Brandon over at Siris put up his results to the quiz What Heretic Are You?. As is typically the case, these quizzes can be somewhat misleading. Especially if you don't fit neatly into their categories. (I particularly felt unsure occasionally about how to answer the questions about nature since Mormons don't think about nature the way I think the question is typically posed in traditional theology) Anyway, if you are interested, here are my results:
You scored as Pelagianism. You are a Pelagian. You reject ideas about man's fallen human nature and believe that as a result we are able to fully obey God. You are the first Briton to contribute significantly to Christian thought, but you're still excommunicated in 417.
Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com |
Somewhat unsurprisingly I got listed as a Pelagian. Mormons often get lumped in with Pelagius, although I do think there are some important differences between the Pelagian view of Grace and the LDS view of Grace.
I should add that the big problem with making Mormons pelagianists is that Mormons think Adam's fall affected us (allowing us to be mortal) but that it didn't affect us in terms of sin. i.e. we're not inherently sinful in the sense that original sin typically attributes. The details of this distinction are subtle and arise primarily from the text of Mosiah 3.
Mormons are more similar to what is termed semi-pelagianism, which doesn't deny an effect of the fall, but argues that we aren't fallen in the sense of being able to choose good. That is, grace is ours to choose or not and we are free to do this. The fundamental debate (and why even semi-pelagianism is considered a heresy by most Christians) is over what is privileged, God's power or man's free will. Mormons ontologically tend to make God and man co-equal in that sense. Thus neither can overwhelm the other.
I always knew you would roast in hell as a heretic :)
Hehe.
Unsurprisingly (to me at least) I was rated a full-fledged 100% Pelagianist. Probably not completely accurate, but close enough I guess.
I got equal parts:
Pelagianism
Chalcedon compliant
Monophysitism
The problem was that I couldn't put myself on a continuum on some of the questions. Quite a few sounded rather nonsensical when looked at from my Mormon point of view (as Clark said above, mostly the questions on "Nature").
I rated as slightly more Chalcedon compliant than Pelagianist. I think that's because I just didn't relate well one way or the other to some of the language in some questions. So I ended up putting myself in the middle and being unwilling to take a firm stance one way or the other.
So, the survey informs me, "Congratulations, you're not a heretic." How disappointing...
Jeepers, I'm onlyh 75% Pelagian. The quiz divides things differently than can be meaningful in Mormon terms it seems to me. Unlike RT, at least I'm a heretic.
I came out two-thirds (67%) Chalcedon compliant, with Pelagianism about four steps down the list. I'm not a heretic either. Unlike Blake and RT, I'm not certain why I should necessarily feel bad about that.
I think whether one is tagged as Pelagian depends upon how you answer those Adam's fall questions. For instance on the basis of Mosiah 3, one could still argue we inherit original sin (question 17) but that Christ automatically atones for it. This would take that as Christ automatically forgiving us for sins due to our mortal natures. I've argued elsewhere that this would include say acts committed due to mental illness.
I'm not sure how a semi-Pelagian would answer that. It seems an alien view to the whole Pelagian debate, although I could be wrong.
I'm 100% Pelagian, does that mean I get an A+ in heretic school? Also I'm 67% Chalcedon compliant.
I'm a little surprised to find so many Mormons so Chalcedonian; I wouldn't have expected that at all. But perhaps it's due to a skewing by the questions on nature? In which case those who are disappointed that they didn't qualify as heretics might take some comfort!
I think, Brandon, some of the questions about nature were just poorly worded if you weren't up on the history (and language) of the heresies. Take (12) "Jesus' human nature is lesser than his divine nature." Well even ignoring the issue of what a nature is, what is "lesser" with respect to natures? Less important? Less of an effect?
(14) "Only Jesus' human nature died on on the cross," seems an easy one. After all Mormons don't think a nature dies but that Christ died.
(16) "Jesus' humanity was absorbed to produce one new divine nature" is an odd one that I suspect Mormons might take different ways. For instance is a resurrected and exalted person of a new nature? Yes. Is it thus a new kind of nature? Well... I put no to this question, as I recall, but I can see how a Mormon could easily have said yes given our theology of the resurrection and divinization.
(24) "The divine Logos replaced Jesus' human nature in the incarnation" was easy. That's false, especially given our theology of the condescension of God in places like Mosiah 15. (Did any Mormons answer yes?)
I'd say (25) "Jesus divine and human natures are in no way confused or annulled by their union with each other" is also easy and would say yes. But I can see some arguing on the basis of D&C 93 that Jesus was ignorant of being God and thus had to learn grace to grace to recover his divine nature while in the flesh. It's a tricky issue I suppose.
I don't think any Mormon would answer yes to (26) "Created matter is fallen and corrupt, so Jesus did not take on full human nature."
(28) "Jesus did not have two natures (human and divine) he had one new composite nature" was definitely a hard one for me. But that's partially the whole issue of what a nature is. I just don't think the typical rhetoric of the two natures occurs in Mormonism. I don't think Jesus had a new "nature" in terms of his essence but he clearly did have a new one in other senses. I can't even recall what I put for this one. I think it could go either way.
Just to add, I think the test just doesn't address the kind of "heresies" that I think most orthodox Christians would think we hold to. As I said in my post explaining why Mormons aren't Arians I think the contexts of the ancient heresies just don't really fit Mormonism. The labels are almost always misleading and distorting.
I'm an atheist, so I took the quiz just for fun to see what would happen. (Of course, in each case where the statement in question affirmed something of God I marked "Strongly Disagree" and in each case where it denied something of God I put strongly agree (modulo cases in which it denied something of God and then conjoined that denial with something I took to be false). Anyway, I ended up tying for Gnosticism and Pelagianism, with 33% for each. I also got 8% each on a couple of other heresies, and 0% each on the rest.
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