Agnoetae
Encyclopedia
Agnoetae was a general name given to those heretical sects which in one form or another denied the divine omniscience either of the incarnate
Christ
or of God the Father
.
, s.v., Agnoetae
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
or of God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
.
- Theophronius of CappadociaCappadociaCappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
(370), a disciple of EunomiusEunomius of CyzicusEunomius , one of the leaders of the extreme or "anomoean" Arians, who are sometimes accordingly called Eunomians, was born at Dacora in Cappadocia early in the 4th century....
, denied that God knew the past by memory or the future with certainty; and taught that even for a knowledge of the past he required study and reflection. "Though God foreknows that which is not, and knows that which is, and remembers what has happened, he does not always have that knowledge in the same manner with respect to the future and present, and changes his knowledge of the past." His ideas were so strange that even the Eunomians excommunicatedExcommunicationExcommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
him. His followers were called Theophronians.
- The AriansArianismArianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
, who taught that the nature of Christ was inferior to that of his Father, claimed that Jesus was ignorant of many things, according to their interpretation of his own statements about the day of judgment and by the fact that he frequently asked questions of his companions and of the Jews.
- The Apollinarists, denying that Christ had a human soul, or, at least, that he had a human intellect (nous), necessarily regarded him as devoid of knowledge.
- The NestoriansNestorianismNestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
generally, and AdoptionistsAdoptionismAdoptionism, sometimes called dynamic monarchianism, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's son at his baptism...
believed that the knowledge of Christ was limited; that he grew in learning as He grew in age .
- Certain MonophysitesMonophysitismMonophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the Christological position that Jesus Christ has only one nature, his humanity being absorbed by his Deity...
maintained that Jesus was God, but that his human form was like other humans in all respects, including limited knowledge. Their founder was Themistius, a deaconDeaconDeacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
in AlexandriaAlexandriaAlexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in the 6th century. The sect was anathemaAnathemaAnathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...
tized by Pope Gregory IPope Gregory IPope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
on the basis of a treatise against them by Eulogius I, the OrthodoxEastern Orthodox ChurchThe Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Patriarch of AlexandriaPatriarch of AlexandriaThe Patriarch of Alexandria is the Archbishop of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation of Pope , and did so earlier than that of the Bishop of Rome...
.
External links
- Knowledge of Christ Catholic Encyclopedia
, s.v., Agnoetae