❋What It Taught

Apollinaris of Laodicea was a staunch defender of Nicene orthodoxy who, ironically, fell into his own heresy in the process. Trying to explain how Christ could be fully divine, he taught that in Christ the divine Logos replaced the human rational soul. Christ had a human body and perhaps a human emotional nature, but no human mind or rational will. The Logos supplied those.

Why It Was Wrong

The refutation came from the Cappadocian Fathers, especially Gregory of Nazianzus, who articulated a principle that became axiomatic: what is not assumed is not healed. The entire purpose of the Incarnation is that the Son of God took on human nature so that human nature could be redeemed from within. If Christ did not have a human rational soul, then human rational souls are unredeemed.

The Church's Response

The Council of Constantinople in 381 condemned Apollinarianism, defining that Christ was fully human in every respect except sin. The full humanity of Christ was not a limitation on his divinity; it was the mechanism of our salvation.