Catharism
In one sentence
A medieval Western European dualist movement rejecting much of the Catholic sacramental system.
In simple terms
Cathars viewed the material world as corrupt or associated with an evil principle and sought spiritual liberation from it, rejecting many church sacraments and institutions.
Biblical truth
Scripture contrasts good and evil but not two equal eternal gods: one God created heaven and earth, and Christ’s incarnation affirms the reality and significance of human flesh.
Key Scriptures
Gen. 1:1,31 · John 1:14 · Col. 1:15–20 · 1 John 4:2–3
Example
A central rite could be the consolamentum, a spiritual initiation, while ordinary Catholic sacraments and material elements of worship were rejected.
Who holds it
Various Cathar groups of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, especially in southern France and northern Italy; their beliefs were not completely uniform.
Not to be confused with
Not every medieval dissident or person called Albigensian in the sources held an identical doctrine; “Catharism” covers diverse groups.
History
The movement became prominent in Western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and was suppressed through the Albigensian Crusade and the later Inquisition.
Main point of debate
Modern historians debate how unified and organized the Cathar movement really was and how reliable hostile descriptions of it are.