Heresy

I have been reading a biography of Martin Luther, and got to thinking about the fact that the root word that we get "heresy" from is "to choose." The heretic was originally seen as someone who exalts his own choice above the relevant authority. It could take a couple of forms. One is where the authority, say scripture, clearly says one thing but the person says "I choose to believe or act differently." The other form is interpretive. People have traditionally interpreted scripture in a different way and a person comes along who says "I choose to interpret this differently." From a certain perspective, the last 100 years could be thought of as the age of heresy in the sense that the phrase "I interpret it this way" has become so much a part of our mental landscape. It seems most defensible when a person appeals from a one authority to a higher one, but even there the danger remains that there will be too much I. We don't even notice how often we start our sentances with I.