Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Homoiousios (of like substance)

The 'semi-Arian' compromise: the Son is of a substance like the Father's, not identical.

Greek homoios ('like') + ousia.

Not biblical.

Championed by a mid-fourth-century party uneasy with homoousios as potentially modalist. Basil of Ancyra and others eventually moved toward the Nicene position; the two camps largely reconciled by 381.

Judged insufficient: 'like in substance' still leaves the Son on the creature side of the line or introduces degrees of divinity.

A historical position, not a live one.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.