Subordinationism

Abstract

Abstract Subordinationism is a trinitarian doctrine that regards the Son and the Holy Spirit as sub‐ordinate to the Father with respect to the Father's deity. Some early Christian theologians, including Tertullian and Origen, held that the Son was subordinate to the Father because they emphasized the monarchy of the Father in the Godhead. These theologians set the stage for the important debates about subordinationism that took place in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Subordinationists argued that a fully divine Son would imperil the monarchy of the Father, and they believed that any distribution of the divine substance to more than one person would indicate that God is both divisible and subject to change. As a result, they held that any person other than the Father must be created by the Father and subordinate to him. They thus argued that the Son was begotten by the Father as the firstborn of creation before time, that the Son is thus subordinate to the Father in every respect, and that the Father is the only person of the Trinity who is God in the fullest sense. This view was rejected as heresy at the Council of Nicaea in 325, which declared that the Son is not a creature but is eternally begotten from the Father. As such, the Son is as fully divine as the Father and worthy of the same worship the Father receives. The debate over these questions continued in the decades that followed, with Arius and other Subordinationists ranged against Athanasius and other defenders of the Nicene formula. A similar debate occurred regarding the Holy Spirit, and it culminated with the Council of Constantinople in 381. Following the pattern of Nicaea, this council condemned the subordination of the Spirit as heresy and argued that the Spirit is equal in dignity and worthy of the same worship as the Father and the Son.