Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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ADOPTIONISM

The heretical teaching that claims that Christ as man is only the adoptive Son of God. It was advocated by Elipandus of Toledo and Félix of Urgel, but condemned by Pope Adrian I in 785 and again in 794. When Peter Abelard (1079-1142) renewed a modified form of this teaching in the twelfth century, it was condemned by Pope Alexander III in 1177 as a theory proposed by Peter Lombard.