Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: “Heretic” is commonly understood as perspectival term employed by insiders to describe a specific kind of outsider, namely, one who, not only holds to seriously objectionable positions, but having been one of us, should know better. Accordingly, ‘heretic religiosity’ denotes for members of the mother religion a dissenting form of religiosity that deviates too sharply from their own to be con-tained within it. Michael Walzer’s well-known idea of connected criticism, to which this paper’s title alludes, is a person who firmly opposes his community’s way of life, but choses to remain within the fold. The type of religious heresy I shall be looking at in the following pages not only choses to re-main within, but is contained within the fold. And not only that, but it is actually formative of the fold. But in that case, why should it be considered heretical?
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel16060677
Author: Menachem Fisch
Institution: Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W4410869008