Sabellian

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

  1. Pertaining to a theological doctrine that asserts the unity of God through the manifestation of three modes or persons rather than distinct entities; relating to the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different aspects of one God rather than separate beings; connected to a Christian heresy emphasizing modalism and denying the Trinity as traditionally conceived
  2. Concerning a religious viewpoint that describes God as a single substance expressing Himself in successive forms or modes instead of three distinct persons; associated with the doctrine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and the same entity appearing in different roles; linked to a controversial theological stance rejecting the orthodox understanding of the triune Godhead
  3. Related to an early Christian teaching that God reveals Himself in several successive manifestations rather than as three coexisting persons; connected with the idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not separate persons but one manifested in different ways; indicative of a heretical position opposing the classic doctrine of the Trinity by promoting modalism

Etymology: Sabellian has two routes into English, and both run through the same Italic people. The first is the Latin "Sabellus", a diminutive of "Sabellī", the name of an Italic tribe living in the central Apennines, the same group that gave the Latin "Sabinus" and the region name Samnium. The tribal name itself is of uncertain origin, and attempts to link it to a reflexive pronoun meaning "self" are considered unsound on phonetic grounds. The English suffix "-ian" simply marks the adjective as pertaining to that people. The second route runs through a person. Sabellius was a third-century theologian who taught that God is a single person who shows himself in different modes, and his name became attached to that doctrine. Because the theory was named for him, "Sabellian" came to describe anything connected with his views, which is the sense the adjective carries today, "relating to modalism." The tribal and theological senses thus share a spelling but reach English by separate paths.

Synonyms: modalistic, monotheistic, trinitarian, unitarian, theological

Antonyms: trinitarian, orthodox, catholic, nonmodalistic