“Orthodox faith and orthodox doctrines are those that honor God rightly, something that ought to be desirable and good. In Christian usage, the term ‘heresy’ refers to a false doctrine, i.e. one that is simply not true and that is, in addition, so important that those who believe it, whom the church calls heretics, must be considered to have abandoned the faith.” (1 Heresies)
“In order to have heresy, to be a heretic, it is necessary that there be an orthodoxy against which to react.” (2 Heresies)
“In the early church, heresy did not refer to simply any doctrinal disagreement, but to something that seemed to undercut the very basis for Christian existence. Practically speaking, heresy involved the doctrine of God and the doctrine of Christ…” (2-3 Heresies)
“The Christian life is often presented as spiritual warfare; if the pagans are the enemies, the heretics are the traitors.” (3 Heresies)
“It is often difficult for people today to understand the ferocious hostility heresy and heretics so often aroused in Christians…. The persecutors [of the early church] could—and frequently did—put Christians to death, but they could not deprive them of eternal life, nor of the confidence they had in eternal life. This heretics threatened to do, and therefore they were regarded with the utmost loathing…. in a century in which millions have been gassed for their racial affiliation (by Nazi Germany), or roasted to death for residing in an enemy metropolis (by the United States and Great Britain), condemned to death by overwork and exposure in arctic conditions (by Soviet Union), or murdered in cowardly ambushes to draw attention to alleged political wrongs (by terrorists in several nations), we ought to be restrained in condemning those who put individuals to death because they sincerely believed that they were threatening the eternal salvation of millions.” (3-4 Heresies)
