Apollinaris the Younger, also known as Apollinaris of Laodicea and Apollinarius ( grc, Ἀπολινάριος;Suda, alpha, 3397
/ref> died 382) was a bishop of

Laodicea in Syria Laodicea ( grc, Λαοδίκεια) was a port city and an important colonia of the Roman Empire in ancient Syria, located near the modern city of Latakia. It was also called Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad mare. For a short period of time un ...

. He is best known as a noted opponent of

Arianism Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

. Apollinaris's eagerness to emphasize the

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and the unity of his person led him to deny the existence of a rational human

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

in Christ's human nature. This view came to be called

Apollinarism Apollinarism or Apollinarianism is a Christological heresy proposed by Apollinaris of Laodicea (died 390) that argues that Jesus had a human body and sensitive human soul, but a divine mind and not a human rational mind, the Divine Logos taking the ...

. It was condemned by the

First Council of Constantinople The First Council of Constantinople ( la, Concilium Constantinopolitanum; grc-gre, Σύνοδος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in AD 381 b ...

in 381.

Life

He collaborated with his father, Apollinaris the Elder, in reproducing the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

in the form of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

ic and

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...

ic poetry and the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

after the fashion of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

nic

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

s, when the emperor, Julian, had forbidden Christians to teach the

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. He is best known, however, as a noted opponent of

. Apollinaris's eagerness to emphasize the

and the unity of his person led him so far as to deny the existence of a rational human

(νοῦς, ''

nous ''Nous'', or Greek νοῦς (, ), sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a concept from classical philosophy for the faculty of the human mind necessary for understanding what is true or real. Alternative English terms used in p ...

'') in Christ's human nature, replaced in him by the ''

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

'', and so his body was a glorified and spiritualized form of humanity. This cites: *

Adolf von Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...

, ''History of Dogma'', vols. iii. and iv. ''passim'' * Robert Lawrence Ottley, ''The Doctrine of the Incarnation'' * Guillaume Voisin, ''L'Apollinarisme'' (Louvain, 1901) *

Hans Lietzmann Hans Lietzmann (2 March 1875 – 25 June 1942) was a German Protestant theologian and church historian who was a native of Düsseldorf. He initially studied in Jena, then continued his education in Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener (18 ...

, ''Apollinaris von Laodicea und seine Schule'' (Tübingen, 1905). The Orthodox position (maintained by

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...

, the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

Oriental Orthodoxy The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent ...

Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

, and most churches within

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

) is that God as his ''Logos'' assumed human nature in its entirety, including the νοῦς, as only thus could he be humanity's perfect redeemer and prototype. It was alleged that the Apollinarian approach implied

docetism In the history of Christianity, docetism (from the grc-koi, δοκεῖν/δόκησις ''dokeĩn'' "to seem", ''dókēsis'' "apparition, phantom") is the heterodox doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, an ...

: if the Godhead without constraint swayed the manhood, there was no possibility of a real human probation or of a real advance in Christ's manhood. The position was accordingly condemned by several synods, in particular by the

, in 381. That did not prevent it from having a considerable following. After Apollinaris's death, it divided into two sects, the more conservative taking its name (Vitalians) from Vitalis, the Apollinarist claimant to the see of Antioch. The other (Polemeans) added the further assertion that the two natures were so blended that even the body of Christ was a fit object of adoration. The Apollinarian emphasis on the unity of human and divine in Christ and on the divine element in that unity was later restated in the form of

Eutychianism Eutychianism, also known as Real Monophysitism, refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople (c. 380 – c. 456). Eutychianism is a monophysite understanding of how the human and divine ...

and persisted in what was later the radically anti-

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...

monophysite Monophysitism ( or ) or monophysism () is a Christological term derived from the Greek (, "alone, solitary") and (, a word that has many meanings but in this context means "nature"). It is defined as "a doctrine that in the person of the incarn ...

school.

Writings

Although Apollinaris was a prolific writer, scarcely anything has survived under his own name. However, a number of his writings are concealed under the names of orthodox Fathers, e.g. ἡ κατὰ μέρος πίστις, long ascribed to

Gregory Thaumaturgus Gregory Thaumaturgus or Gregory the Miracle-Worker ( grc, Γρηγόριος ὁ Θαυματουργός, ''Grēgórios ho Thaumatourgós''; la, Gregorius Thaumaturgus; 213 – 270), also known as Gregory of Neocaesarea, was a Christi ...

. They have been collected and edited by Hans Lietzmann. Two letters of his correspondence with

Basil of Caesarea Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great ( grc, Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, ''Hágios Basíleios ho Mégas''; cop, Ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲃⲁⲥⲓⲗⲓⲟⲥ; 330 – January 1 or 2, 379), was a bishop of Ca ...

are also extant, but there is scholarly debate regarding their authenticity because they record the orthodox theologian Basil asking Apollinaris for theological advice on the orthodox term ''homoousios''. The concerns may be unfounded, as before Apollinaris began promulgating what were seen as heretical doctrines, he was a highly respected bishop and a friend of

Athanasius Athanasius I of Alexandria, ; cop, ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲡⲓⲁⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲓⲕⲟⲥ or Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲁ̅; (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, ...

and Basil.Sollier, Joseph. "Apollinarianism." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 7 February 2019

References

Sources

* Alessandro Capone, "La polemica apollinarista alla fine del IV secolo: la lettera di Gregorio di Nissa a Teofilo di Alessandria", in Gregory of Nyssa: The Minor Treatises on Trinitarian Theology and Apollinarism. Proceedings of the 11th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Tübingen, 17–20 September 2008), ed. By V.H. Drecoll, M. Berghaus, LeidenBoston 2011, pp. 499–517. * * Alessandro Capone, "Apollinarismo e geografia ecclesiastica" in ''Auctores nostri'' 9, 2011, pp. 457–473. * Christopher Beeley, ''The Unity of Christ: Continuity and Conflict in Patristic Tradition'' (Yale, 2012), chapter 4.

External links

English translations of the writings of Apollinaris and his followers
{{Authority control 382 deaths 4th-century Syrian bishops 4th-century Romans People from Latakia Year of birth unknown People declared heretics by the first seven ecumenical councils 4th-century writers