monarchianism [Gr.,=belief in the rule of one], the concept of God that maintains his sole authority even over Christ and the Holy Spirit. Its characteristic tenet, that God the Father and Jesus are one person, was developed in two forms in early Christianity. Dynamistic monarchians, such as the Theodotians and Paul of Samosata, held that Jesus was born a man and received the Christ as a power from God at a later time (see adoptionism). Modalistic monarchians taught that God is unknowable, except for his manifestations, or modes; Christ is one of these. Because of the consequent implication that God the Father must have died on the cross, they were called Patripassians [Lat.,= the Father suffering]. Sabellius fully developed modalism.

Monarchianism or Monarchism is a set of beliefs that emphasize God as being one person and the only ruler of his kingdom. The term "Monarchians" or "Monarchists" was given to Christians who defended the "monarchy" of God in a reaction against the Logos theology of Justin Martyr and the apologists, who had spoken of Jesus as a "second god".

Models of resolving the relationship between the God the Father and the God the Son were proposed in the 2nd century, but later rejected as heretical by the Christian Church when the doctrine of the Trinity was developed at the First Council of Constantinople, in which it was decided that God was one being that consisted of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some of the earliest Monarchians were called Alogi because they opposed the doctrine of the Logos, as explained in the canonical Gospel of John.

Monarchianism in-and-of itself is not a complete theory of the relation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but a simple tenet that requires further extension. There are basically two contradicting models of Monarchianism:

• Modalism (or Modal Monarchianism) considers God to be one person appearing and working in the different "modes" of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The chief proponent of Modalism was Sabellius, hence the view is also called Sabellianism. It has also been labeled Patripassianism by its opponents because it purports that the Person of God the Heavenly Father suffered on the cross.
• Adoptionism (or Dynamic Monarchianism) holds that God is one being, above all else and wholly indivisible and of one nature, it reconciles the "problem" of the Trinity (or at least Jesus) by holding that the Son was not co-eternal with the Father, and that Jesus the Christ essentially was granted godhood (adopted) for the plans of God and his own perfect life and works. Different flavors of Adoptionism hold that Jesus was "adopted" either at the time of his baptism or ascension. An early exponent of this belief was Theodotus of Byzantium.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Natalius was an early Patripassianite. He was an antipope (rival bishop of Rome) just before Antipope Hippolytus. According to Eusebius' EH5.28.8-12, quoting the Little Labyrinth of Hippolytus, after being "scourged all night by the holy angels", covered in ash, dressed in sackcloth, and "after some difficulty", he tearfully submitted to Pope Zephyrinus.

Another proponent of Monarchianism was Paul of Samosata, who however does not neatly fit in either of the two models.

Emanuel Swedenborg has also been seen as a proponent of Monarchianism, since he emphasizes a uni-personal God. However, he does not see God as appearing in three modes; rather, he sees God as one divine person, Jesus Christ, who has a divine soul of love, divine mind of truth, and divine body of energy. Jesus, through a process of uniting his human form to the divine, became entirely one with his divine soul from the Father to the point of having no distinction of personality.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Monarchians