traditions, cases of heresy, formal discipline or dismissal on grounds of theological doctrine have tended to focus on parish clergy. In the Presbyterian, Southern Baptist and Lutheran traditions, most cases have involved professors of theology at denominational seminaries.

The subject matter of such actions has changed considerably over the past century. Cases between 1900 and 1970 generally focused on the conflict between modern biblical criticism and the "fundamentals" of the faith; dissidents were most often accused of rejecting the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth, the resurrection, and other doctrines. Thus, in the first three decades of the 1900s, there were a number of such cases in the Presbyterian Church which led to its eventual split into fundamentalist and liberal branches. In the 1950s and 1960s, similar battles were fought in the seminaries of the Southern Baptist Church in the United States. Since the 1970s, cases of formal discipline or dismissal have been infrequent and there has been a noticeable shift in the type of issue that attracts attention: cases now tend to focus on questions concerning the nature of God and the divinity of Christ (Ray Billington in 1971, Anthony Freeman in 1994, Andrew Furlong in 2002) or the acceptability of gay clergy (Righter in 1996, Stroud in 2001).

Some denominations have increasingly taken the view that actions against clergy should be taken only in the most extreme circumstances. The reasons may be partly doctrinal and partly tactical. From a tactical point of view, "heresy trials" have almost invariably resulted in unflattering media coverage, portraying the churches as obsessed with doctrinal questions that have little relevance or meaning in the modern world. Furthermore, at least in the Church of England, procedures for mounting formal heresy charges are complex and expensive. The 2000-2003 review of clergy discipline, which led to the report Under Authority, made recommendations concerning consistency and natural justice in the disciplining of clergy ; it said that sanctions on doctrinal issues should be "rare and exceptional" but did not go into detail about what might provoke such sanctions.

From a doctrinal point of view, some churches have come to the view that there are many ways to interpret the Christian faith and that a reasonable amount of exploration and new interpretation are natural in a healthy, living tradition. Thus, for example, the Episcopal Church in the United States responded to repeated attempts to accuse Bishop James Pike of heresy by taking formal steps both to allow more room for doctrinal diversity within the church and to make heresy charges procedurally more difficult to bring. Similarly, the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, in its pastoral letter following the acquittal of Lloyd Geering in 1967, stated that "The Church must constantly be rethinking its message to the world so that it can be expressed in forms and words that are intelligible to the changing generations ... Personal faith in our Lord is consistent with a great variety of theological convictions."

Nevertheless, boundaries do remain. Whereas the dismissal of Anglican priests such as Anthony Freeman and Andrew Furlong is rare, many other priests who express doubt about traditional doctrine, or who align themselves with radical organisations such as the Sea of Faith, are sidelined and find their careers at a dead end. Some Christians, both clergy and laity, feel frustrated that ideas which are openly taught in basic theological courses are not allowed to be expressed in the pulpit without fear of censure or dismissal.