Trinity

TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:
PROF. M. M. NINAN
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SOCINIANISM
Faustus Socinus (1539–1604), the namesake of Socinianism
Socinianism (extinct as a modern and distinct group)
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini, which was
developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during
the 16th and 17th centuries and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania
during the same period. It is most famous for its nontrinitarian Christology but
contains a number of other unorthodox beliefs as well.
The ideas of Socinianism date from the element of the Protestant Reformation known
as the Radical Reformation and have their root in the Italian Anabaptist movement of
the 1540s, such as the Antitrinitarian Council of Venice in 1550. Lelio Sozzini was the
first of the Italian Antitrinitarians to go beyond Arian beliefs in print and deny the
pre-existence of Christ in his Brevis explicatio in primum Johannis caput – a
commentary on the meaning of the Logos in John Chapter 1:1–15 (1562).
The most distinctive element in Socinian, as opposed to Arian, Christology is the
objection of the personal pre-existence of Christ. The theme of Christ's preexistence
occurs repeatedly in the Racovian Catechism, with detailed discussion of disputed
verses, such as:
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