The United States is filled with heretics and Christianity has been bent to serve the needs of individuals rather than benefit the world as a whole. This is what Ross Douthat claims in his book, Bad Religion, in which Douthat closely analyzes modern Christianity and what has become of the original teaching of the Catholic Church. Throughout the book Douthat challenges the practices of many prominent modern preachers and theologians such as Joel Osteen and discusses such dangers as simplifying the Bible or twisting the gospels to serve superficial purposes such as financial gain. Ross Douthat offers a unique and critical prospective on what modern Christianity has evolved into and what prominent ideas that exist today are actual heresies to orthodox Christianity derived form the Church. In the opening of the second half of the book Bad Religion, Douthat discusses the controversial 2006 unveiling of the “Gospel of Judas” which was expected to challenge or even disprove Christianity, as the world had known it. This supposed “gospel”, claimed that Judas, instead of being the traitor, was actually …show more content…
Jesus is a complex and paradoxical character in the Bible by his actions and his words. He criticizes Jewish law, but does not desire to overthrow it, he preaches against the societal hierarchy, but does not make political statements, and while some moments he is Godly, others he is weeping. This dual nature of Jesus has led to multiple attempts to simplify him or create a more consistent Jesus. The goal of many heresies is simply to resolve paradoxes. Douthat strongly denounces such attempts as heresies and claims that attempts to change the nature of Jesus, change the story of the New Testament. Such additions or removals from the Bible refuse orthodox beliefs and thus, are heresies in the eyes of the