Sabellianism
Trinitarian theology of Sabellius, a teacher in Rome before his condemnation by Pope Callistus (217-222). Sabellius believed that the Creator (Father) is not personally distinguished from the Redeemer (Son) or the Sanctifier (Spirit), but rather exists and acts according to three modes of being and action. Already repudiated by the Church Fathers, this theology was also rejected explicitly in the Lutheran Formula of Concord and in Calvin's Institutio Christiana, and implicitly in Article I of the Thirty-Nine Articles (see BCP, p. 867). See Modalism.
Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,” Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.