Concept

Apostasy in Christianity

Overview

Apostasy in Christianity refers to the deliberate abandonment or renunciation of the Christian faith. The term derives from a Greek word denoting rebellion or defection, and in Christian usage, denotes a conscious rejection of Christ and his teachings, as distinct from a private lapse or passing doubt. The concept appears throughout the New Testament in various forms, especially in the warnings of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and became a major concern of the post-apostolic church as it confronted temptation, heresy, and persecution. Most Christian traditions have historically regarded apostasy as a real possibility for believers. Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anabaptist, Lutheran, Arminian, and related Protestant traditions have generally affirmed that a genuinely regenerate believer can finally fall away, while Calvinism has notably rejected this possibility. Apostasy has sometimes resulted in ecclesiastical sanctions, and in contemporary usages the term may also refer to formal disaffiliation.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
States what Apostasy in Christianity is; the author is tied to Apostasy in Christianity in the knowledge graph.
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And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),--this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his…
of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
States what Apostasy in Christianity is; the author is tied to Apostasy in Christianity in the knowledge graph.
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This last expression denotes that which in the Gospels is called denying ourselves and taking up the cross (Matt. xvi. 24, 25; Mark viii. 34, 35; Luke ix. 23, 24, xiv. 26, 27, 33).
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Apostasy in Christianity is.
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Philosophers who discussed Apostasy in Christianity

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Heresy in Christianity

Place in the tradition

Part of Deism.

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