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“Patripassianism” (not to be confused with “theopassionism,” which is a synonym of theopaschitism: see Theopaschites) is a term of abuse referring to theological views that identify God the Father and God the Son so strongly that they seem to imply that Pater passus est (“The Father suffered”). Tertullian ascribed this position to a certain Praxeas and Hippolytus of Rome to Pope Zephyrinus, Pope Callistus, Noetus of Smyrna, Epigonus, Kleomenes, and Sabellius; all of these “patripassians” were active in Rome in the late 2nd and early…

Theopaschitism (from θεός [“God”] and πάσχειν ["suffer”]) is a Christological term denoting the view that God the Logos incarnate has suffered on the cross. Early theopaschite expressions like, for example, “they crucified the Lord of Glory” (1 Cor 2:8), “God’s blood” (Ign. Eph. 1.1), and the “crucified God” (Greg. Naz. Or. 45:29) served to express that in Jesus (Christ, Jesus, 01: Survey) it was really God who suffered on the cross. In the West, which tended to distinguish more strictly between the human and the divine in Jesus than the Ea…