Apollinaris the Younger

(c. 310 - c. 390)

A bishop of Laodicea, Apollinaris countered the Arian heresy with his own doctrine, Apollinarianism, which denied the existence in Christ of a rational human soul. This view, like Arianism, was deemed heretical by the Church and caused him to be excommunicated. With his father, Apollinaris the Elder, he reproduced the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament in the style of Platonic dialogues after the Roman emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.