Dear Vito,
Barlaam was a nominalist and so deserved to be anathematized.
An heresy is always the error developed by a human person - just like "evil" doesn't exist as a generality but as something that comes from a personified being, namely, the devil.
There is a great difference between the heretics of old and today's "heretics" (who don't like to be called that
).
The heretics of old were often holy men who posited their views on aspects of theology that had NOT yet been defined by the Church.
When they were condemned at a council, they sometimes recanted but at other times they insisted on their own way.
Today's "heretics" know fully well where the Church has always stood on a number of theological and moral issues - and contradict the Church anyway.
Then there is the interesting matter of rehabilitation of those who are considered heretical by another Church etc.
There are those who believe that Nestorius was not an heretic and was condemned due to misunderstanding of his position and/or church politics.
Nestorius is, of course, honoured as a saint and doctor by the Assyrian Church that denies Nestorius ever was a "Nestorian."
"Nestorianism" is the name of the heresy that was originally believed by everyone (except the Assyrian Church) to have been developed by Nestorius.
Nestorianism remains the name of the heresy that in Christ there are two "Persons" - even though Nestorius is now considered by some to not have been the originator of that heresy.
There are those who say Nestorianism really emanated from Theodore of Mopsuestia.
Should the entire Church one day decide to lift the anathema against Nestorius (I don't know how, but it is possible), then the heresy of Nestorianism will still be called that - due to long use of the term etc.
From the Byzantine point of view, while Severus of Antioch and Dioscoros of Alexandria are anathematized - there is a distinction drawn since they were not really anathematized for "heresy" but for bad behaviour etc.
And the discussions between the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches have shed so much light on Alexandrian theology that there are indeed Orthodox parishes that simply leave out the names of the above two and other Oriental saints and teachers when naming the respective heretics of old.
However, I think that dropping the connection between heresies and the persons associated with them would be wrong.
A heresy is first and foremost an expression of the sin of pride in being unwilling to submit to the Church's clear and forceful teaching on a subject.
And sins are committed by people, not abstractions.
Alex
