The value of heresy

 Read this today:-

Although not by any means every heresy has been an advance in Christian understanding, almost every advance in Christian understanding has been heretical or heterodox – until, that is, it was eventually adopted by the church.

(John Hick, "The Fifth Dimension)

I see this to be true beyond Christianity. Christianity itself was a "heresy" of Judaism, Buddhism of the fundamental teachings of the various Hindu strands. And in Christianity itself, the Protestant Faith was a heresy to the Catholic Church.

And as John Hick suggests, once the "heresy" has been adopted for long enough, and by enough people, it becomes its own "orthodoxy" which then itself begins to declare any deviation a heresy!

Thus the "true" Christians (self- proclaimed) who condemn those who disagree with them, simply demanding agreement! Heretics themselves at one time.

But as the faithful say....."The Lord knows his own"

One great heretic is Julian of Norwich (14th century) who was one of many females suddenly giving voice to the Spirit around that time. One or two ended up on the stake, which is sometimes the price paid for challenging the status quo. Julian was the lady who taught that "all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well". Let's face it, you can't allow such universalist nonsense! It would really effect crowd control......

Another lady, Margery Kempe, having her own visions, went to see Julian to ask if they were genuine. Julian advised her to fulfil the promptings of her soul as long as they didn’t conflict with the worship of God or the well-being of her fellow Christians; for if they did then they sprang from the workings of an evil spirit and not a good one. The Holy Spirit never prompts anyone to act unkindly; "if he did he would be acting contrary to his own nature, for he is pure love".

Fine words. It was again Julian who wrote:-

If there be anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.

......which are much the same as the words of the "father" of Pure Land Buddhism, Shinran (13th century) from his "Hymns of the Pure Land Masters"):-

My eyes being hindered by blind passions,
I cannot perceive the light that grasps me;
Yet the great compassion, without tiring,
Illumines me always

Really this is all the faith you need. At least, I think so.

T.S.Eliot, who was very conversant with the Christian mystics, ended his "Four Quartets" with words that contain the vision/words of Mother Julian. I have quoted them before, but I love them.....

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.