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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ADA-AIZ |
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ADOPTIANISM . As the theological doctrine of the Logos which bulks so largely in the writings of the apologists of the and century came to the front, the trinitarian problem became acute. The necessity of a constant protest against polytheism led to a tenacious insistence on the divine unity, and the task was to reconcile this unity with the deity of Jesus Christ. Some thinkers fell back on the " modalistic " solution which regards " Father " and " Son " as two aspects of the same subject: but a simpler and more popular method was the " adoptianist " or humanitarian. Basing their views on the synoptic Gospels, and tracing descent from the obscure sect of the Alogi, the Adoptianists under Theodotus of Byzantium tried to found a school at Rome c. 185, asserting that Jesus was a man, filled with the Holy Spirit's inspiration from his baptism, and so attaining such a perfection of holiness that he was adopted by God and exalted to divine dignity. Theodotus was excommunicated by the bishop of Rome, Victor , c. 195, but his followers lived on under a younger teacher of the same name and under Artemon, while in the East similar views were expounded by Beryllus of Bostra and Paul of Samosata, who undoubtedly influenced Lucian of Antioch and his school, including Arius and, later, Nestorius.There is thus a traceable historical connexion between the early adoptian controversy and the struggle in Spain at the end of the 8th century, to which that name is usually given. It was indeed only a renewal, under new conditions, of the conflict between two types of thought, the rational and the mystical, the school of Antioch and that of Alexandria. The writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia had become well known in the West, especially since the strife over the " three chapters " (544-553), and the opposition of Islam also partly determined the form of men's views on the doctrine of Christ's person. We must further remember the dyophysitism which had been sanctioned at the council bf Chalcedon. About 78o Elipandus (b. 718), archbishop of Toledo, revived and vehemently defended the expression Christus Filius Dei adoptivus, and was aided by his much more gifted friend Felix
birth
birth
Felix
In this synod Alcuin of York
letter from Alcuin, and a controversial pamphlet, to which Felix re-plied, were followed by the sending of several commissions of clergy to Spain to endeavour to put down the heresy. Arch-bishop Leidrad (d. 816) of Lyons, being on one of these commissions, persuaded Felix to appear before a synod at Aix-la-Chapelle in 799. There, after six days' disputing with Alcuin, he again recanted his heresy. The rest of his life was spent ulslier the supervision of the archbishop at Lyons, where he died in 816. Elipandus, secure in his see at Toledo, never swerved from the adoptian views, which, however, were almost universally abandoned after the two leaders died.In the scholastic discussions of the 12th century the question came to the front again, for the doctrine as framed by Alcuin was not universally accepted. Thus both Abelard and Peter Lombard, in the interest
gravitated towards a Nestorian position. The great opponent of their Christology, which was known as Nihilianism, was the German scholar Gerhoch, who, for his bold assertion of the perfect interpenetration of deity and humanity in Christ, was accused of Eutychianism. The proposition Deus non factus est aliquid secundum quad est homo was condemned by a synod of Tours in 1163 and again by the Lateran synod of 1179, but Adoptianism continued all through the middle ages to be a source of theological dispute. See A. Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, esp. vol. v. pp. 279-292 ; R. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, vol. i. p. 228 if., vol. ii. pp. 151-161 ; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk., art. " Adoptianismus." (A. J. G.) End of Article: ADOPTIANISM If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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