4.14 The Heresies—Apollinarius & Monothelitism: A Human Suit

By Dr. James Papandrea ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 12, 2024 | In Way of the Fathers (Podcast)

Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS feed | YouTube Channel

This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help!

Apollinarius tried to say that Jesus could not have sinned because his human nature had no will of its own. In doing this, he stumbled onto a heresy called Monothelitism (“one-will” christology), which would become a huge controversy later. But a Christ without a human will would be a Christ who is not fully human. He would only be wearing a human body like a costume, but he would not be truly human.

Links

To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 30 on Gregory of Nazianzus: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/gregory-nazianzen-greatness-in-passive-voice/

To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 2.3 on The Council of Constantinople: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/23-first-constantinople-capital-council/

To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode 54 on Maximus the Confessor: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/54maximus-confessor-where-east-and-west-meet/

To read Gregory of Nazianzus’ First Letter to Cledonius Against Apollinarius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2459&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2402862

To read Gregory of Nazianzus’ Second Letter to Cledonius Against Apollinarius: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2463&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2402862

For more on the christological controversies in context, see the book:
Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/

For more on the concept of the will of God as it relates to God’s sovereignty, human free will, and the submission of the human will to the will of God, see the book:
Praying Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Connect with God: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/praying-like-the-early-church/

To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube —The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the conversation in the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/

Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com

Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/

Dr. James Papandrea is a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and a Catholic member of the faculty at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. A theological consultant for EWTN’s series The Heresies, he is also the writer and presenter for The Original Church series on YouTube. See full bio.

Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.