Modalistic Monarchianism, also known as Modalism or Oneness Christology, is a
Christian theology
Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...
upholding the oneness of
God as well as the
divinity
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
of
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 relig ...
; as a form of
Monarchianism
Monarchianism is a Christian theology that emphasizes God as one indivisible being,
at Catholic Encyclopedia, newadvent.org , it stands in contrast with
Trinitarianism
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...
. Modalistic Monarchianism considers God to be one while working through or existing as the different "modes" or "manifestations" of
God the Father
God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinity, trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the third pers ...
,
God the Son
God the Son ( el, Θεὸς ὁ υἱός, la, Deus Filius) is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus as the incarnation of God, united in essence (consubstantial) but distin ...
, and
God the Holy Spirit
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Gru ...
, without limiting his modes or manifestations.
In this view, all the
godhead is understood to have dwelt in Jesus from the
incarnation
Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...
as a manifestation of
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...
of the Old Testament. The terms "Father" and "Son" are then used to describe the distinction between the
transcendence
Transcendence, transcendent, or transcendental may refer to:
Mathematics
* Transcendental number, a number that is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients
* Algebraic element or transcendental element, an element of a field exten ...
of God and the incarnation (God in
immanence
The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pant ...
). Lastly, since God is a
spirit, it is held that the Holy Spirit should not be understood as a separate entity but rather to describe God in action.
Modalistic Monarchianism is closely related to
Sabellianism
In Christianity, Sabellianism is the Western Church equivalent to Patripassianism in the Eastern Church, which are both forms of theological modalism. Condemned as heresy, Modalism is the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three dif ...
and
Patripassianism, two ancient theologies condemned as heresy in the
Great Church
The term "Great Church" ( la, ecclesia magna) is used in the historiography of early Christianity to mean the period of about 180 to 313, between that of primitive Christianity and that of the legalization of the Christian religion in the Roman ...
and successive
state church of the Roman Empire
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, which recognized the catholic orthodoxy of Nicene Christians in the Great Church as the Roman Empire's state religion ...
.
History
Theologian and church historian
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 credite ...
first used the term ''modalism'' to describe a doctrine believed in the late 2nd century and 3rd century. During this time period, Christian theologians were attempting to clarify the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Concerned with defending the absolute unity of God, modalists such as
Noetus,
Praxeas, and
Sabellius explained the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the one God revealing himself in different ways or modes:
#God revealed as the
creator and lawgiver is called "the Father;"
#God revealed as the
savior
Savior or Saviour may refer to:
*A person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something
Religion
* Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years
* Maitreya
* Messiah, a saviour or ...
in Jesus Christ is called "the Son;"
#God revealed as the one who
sanctifies and grants
eternal life is called "the Spirit."
By the 4th century, a consensus had developed in favor of the doctrine of the
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
, and modalism was generally considered a
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important relig ...
.
With the advent of
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement , this revived theology developed into a central tenet of
Oneness Pentecostalism
Oneness Pentecostalism (also known as Apostolic, Jesus' Name Pentecostalism, or the Jesus Only movement) is a nontrinitarian religious movement within the Protestant Christian family of churches known as Pentecostalism. It derives its distincti ...
. Oneness Pentecostals teach the divinity of Jesus and understand him to be a manifestation of
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...
, the God of the Old Testament, in the flesh, and the Holy Spirit, or God in action.
They also
baptize solely in the name of Jesus or Jesus Christ; in this way, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are considered
title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
s pertaining to the one God, not descriptions of distinct individuals, and Jesus is seen as the one name for these titles.
Current adherents
Modalistic Monarchianism is accepted within Oneness Pentecostalism. Much of their theology attempts to begin with an
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 ...
understanding of God in order to understand what the first apostles would have believed about Jesus. They also seek to avoid use of theological categories produced by
Platonic-
Aristotelian epistemologies, preferring rather to tell the story of redemption through narrative. Thus, the distinction found in 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 Chris ...
writers between God the Father and Jesus is understood to be from the attempts to identify God the Father and Jesus together, rather than to separate them more than necessary.
See also
*
Names of God in Christianity
*
Nontrinitarianism
References
Citations
Sources
*
*{{Cite book, title=I Am: A Oneness Pentecostal Theology, last=Norris, first=David S., publisher=Word Aflame Press, year=2009, isbn=9781567227307, location=Hazelwood, Mo., oclc=312444348
Christology
Nontrinitarianism
Oneness Pentecostalism
Heresy in ancient Christianity
Nature of Jesus Christ