Apollinaris water

He is best known as a noted opponent of Arianism.

Apollinaris glass

Apollinaris's eagerness to emphasize the deity of Jesus and the unity of his person led him to deny the existence of a rational human soul in Christ's human nature. This view came to be called Apollinarism. It was condemned by the First Council of Constantinople in He collaborated with his father, Apollinaris the Elder , in reproducing the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament after the fashion of Platonic dialogues , when the emperor, Julian , had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.

He is best known, however, as a noted opponent of Arianism. It was alleged that the Apollinarian approach implied docetism : if the Godhead without constraint swayed the manhood, there was no possibility of a real human probation or of a real advance in Christ's manhood.

Apollinarius beliefs

The position was accordingly condemned by several synods, in particular by the First Council of Constantinople , in That did not prevent it from having a considerable following. After Apollinaris's death, it divided into two sects, the more conservative taking its name Vitalians from Vitalis, the Apollinarist claimant to the see of Antioch.

The other Polemeans added the further assertion that the two natures were so blended that even the body of Christ was a fit object of adoration. Although Apollinaris was a prolific writer, scarcely anything has survived under his own name. However, a number of his writings are concealed under the names of orthodox Fathers, e. They have been collected and edited by Hans Lietzmann.

Two letters of his correspondence with Basil of Caesarea are also extant, but there is scholarly debate regarding their authenticity because they record the orthodox theologian Basil asking Apollinaris for theological advice on the orthodox term homoousios.