“Without confusion, without
change, without division,
without separation”
Heresies about Christ: Part Two
7 November 2010
Some Christological whimsy from our
brethren in the Church of Rome
Some Christological whimsy from our
brethren in the Church of Rome
Back to Richard Hooker
“There are but four things
which concur to make
complete the whole state
of our Lord Jesus Christ:
his Deity, his manhood,
the conjunction of both,
and the distinction of the
one from the other being
joined in one.”
– Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity 5.54.10
Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”

“his manhood”

“the conjunction of both”

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”
Arianism – Council of Nicaea, 325

“his manhood”

“the conjunction of both”

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”
Arianism – Council of Nicaea, 325

“his manhood”
Apollinarianism – Council of Constantinople, 381

“the conjunction of both”

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”
Arianism – Council of Nicaea, 325

“his manhood”
Apollinarianism – Council of Constantinople, 381

“the conjunction of both”
Nestorianism – Council of Ephesus, 431

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”
Arianism – Council of Nicaea, 325

“his manhood”
Apollinarianism – Council of Constantinople, 381

“the conjunction of both”
Nestorianism – Council of Ephesus, 431

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Eutychianism – Council of Chalcedon, 451
Arianism
Arius of Alexandria (c. 270-336)
 “There was a time when he was not.”
 The Son is a created being.
 The Son and the Father do not have the
same essence (ousia).

What was Arianism all about?
One view: It was an intrusion of Greek
philosophy into Christian thinking.
 Arius makes a sharp separation between
God and creatures.
 As part of this, he emphasizes that God is
completely beyond our understanding –
apophatic theology.
 Another view: Arius was trying to preserve
Christianity from making itself culturally
irrelevant.

What was Arianism all about?
A third view: Arius was defending strict
monotheism.
 Rowan Williams: “Those who have insisted
that the Arian controversy is essentially
about hermeneutics are right. . . . It is
not primarily a disagreement about the
god of the philosophers versus the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (this is a
tension as sharply felt in Catholic as in
heterodox writers).”

The futility of proof-texting
Proverbs 8:22 – “The Lord created me at the
beginning of his work, the first of his acts of
old.”
 Psalm 45:7-8 – “You love righteousness and
hate iniquity. Therefore God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness above
your fellows.”
 Romans 8:29 – “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, in order that he might
be the first-born among many brethren.”

Enter Athanasius
Athanasius of Alexandria (c.
296-373)
 Athanasius argued that by
going wrong about the
person of Christ, Arius also
went wrong about the work
of Christ.
 He also argued that Arius
made Christian practice
incoherent.

Time for a Council
Constantine summoned all the bishops of
the Church to Nicaea for a council in 325.
 250 bishops (of about 1800) attended.
 In the end, only two bishops sided with
Arius.
 The Council authorized a Creed that would
explicitly repudiate the ideas of Arius. But
what should it say?
 Homoiousios or homoousios?

Four ways of going wrong

“his Deity”
Arianism – Council of Nicaea, 325

“his manhood”
Apollinarianism – Council of Constantinople, 381

“the conjunction of both”

“the distinction of the one from the other”
Apollinarianism
Apollinarius (c. 310-c. 390) was a leading
anti-Arian, friend of Saint Athanasius, and
Bishop of Laodicea.
 He denied that there was a human mind
or soul in Christ.
 You can see how this is an anti-Arian
move.

Does this sound Apollinarian?




“The Word assumed a body capable of death, in order
that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above
all, might become a sufficient exchange for all. . . .
It was by surrendering to death the body which He
had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from
every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His
human brethren. . . .
For naturally, since the Word of God was above all,
when He offered His own temple and bodily
instrument as a substitute for the life of all, He
fulfilled in death all that was required. . . .
For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of
the Word's indwelling in a single human body, the
corruption which goes with death has lost its power
over all.”
What’s wrong with Apollinarianism?
Gregory of Nazianzus: “That which was
not assumed is not healed, but that which
is united to God is saved.”
 The Council of Constantinople (381)
condemned Apollinarianism, ratified the
anti-Arian doctrine of the Council of
Nicaea, and affirmed the divinity of the
Holy Spirit against the Pneumatomachoi.

Next week
We’ll finish Christological heresies, and
then move on to . . .
 Heresies about the Church: “No, your
bishop does not have cooties.”
