Melvin Tinker reflects theologically on the half-truths of prominent Anglican, Jayne Ozanne
If one is to claim that a certain teaching is heretical, we need to be clear what we mean by the term.
Alister McGrath writes: ‘Heresy arises through accepting a basic cluster of Christian beliefs – yet interpreting them in such a way that inconsistency results. A heresy is thus an inadequate or deficient form of Christianity. By its very deficiency, it poses a threat to the gospel.’ The reason why heresy gains traction in the church is that it contains at least an element of truth; as such it is parasitic on orthodoxy. ‘In the Catholic faith, we recognise that a heresy is not so much a false doctrine as an incomplete doctrine. It has rejected part of the truth and is representing what is left over as the whole truth. But what a heretic usually ends up doing is attacking the greater truth.’
