The Law of Religious Dissidents: A Comparative Historical Survey
The three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the subject matter of this survey — have several distinctive marks in common: they postulate the belief in and worship of God; they each have holy scriptures and other canonical texts and vest authoritative interpretations or applications thereof with binding force; each designates a class of officials or functionaries to preserve and propagate the faith; each seeks to imbue its religious, ethical and legal norms into the daily lives of individuals and communities; and none suffers dissidents from within. In addition there are, at least in Christianity and Islam, certain fundamental dogmata (for example, the Holy Trinity in Christianity, the divine prophecy of Muhammad in Islam) which everybody is duty-bound to believe. In each religion, ancient or medieval scholars of authority have compiled lists of articles of faith, the dissent from which by any individual coreligionist is proscribed. It will be shown that these lists are not necessarily exhaustive: the possibilities of dissidence are virtually unlimited.