Apollinaris of Laodicea

Apollinaris of Laodicea (c 310 - c 390 CE), was a theologian and bishop who was later condemned for his Christological views. He was a lector in the church of Laodicea. Around 361, the Nicene community there elected him bishop. Because of his admiration for Greek philosophy and literature, he rewrote much of the Bible in Greek classical form. Most of his writings have been lost. He supported the Nicene Creed and strongly opposed Arianism in a climate that strongly favored the latter. This led him to be excommunicated when he extended his hospitality to the then exiled, Nicene bishop Athanasius of Alexandria. He departed from orthodoxy in his belief that divinity and humanity could not be united and reconciled in one person, Jesus Christ; he thought that Jesus did not have a human consciousness, but only a divine one. This led to a second excommunication and an official comdemnation at the Council of Constantinople (381) after Basil the Great and Pope Damascus I opposed his views. The Christological heresy which bears his name, Apollinarianism, survived in Monophysite churches (see Monophysitism).

Elise M. Bender