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Anomoean
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Aëtius
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Arianism
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Anomoean

religious group
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History

Anomoean, (from Greek anomoios, “unlike”), any member of a religious group of the 4th century that represented an extreme form of Arianism (q.v.), a Christian heresy that held that the essential difference between God and Christ was that God had always existed, while Christ was created by God. Aëtius, the founder of the Anomoeans, reasoned that the doctrine carried to its logical conclusion must mean that God and Christ could not be alike. Because agennēsia (“self-existence”) is a part of the essence of God, Christ could not be like God because he lacked this necessary quality. Aëtius’ chief convert and the second leader of the movement was Eunomius, after whose death (c. 394) the Anomoeans soon disappeared.