ABSTRACT
Orthodoxy, not unlike its synonym “normative” or even its antonym “heterodoxy,” has what a critical scholar might conclude to be a problematic history in the study of religion. The word “orthodoxy” seems to have come into use in English primarily in the aftermath of what is widely known as the Protestant Reformation, which took place in Europe beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, presumably as a way not just to name but to thereby demonstrate to others that new religious teaching were somehow more aligned with the original teachings of Jesus and thus the doctrines of the New Testament. Positions claimed to be orthodox do not simply appear, as previous generations of scholars assumed, wholly formed, and in such a manner that various heterodoxies only emerge after the fact to challenge its rightful supremacy. Alternative positions represented as heterodox are therefore often reduced to taint and/or portrayed as infiltrated from external and thus impure sources.
