sabellianism means A Christian belief which holds that God the Father and God the Son are one and the same, the latter often being termed Patripassianism in that it implies God the Father personally suffered on the Cross.
Why “sabellianism” is a great word
A Christian nontrinitarian doctrine holding that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct persons but successive modes or aspects of the one God, implying the Father suffered on the Cross. From Sabellian (pertaining to Sabellius, a 3rd-century theologian) and the suffix -ism (denoting a system of belief or doctrine). Unlike Trinitarianism, which maintains three co-eternal persons in one being, or Arianism, which demotes the Son's divinity, Sabellianism collapses the persons into a divine monad. It is the theological equivalent of a solitary figure on a darkened stage, shifting between voices—now the thundering patriarch, now the wounded child, now the invisible breath—so seamlessly that the audience cannot tell where one role ends and another begins, until the horror dawns: the father has been dying in the son's body all along, and no one remains to weep for either.
Etymology
From Sabellian + -ism, after Sabellius.
noun
- A Christian belief which holds that God the Father and God the Son are one and the same, the latter often being termed Patripassianism in that it implies God the Father personally suffered on the Cross.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- modalism 89% match — The nontrinitarian doctrine that God, who is one person, has three modes of divine revelation (the Father, Son, and Spirit), contrary to the orthodox belief that the three persons are all fully God. vs sabellianism →
- subordinationism 86% match — A doctrine regarding the Trinity, holding that the Son and possibly the Holy Spirit are inferior to the Father. vs sabellianism →
- heteroousianism 84% match — The belief that the first and second persons of the Trinity have different essence or substance. vs sabellianism →
- arianism 84% match — A Christological doctrine, condemned as heretical by the First Council of Nicaea, which holds that Jesus was created by God, rather than being God himself. vs sabellianism →
- docetism 84% match — The belief that Jesus was fully divine and only appeared or pretended to be human and to suffer. vs sabellianism →
- godhead 82% match — Divinity or godhood, divine essence or nature. vs sabellianism →
- trinity 82% match — A group or set of three people or things; three things combined into one. vs sabellianism →
- monotheism 82% match — Belief in the One True God, defined by More as personal, immaterial and trinitarian. vs sabellianism →