: a theological movement initiated by Arius in opposition to Sabellianism that won strong support during the 4th century a.d. chiefly in the Eastern churches but that was condemned in general councils at Nicaea (a.d. 325) and Constantinople (a.d. 381), the doctrine being marked by the following principles: (1) God is absolutely alone, unknowable, and separate from every created being; (2) the Christ, the Logos or Son of God, preexistent but not eternally real, is a created being and so not God in the fullest sense, though as maker of all other creatures he may be regarded and worshiped as a secondary divinity; (3) in the incarnation the Logos assumed a body but not a human soul, and so Jesus Christ was neither truly God nor truly human compare anomoean , homoean
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