• Title: The Great Heresies
• Author: Hilaire Belloc
• Paperback: 161 pages
• Publisher: T A N Books & Publishers (October, 1991)
• ISBN: 0895554755

This book was a waste of my time. The author is obviously Catholic – the viewpoint of the book is that all heresies are wrong, the Catholic Church is the one right church, and that capitalism, communism and socialism are all wrong. Its really hard to know what economic position Belloc takes, since he seems to find flaws in all the great theories.

Belloc chooses to discuss five heresies, of which three are typically considered heresies (arianism, catharism, protestantism) and two which are not (Islam and “the modern attack on the church”). There is some useful historical information on these heresies, but its hard to know what to believe given the author’s obvious biases.

I’ve got a couple other books on heresies – I hope they will provide more of a survey approach.