Patripassianism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The theological belief that God the Father himself suffered and died through the incarnate Son, held by a small group of early Christian thinkers
2. A heretical Christian view holding that the Father, not only the Son, endured the passion of Christ on the cross
3. The early church teaching that the divine Father experienced suffering alongside Jesus during his crucifixion and death

Etymology: Patripassianism is the doctrine that God the Father himself suffered on the cross, a idea that many early Christians found troubling because it seemed to blur the distinction between the Father and the Son. The word is built from "Patripassian," which combines the Latin "pater" (father) and "passio" (suffering), with the English suffix "-ism" marking it as a doctrine or belief system. The Latin roots give the term its literal sense: "father-sufferer." The name was attached to a specific theological position, and it is the label that gave the teaching its name, so the word is best understood as a term for a belief others had to name in order to argue against it. Because the word is a formal coinage built from familiar parts, its meaning follows directly from them: a belief that the Father, not only the Son, endured the passion.