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Rewrite of Subordinationism

Subordinationism is any form of Christian teaching about the Godhead in which the Son is regarded as subordinate to the Father, or the Holy Spirit as subordinate to both.^[1] It was a characteristic tendency of much Christian teaching in the first three centuries (especially among Greek-speaking theologians); being first found in a reasonably clear form as one strand of the unsystematic thought of Justin Martyr. Like all the early christian writers Justin accepted Monotheism, the doctrine that there is only one God (the Father and creator) which the early christians inherited from Judaism, formed the indisputable starting-point for christian belief.^[2] The problem was how to integrate with it the additional data of the specifically Christian revelation.^[2] Subordinationism was an attractive option since it allowed for clear differences between the three while maintaining their unity by making both the Son and the Holy Spirit dependent in some way on the Father

Subordinationist tendencies can be found in Irenaeus, Tertullian and Novatian and this line of approach formed an essential part of the systematic trinitarian theology of Origen from whom it passed to many theologians of the third and fourth christian centuries.

Subordinationism is to be distinguished from "relational", "functional", or "economic subordination." In this latter, the Son and the Holy Spirit are held to be co-equal and co-eternal with the Father because they are of the same being or substance. However, they are held to be functionally subordinate because they never command the Father, but rather do the will of the Father. In many Christian theological circles (mostly orthodox), subordinationism proper is treated as heresy, while "relational subordination" is not. In others, subordinationism is seen as biblical middle ground between extremes of Modalism and Unitarianism.

History

Subordination before Origen

]</ref> Yet, Jesus is not treated as synonymous with God.-->

Origen's Subordinationist Theology

Trinitarian theology from Origen to Arius

Consequences of Arian Subordinationism

Current Views

Notes

References

^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (1974) art. "Subordinationism"
^ ^a ^b Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines, A & C Black (1965), p.87