Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2020)
Homoian episcopate of Thrace and Illyricum: doctrinal identity and ecclesiological position in the Arian controversy of the 4th century
Abstract
This article deals with the history of the Homoian church party in Thrace and Illyricum at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. The article examines the scientifi c discussion on the meaning of the concept of “Homoianism” and its relationship to the concept of “Arianism”. It also outlines the general direction of development of the Homoian tradition. The author of the article argues that it is necessary to distinguish between the early Homoanism and the late Homoianism, which, despite the existence of continuity between them on a personal level and in self-identifi cation, were at the same time very diff erent in their theological orientation. If early Homoianism was a broad movement of supporters of the doctrinal compromise adopted at the councils in Rimini-Seleucia and Constantinople (359‒360), the late Homoian party, which included a number of Illyrian and Thracian bishops, took a rather radical subordinationist position in their triadology. Rigidly contrasting themselves with the Nicene and other church parties, the late Homoians also developed a rather specifi c ecclesiology. They defended the equivalence of the status of bishops, denied the primacy of the Roman see as the sedes Petri, but remained committed to the idea of the special signifi cance of Constantinople in the Christian world. Late Homoianism was made close to the early Homoianism by the lack of reliance on the patristic tradition and the idea of the unity of the Church as a simultaneous concord of the episcopate. At the same time, the later Homoians considered it possible to bring theological disputes to arbitrage of non-Christians (pagans and Jews). The absence of a developed idea of continuity in the interpretation of Divine Revelation was obviously a weakness in the Homoian theological tradition, which manifested itself in the “synod of heresies” organised by Emperor Theodosius I in Constantinople (383).
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