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In this episode you’ll hear my presentation from the October 2024 UCA Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. In it I explain the theological landscape from the late 100s through the early 200s using the words of some writers in that era: the author of the Refutation of All Heresies (attributed by some to Hippolytus), Theodotus of Byzantium (as quoted by Epiphanius), Noetus of Smyrna and Zephyrinus (as reported in the Refutation).
I discuss gnostic “possessionist” Christologies, Dynamic Monarchianism, Modalistic Monarchianism, and Logos Theories, a.k.a. unitarian subordinationism, and the fallacy committed by trinitarian apologists who appeal to pre-Nicene authors as being trinitarian. I then discuss the views of some “early” authors which trinitarian apologists often appeal to: Athenagoras of Athens and Melito of Sardis.
I show you how to refute any claim that some early author is a trinitarian using these three requirements for being trinitarian:
- T1. The one God and the Trinity are one and the same.
- T2. Each of these by himself is fully divine: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
- T3. None of these just is either of the others: Father, Son, Spirit.
Each and every known theologian in this period fails to have at least one of these requirements for being trinitarian. That is why the trinitarian “gold” projected onto these early texts by trinitarian apologists ends up being non-trinitarian “fool’s gold.”
Finally, when you realize that our surviving sources from this era are by Logos theorists, you may infer that most Christians in this era were Logos theorists. I explain why this is a mistake.
Here is AI-image-riddled video version at the UCA YouTube channel:
Links for this episode:
Video version of podcast 381: Dale Tuggy at the 2024 UK International Conference
Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology?
Litwa, trans., Refutation of All Heresies
Thomas Gaston, at the 2024 UK International Conference: “Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology”
Sean Finnegan at the 2024 UCA Conference in New Zealand: “An Honest Evaluation of Evidence for the Deity of Christ”
Susanne Lakin at the 2024 UCA Conference in Arkansas: “Biblical Anthropomorphism – Evidence of a Unipersonal God”
Sean Finnegan at the 2024 UCA Conference in Little Rock: “Isaiah 9:6 Explained: A Theophoric Approach”
This week’s thinking music is “I Got to Go Now (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain.
