In his essay on Catholicism and Ireland, Timothy White states, "Ireland has been frequently cited as one of the most religious societies in Europe, and the Catholic nature of Irish society is intrinsic to that of Irish national identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." In assenting with White's advocacy that Ireland was, and still to this day maintains strong affiliations with the Catholic Church, one might discuss Joyce's ambivalent position in which he is influenced by Catholicism whilst simultaneously is inclined towards concepts of "heresy." Consequently, in this essay I will attempt to explore the relationship between orthodoxy and heresy and how both Joyce and his protagonist appropriate religious imagery and metaphor in order to undermine religious dogma in a movement towards an atmosphere of dissolution which pervaded much of western thought in nineteenth century European society.
The complicated and often distorted term "heresy" traces its origin back to the Grecian era. Etymologically speaking, the term heresy originates from the Greek word "hairesis"," [Oed] which derives from the "act of choosing", manifesting the ideas of "choice" and the freedom in which individuals position themselves within differing schools of thought"" [McGrath: 2009, 37]. Nonetheless, the introduction of the term by the Catholic Church disrupted this notion of choice inflicting instead negative implications upon the term. Evan argues that the expression "heresy" was initially introduced into the Roman Catholic sphere in order to disrupt any possibility that the Christian faith would "fragment into a thousand different forms"" [2003, pg. 7]. Thomsett elaborates on the early stages of the term heresy: "By the definition employed within the Roman Church, a heretic must be a Christian who challenges either the dogma of the Church or its policies, the formal denial or doubt of any defined doctrine of the Catholic faith" "[2011, pg.
