Modalism (Sabellianism)
One God wearing three masks — a unity so strict it dissolves the three persons
Modalism, also called Sabellianism after Sabellius, teaches that Father, Son, and Spirit are merely three modes or roles of one person rather than three distinct persons. It sought to protect God's oneness but, in doing so, denied the real distinctions later affirmed in Trinitarian doctrine. Writers such as Tertullian and Hippolytus opposed it, and the Church condemned it as a form of monarchianism.
How it traveled
- Against Praxeas.— · 220challenges
- A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.Rome · 258challenges
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.)Alexandria · 373challenges
- Defence of Dionysius. (De Sententia Dionysii.)Alexandria · 373challenges
- On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.)Alexandria · 373challenges
- The LettersCaesarea (Cappadocia) · 379challenges
- De Spiritu SanctoCaesarea (Cappadocia) · 379challenges
- The Second Ecumenical Council: The First Council of ConstantinopleConstantinople (Istanbul) · 381challenges
- Select Orations of Saint Gregory NazianzenNazianzus · 390explains
- The Great CatechismNyssa · 395challenges
- Exposition of the Christian FaithMilan · 397challenges
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the HebrewsConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407challenges
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407challenges
- The Letters of St. JeromeBethlehem · 420challenges
- Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. JohnHippo Regius · 430challenges
- The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against NestoriusMarseille · 435challenges
- The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates ScholasticusConstantinople (Istanbul) · 439explains
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · 458challenges
- John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox FaithDamascus · 749challenges
- Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43])Paris · 1274challenges
- Book First. of the Knowledge of God the CreatorGeneva · 1564challenges
Key passages(20)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. · Novatian
Chapter XXVII.Argument.—He Skilfully Replies to a Passage Which the Heretics Employed in Defence of Their Own Opinion. But since they frequently urge upon us the passage where it is said, “I and the
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A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. · Novatian
Chapter XXVI.Argument.—Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son Another. But from this occasion of Christ being proved from the sacred authority of the divine writin
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXVIII.—Christ Not the Father, as Praxeas Said. The Inconsistency of This Opinion, No Less Than Its Absurdity, Exposed. The True Doctrine of Jesus Christ According to St. Paul, Who Agrees with
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXIX.—It Was Christ that Died. The Father is Incapable of Suffering Either Solely or with Another. Blasphemous Conclusions Spring from Praxeas’ Premises. Silence! Silence on such blasphemy. L
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXIII.—More Passages from the Same Gospel in Proof of the Same Portion of the Catholic Faith. Praxeas’ Taunt of Worshipping Two Gods Repudiated. Again, when Martha in a later passage acknowle
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
VII. Against Praxeas; In Which He Defends, in all Essential Points, the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. [Translated by Dr. Holmes.] ———————————— Chapter I.—Satan’s Wiles Against the Truth. How They
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXII.—Sundry Passages of St. John Quoted, to Show the Distinction Between the Father and the Son. Even Praxeas’ Classic Text—I and My Father are One—Shown to Be Against Him. Again, whose doct
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXVII.—The Distinction of the Father and the Son, Thus Established, He Now Proves the Distinction of the Two Natures, Which Were, Without Confusion, United in the Person of the Son. The Subter
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XI.—The Identity of the Father and the Son, as Praxeas Held It, Shown to Be Full of Perplexity and Absurdity. Many Scriptures Quoted in Proof of the Distinction of the Divine Persons of the Tr
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Against Praxeas. · Anti-marcion
Chapter X.—The Very Names of Father and Son Prove the Personal Distinction of the Two. They Cannot Possibly Be Identical, Nor is Their Identity Necessary to Preserve the Divine Monarchy. So it is eit
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Exposition of the Christian Faith · Ambrose of Milan
The Sabellians reduced the distinction of Persons in the Trinity to a distinction of three different self-manifestations of one and the same Person, appearing at different times in different aspects o
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
9. How, then, is His judgment true, but because the Son is true? For this He said: “And if I judge, my judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.” Just as if He had s
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
6. Yesterday we commended it to your consideration, beloved, and said that the sentences of the Evangelist John, in which he narrates to us what he learned from the Lord, had not required to be discus
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On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
(6.) And those who say that the Father and Son and Holy Ghost are the same, and irreligiously take the Three Names of one and the same Reality and Person, we justly proscribe from the Church, because
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
VIII. I find two highest differences in things that exist, viz.:—Rule, and Service; not such as among us either tyranny has cut or poverty has severed, but which nature has distinguished, if any like
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter VI.—The Heresy of Sabellius. He refers also in the same letter to the heretical teachings of Sabellius, Of the life of Sabellius we know very little. He was at the head of the Monarchian (mo
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, Since as Jerome remarks [*In substance, Ep. lvii.], a heresy arises from words wrongly used, when we speak of the Trinity we must proceed with care and with befitting modesty; because,
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
Tractate XXIX. Chapter VII. 14–18 1. What follows of the Gospel and was read to-day, we must next in order look at, and speak from it as the Lord may grant us. Yesterday it was read thus far, that a
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
John xv. 26. “It did not fall within this Father’s (Greg. Naz.) province to develop the doctrine of the Procession. He is content to shew that the Spirit was not Generated, seeing that according to Ch
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Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
11. They fall into the same folly with the Arians; for Arians also say that He was created for us, that He might create us, as if God waited till our creation for His issue, as the one party say, or H
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