Theological Framents of Photinus? The Original Doctrine of the Bishop of Sirmium

Abstract

The reconstruction of Fotinus of Sirmium’s doctrine presents serious difficulties, on the one hand, because his teaching was quickly reduced by subsequent tradition to the radical denial of the divinity of Christ and, on the other hand, because nothing of his works is preserved. In fact, Friedrich Loofs states that only one phrase of Fotino has come down to us. This article seeks to show that the news of Epifanius (Panarion 71) is more reliable than what has been previously thought, and that it contains some textual paragraphs of the proceedings against Fotinus conducted by Basilius of Ancyra, in Sirmium in the year 351. In this way, the text of Epifanius would allow to reconstruct the teaching of the bishop of Sirmium with greater security, and to accede to its original doctrine as it was before the severe deformation that suffered later. To favour the direct reading of the text studied, a bilingual version is offered as an appendix to this article.