Theological Term of the Week: Apollinarius

Apollinarius (or Apollinaris)
“[A]n Alexandrian thinker, a friend of Athanasius and a strong opponent of Arianism,” who “got in trouble for teaching quite openly that Christ did not have a human mind or spirit.”1 He lived from 300 until 390, and became bishop of Laodicea in 361.

• From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham, page 272: 

Apollinarius believed that the human mind was the source of all human weakness and sin. He therefore felt that Christ’s sinless perfection required Him not to have a human mind. The divine and infinite mind of the Son or Logos, Apollinarius taught, took the place of a human mind in Christ: He was a divine mind in a human body. This absence of a human mind preserved Christ from the possibility of sin. Apollinarius also thought that is Christ had a human as well as a divine mind, He would split apart into two separate persons, a human Son of Man and a Divine Son of God. So again, to avoid this disastrous conclusion, Apollinarius denied that Christ had a human mind. 

Learn more:

1. Philip Schaff: Apollinaris of Laodicea
2. 5 Minutes in Church History: An Eight-Syllable Heresy
3. Ligonier Ministries: The Apollinarian Heresy
4. Theology in the Middle: Apollinaris and Apollinarianism, Part 1 and Apollinaris and Apollinarianism, Part 2

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Athanasius
• Augustine of Hippo
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Monica
• Origen
• Pelagius
• Sabellius
• Tertullian

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

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