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In Christian theology, historically patripassianism (as it is referred to in the Western church) is a version of Sabellianism in the Eastern church (and a version of modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism). Modalism is the belief that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three different modes or emanations of one monadic God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons within the Godhead and that there are no real or substantial differences between the three, such that the identity of the Spirit or the Son is that of the Father.[1]
In the West, a version of this belief was known pejoratively as patripassianism by its critics (from Latin patri-, "father", and passio, "suffering") because they alleged that the teaching required that since God the Father had become directly incarnate in Christ, the Father literally sacrificed himself on the cross.[2]