"George defines heresy as "a crime of perception--an act of seeing something that, according to some custodian of reality, is not really there. Heresy, therefore, is always relative to an orthodoxy." He points out that "Martin Luther and the Pope viewed each other as heretics."

Although the more than 600 entries here focus mainly on heresy in the West, entries on heresies in the lands of Eastern Christianity are included because of their importance to Western thought. Excluded are heresies the author considers primarily political, social, technological, or scientific.

The 10-page introduction discusses how heresy has changed during the course of Western history. The encyclopedia entries are arranged from Abelard, Peter to Zwichau Prophets. Black Mass covers nearly three pages, Rasputin is one page, and Mormon Church gets less than a page. Jesus is among the heretics included. The author assesses Jesus as "an heretic in his own time, and a topic of controversy between conventional and alternative believers ever since." Cross-references are liberally provided; there is no index. Entries are well-written and provide a wealth of fascinating detail, but bibliographies at the ends of entries would have been useful.

Following the encyclopedia is a list of entries organized by topic, divided into such sections as Christian Heresies and Heretics by Historic Period, Biographies of the Heretics, and Suppression of Heresy. The book concludes with two bibliographies. "Suggestions for Further Reading" is extensive and divided into eight subject areas, such as "Witch Hunts and Persecution of Heretics," "Heretical and Esoteric Judaism," and "Occult Traditions: Alchemy, Astrology, Magic." The second bibliography lists four periodicals on alternative-reality traditions.

This book contains readable information about some important people, ideas, and practices in Western history. It should appeal to the informed layperson as well as the scholar. ~~ The Bookist

At most times during the history of Western civilization, mere posession of a book like Crimes of Perception would have earned the reader a visit from the town magistrate or the local Inquisitor; the publisher's hands would have been cut off; and the book itself, along with its author, would have been righteously consigned to the flames. In the midst of our current drama between orthodox beliefs and new cultures, between liberal and conservative catechisms, Crimes of Perception collects the ideas, persons, and practices that, over the centuries, have been judged by the arbiters of religious orthodoxy to be too dangerous for people to know about. With more that 600 detailed entries, Leonard George unearths a mountain of information on the heretical tradition in the Western world from the time of Christ to the Twentieth century, describing the heretical traditions (including Gnosticism and Kabbalah), the heretics themselves (such as Aleister Crowly and Emanuel Swedenborg), heretical texts (De Principiss and Malleus Malleficarum) , occult terms, the defenders of orthodoxy, religious sects, heretical phenomena, and much more. ~~Midwest Book Review " (Source: Amazon)

Combines scholarship with humor, history with speculation, and philosophy with anecdote...Fascinating. -- Stanley Krippner