496 Early Church History 14: Paul of Samosata and Photinus of Sirmium

This is part 14 of the Early Church History class.

We've been learning about the controversy over Christ's origins in the last couple of episodes. This battle raged between groups of Christians who agreed that Jesus pre-existed for sixty years. But today we are taking a break from that and looking instead at the early Christians who held to a dynamic monarchian Christology. Specifically, we'll consider two influential bishops: Paul of Samosata and Photinus of Sirmium. Although sometimes mislabeled as adoptionists, these two believed in the virgin birth but did not think Christ existed before then. Although what we know about these two survives in the writings of their enemies, we can reconstruct sketches of their beliefs and influence.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKAwd6Cqzc&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=14

—— Links ——

• See other episodes featuring famous biblical unitarians: Thomas Emlyn, Michael Servetus, Adam Pastor, Claude of Savoy, Armenian Unitarians, Socinian Movement in Poland and Transylvania, British Unitarians
• More Restitutio resources on Christian history
• For the postscript discussion about the Constantinian Shift, see Preston Sprinkle's book, Nonviolence (previously called Fight), and his interview with George Kalantzis as well as his book Caesar and the Lamb
• See other classes here
• Support Restitutio by donating here
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• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here

—— Notes ——

Over the last couple of sessions, we’ve looked at the shameful battle between egalitarians and subordinationists. Both parties believed Jesus pre-existed but couldn’t a