Semi-Arianism was a position regarding the relationship between God the Father and the Son of God, adopted by some 4th-century Christians. Though the doctrine modified the teachings of Arianism, it still rejected the doctrine that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are coeternal and of the same substance, or consubstantial, and was therefore considered heretical by many contemporary Christians.

Arius held that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three separate essences or substances (ousia), and that the Son and Spirit derived their divinity from the Father, were created, and were inferior to the Godhead of the Father. Semi-Arians asserted that the Son was "of a similar substance" (homoiousios) as the Father but not "of the same substance" (homoousios).

After the defeat of Magnentius at Mursa in 351, Valens, bishop of that city, became Constantius's spiritual director. In 355 Valens and Ursacius obtained the exile of the Western confessors Eusebius, Lucifer of Cagliari, Hilary of Poitiers, and Liberius. In 357 they issued the second Creed of Sirmium, or "formula of Hosius", in which homoousios and homoiousios were both absent. Eudoxius seized the see of Antioch and supported Aëtius and his disciple Eunomius.</blockquote>

It has also been noted that the Greek term "homoousian", which Athanasius of Alexandria favored, was reported to have been used and favored by Sabellius, and that many followers of Athanasius took issue with and were uneasy about the term. The Semi-Arians also objected to it. Their objection to "homoousian" was that it was considered un-Scriptural, suspicious, and of a Sabellian tendency. This was because Sabellius also considered the Father and the Son to be "one substance", meaning that, to Sabellius, the Father and Son were "one essential person" interacting with creation as necessary.

Basil of Ancyra

In Lent of 358, Basil, along with many bishops, was holding the dedicatory feast of a new church he had built at Ancyra when he received a letter from George of Laodicea relating how Eudoxius had approved of Aëtius and begging Macedonius of Constantinople, Basil, and the rest of the assembled bishops to decree the expulsion of Eudoxius and his followers from Antioch, lest that great see be lost. Consequently, the Synod of Ancyra published a long reply addressed to George and the other bishops of Phoenicia, in which they recited the Creed of Antioch (341), added explanations against the "unlikeness" of the Son to the Father taught by the Arians and Anomoeans (from anomoios), and showed that the very name of Father implies a Son of like substance (homoiousios, or homoios kat ousian). Anathematisms were appended in which Anomoeanism was explicitly condemned and the teaching of "likeness of substance" was enforced. The nineteenth of these canons also forbids the use of homoousios and tautoousios; this may be an afterthought prompted by the instance of Macedonius, as Basil does not seem to have insisted on it later. Legates were dispatched to the council at Sirmium; Basil, Eustathius of Sebaste, an ascetic of no dogmatic principles; Eleusius of Cyzicus, a follower of Macedonius; and the priest Leontius, one of the emperor's chaplains. They arrived just in time, for the emperor had been lending his ear to a Eudoxian, but he now veered round, issuing a letter (Sozomen, IV, xiv) declaring the Son to be "like in substance" to the Father and condemning the Arians of Antioch.

According to Sozomen, at this point Pope Liberius was released from exile upon signing three formulae combined by Basil. Basil persuaded Constantius to summon a general council, Ancyra being proposed, then Nicomedia (both in Asia Minor), but as the latter city was destroyed by an earthquake, Basil was again at Sirmium in 359, where the Arianizers had meanwhile regained their footing. With Germinius of Sirmium, George of Alexandria, Ursacius and Valens, and Bishop (later Saint) Marcus of Arethusa, he held a conference that lasted until night. A confession of faith, ridiculed under the name of the "dated creed", was drawn up by Marcus on 22 May (Hilary, "Fragment. xv"). Arianism was, of course, rejected, but the homoios kata ten ousian was not admitted, and the expression kata panta homoios, "like in all things", was substituted. Basil was disappointed and added to his signature the explanation that the words "in all things" meant not only in will but in existence and being (kata ten hyparxin kai kata to einai). Not content with this, Basil, George of Laodicea, and others published a joint explanation (Epiph., lxxiii, 12–22) that "in all things" must include "substance". However, when the Trinity was officially defined, the offended binitarians walked out.

For the rest of the history of the Semi-Arians (also called Macedonians), see Pneumatomachi.

In more modern times, Semi-Arian groups are said to include non-Trinitarian bodies such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Creation Seventh-day Adventists.

See also

  • Councils of Sirmium
  • Arianism
  • Arius
  • Athanasius
  • Macedonius I of Constantinople
  • Eusebius of Nicomedia
  • Nontrinitarianism
  • Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church

References

Sources

  • Basilius of Ancyra, Eleusius, Eustathius of Sebaste by VENABLES in Diction. Christ. Biog.
  • LICHTENSTEIN, Eusebius von Nikomedien (Halle, 1903)
  • LOOFS, Eustathius von Sebaste und die Chronologie der Basilius-Briefe (Halle, 1898).
  • Article on Semi-Arianism from the Catholic Encyclopedia