Whaddaya Mean -- I'm *Not* a Heretic??!!

[qos]

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451. </td> Pelagianism 92% Chalcedon compliant 92% Monophysitism 67% Monarchianism 67% Nestorianism 50% Apollanarian 42% Socinianism 42% Adoptionist 25% Modalism 25% Arianism 17% Gnosticism 17% Albigensianism 0% Donatism 0% Docetism 0% Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com

This test gave me flashbacks to my first seminary course, Christian Anthropology, the first third of which was devoted to the question "What does it mean to be 'human'?" The theory being that it's impossible to meaningfully discuss the degree to which Christ /was/is or is not human unless we first understand what we mean when we say "human."

Taking the test, I realized again that -- despite my love of studying theology -- I found most of these questions to be utterly beside the point where my personal faith and relationship with God is concerned.

I typed another sentence after that, but then deleted it, because 9:30pm is not the time for me to get started on a theological reflection. . . it would be an hour or more before I got to bed.

Maybe tomorrow.

Comments

[femalegamer.livejournal.com]

I was tied with the same two, but picked the statement that made me end up with Pelagianism. Isn't it interesting that one statement is apparently the difference between being okay and a heretic. I, of course, as a Baptist couldn't care less about the qualifications of the Catholic church, but I agree - a lot of questions I was wishy washy on because, really, does it matter much?

[qos.livejournal.com]

one statement the difference. . .
There's a popular seminary joke in which two people meet on a bridge and find out they are both of the same denomination. They then go through a series of four or five further distinctions involving synod or conference, and etc., narrowing their denomination into finer and finer divisions, both with the same answers, until they reach the last characteristic, where one is one thing and the other something different. One immediately yells "heretic!" and pushes the other off the bridge.

Whether or not being a heretic "matters" would depend entirely on a person's relationship to a particular faith community. I suspect that there are any number of Baptist (or other Protestant) groups which would be deeply disturbed if one or more of their members began espousing some of the beliefs represented in the quiz. The words "heresy" might or might not be used, but "bad doctrine" or "not our belief" might.

Personally, my seminary classes on Christology really helped me clarify what I believe on a personal level, and look closely at the implications of the many ways Christians over time have answered the question, "Who do you say that I am?"

So, while on one level I can empathize with your question, "Does it matter much?" and understand why many people would answer "no" -- my personal experience is that the process of finding meaningful answers to the theological questions in the quiz does have the potential to be quite valuable.

[femalegamer.livejournal.com]

Oh it's entirely possible that there are people who are of the same denomination (I almost reversed two letters, and demonination is a very different thing) that would be distubed by things I believe, like thinking it's up to a particular woman to decide on abortion (even though it would take a very bad circumstance for me to ever decide to do that).

I suppose to me it just seems like there are many more important questions to fine tune one's beliefs before this kind of philosophical ones, questions that also have a practical purpose.