If you’ve found your way to this article, you’ve probably encountered the accusation, either directed at Christo-paganism itself, or at your own emerging practice. The word “heresy” is heavy. It deserves a careful answer.
This piece takes the question seriously. Not to dismiss it, and not to defensively wave it away, but to examine what heresy actually means historically and whether Christo-paganism actually fits the definition.
What “Heresy” Actually Meant
The word heresy comes from the Greek hairesis, which originally meant simply “choice” or “school of thought.” In its later Christian usage, it came to mean a theological position deemed by an authoritative council or church body to be in error.
Notably, heresy is a relational term. A position is heretical only relative to a particular orthodoxy. Arianism was heresy by the Council of Nicaea’s definition. Gnosticism was heresy by the standards of the Pauline mainstream. Pelagianism was heresy by the standards of Augustine.
To ask whether Christo-paganism is heresy is to ask: by whose orthodoxy?
By Catholic / Orthodox Definitions
By the standards of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, Christo-paganism would likely be classified as theologically irregular at best, particularly if it claims that other religions are equally valid paths to salvation (which most Christo-pagans do hold). The exclusivity claims of traditional Catholic theology (“extra ecclesiam nulla salus”, outside the church there is no salvation) sit in tension with Christo-pagan pluralism.
However: the Catholic church has also massively expanded its understanding of grace operating outside the visible church (especially since Vatican II). The lines are less sharp than they were 100 years ago.
By Evangelical Protestant Definitions
By strict evangelical standards, Christo-paganism is much more clearly outside the fold. The combination of:
- Reading the Bible as one library among many rather than as inerrant revelation
- Welcoming earth-honoring practices that evangelical tradition often labels demonic
- Holding pluralist soteriology (no exclusivism about Christ as only path)
…puts Christo-paganism well outside the boundaries of mainstream American evangelical Christianity. This is true, and we are honest about it.
By Liberal Protestant / Progressive Christian Definitions
By the standards of mainline progressive Protestantism (mainstream UCC, Episcopalian, ELCA Lutheran, some Methodist), Christo-paganism sits closer to the inside than the outside. Many progressive Christians already hold pluralist views, take a non-inerrantist view of scripture, and welcome earth-honoring practice. The differences are more of degree than of kind.
By Early-Church Definitions
This is where it gets interesting. The first three centuries of Christianity were wildly diverse, including significant strands that:
- Held pluralist views about salvation
- Absorbed pagan practices wholesale (festivals, candles, incense, pilgrimage sites)
- Treated nature as continuous with the sacred
- Read scripture mystically rather than literally
Many of these strands were later declared heretical. Some, like Pelagianism, Arianism, certain Gnostic systems, by formal councils. Others, like the mystical traditions that survived in Celtic Christianity, in monastic herbalism, in folk Christianity, were never formally condemned and are still in the church today.
So the question “is Christo-paganism heresy by early church standards” depends on which early church you mean. The Constantinian church declared a lot of things heretical. The pre-Constantinian church was more diverse than the term “heresy” even applied.
What We Actually Believe
To answer the question honestly, here’s what Christo-paganism in the form practiced at the Pagan Church of Christ actually holds:
- Christ is central to our practice. The Sermon on the Mount, the love commandments, the parables, these are our moral spine.
- We do not require assent to the Nicene Creed, biblical inerrancy, or any specific theological proposition.
- We are pluralist, we hold that other religions are valid paths to the sacred, even as Christ is uniquely focal for us.
- We embrace earth-honoring practice, herbs, candles, moon, seasons, as continuous with rather than separate from Christian faith.
- We read scripture seriously, but as one library among the libraries we read.
This is heretical by some standards, normal by others. We try not to be defensive about either.
Why Some People Find This Generative
Many of the people who come to Christo-paganism arrive having been told by mainstream churches that they had to choose between:
- Their love of Christ and their love of the earth
- Their faith and their sexuality
- Their belief and their honest questions
- Belonging and integrity
Christo-paganism refuses those choices. For people for whom the false binaries were unbearable, this refusal is itself the gospel.
If the Word “Heresy” Bothers You
It’s worth remembering that virtually every renewal movement in Christian history has been called heresy at some point. The Reformers were heretics to Rome. The Methodists were heretics to the Anglicans. The Pentecostals were heretics to the mainline. The Civil Rights movement’s theology was heretical to white Southern fundamentalists.
“Heresy” often means: this challenges what the dominant institution wants to defend. That doesn’t make it right; it doesn’t make it wrong. It just means you have to do the work of asking whether the challenge is faithful or unfaithful.
Our Conclusion
Is Christo-paganism heresy? By some definitions, yes. By others, no. By the standard of “does this draw people toward love of God and neighbor, toward humility, toward the care of creation, toward honest spiritual community?”, we’d say no.
If you want to wrestle with this question with people who have wrestled with it themselves, read our About page or reach out to us. We’re not afraid of the question.
Sources & Further Reading
- Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (Oxford University Press, 2003)
- Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Viking, 2009)
- Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (Random House, 1979)
- Diana Butler Bass, A People’s History of Christianity (HarperOne, 2009)
- John Philip Newell, Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation (Jossey-Bass, 2008)