This is a listing of Christological Heresies (those that disagree with the Trinity) in history. Questioning the doctrine of the Trinity isn't new. Defending the doctrine isn't new.
Arianism.
Started by the followers of Arius who lived in the late 3rd and early 4th century. Arians viewed God the Father as the eternal God, and Christ was a separate, lesser, created being. They held that there was a time when Christ was not. Arianism enjoyed some popular belief before the First Council of Nicaea because Constantine preferred the view as did the Goths, the Ostrogoths, and the Visigoths. Arianism was condemned by the First Council of Nicaea, and the doctrine of the Trinity (whose central term is homoousios - "of the same substance") was confirmed. The Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were written to counter Arianism.
Arianism didn't stop with the decision of the Council. Constantine's son set out to reverse the Nicene Creed. He exiled those who held to the creed and made Arian beliefs the standard of the realm. Arianism was the predominant view in the East for a time despite the multiple councils that met to settle it. Finally, in A.D. 381, the Second Ecumenical Council met (note that Constantine was long dead by this time) and the Eastern bishops accepted the Nicene Creed.
Arianism was the primary view in early medieval Germany even into the 5th century, when they took down the Roman Empire. However, despite their superior strength, they were converted to the Trinitarian view by the 8th century.
Arianism is essentially the same view held by Jehovah's Witnesses today with slight variations. Arius held that Jesus was created "out of nothing", not "begotten" of the same substance as God. (This kind of makes Jesus an adopted son rather than a natural-born son.) Jehovah's Witnesses hold that God is the Father, and that Jesus His firstborn Son. They believe that God created all things by the Word, who is Jesus, but they view the Word as the instrument, while Arius viewed Christ as a co-creator.
Others are viewed to be similar, but they are not accurately "Arian". Mormonism holds more to tritheism rather than Arianism (although it would be more accurate to describe them as polytheists), and Unitarianism believes in the oneness of God (as opposed to the Trinitarian view), but not in the same way as Arius.
Tritheism
Tritheism is the teaching that three separate beings form the Godhead. Tritheism can trace its roots to pagan beliefs, such as the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. This view is counter to Trinitarian doctrine which confirms three distinct but not separate persons of the same substance. The early church continually affirmed that tritheism was a heresy.
In the 17th century, the Anglican Church revived tritheism, and Mormons still hold to the view today (although they have more of a polytheistic view in the final analysis).
Modalism
Modalism is likely the most common error when it comes to Trinitarian constructs. Modalism takes several forms, but the basic concept is that One God has expressed Himself in three "modes" throughout history. In the Old Testament we saw "the Father", who, in the Gospels became "the Son", and, after His death, resurrection, and ascension, expressed Himself as the Holy Spirit. These modes were distinct and never simultaneous. Also known as Sabellianism for one its early supporters, Sabellius, the view held some popularity in the 2nd century because of the difficulties of understanding the Trinitarian doctrine. The view was also dubbed, "Patripassianism" - from the Latin words patris for "father", and passus for "to suffer" - because the idea was that the Father came to suffer as the Son.
Modalism is not Trinitarian doctrine. It is currently rejected officially by all but the Oneness Pentecostals. However, it is a common mistake brought about by our standard teachings on the Trinity. For instance, how many of us have not heard the parallel of "water, ice, steam" to the Trinity? However, since these cannot coexist, it lends itself to the heresy of modalism.
Dynamic Monarchianism
Dynamic Monarchianism is the view that Jesus was not in His nature God. It is the view that God existed in Jesus, just as God exists in all of us – but that God existed in Jesus in a particularly powerful way. Jesus was God because God inhabited Him. This view is also called "Socianism" because of its adherent, Socinus, and Psilanthropism (psilo - merely, anthropos - man). The original view said that Christ was born a man, but that at His baptism He became the Christ, and at His death He was adopted by the Father as His Son. (Thus, it is also referred to as "Adoptionism".) This view holds that Jesus was the logos and was homoousis (of the same essence) with the Father, but in the same sense as a man’s reason is homoousios to himself.
Docetism
Oddly enough, we haven't seem much of this around today. This view denied that Jesus was human. It held that He was simply a vision, that He appeared to be human, but in fact was only Divine.
And on and on
These are the primary ones, but the list goes on and on. Ebionism, Gnosticism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism (the monophysite heresy), many views have come in to either deny the deity or the humanity of Christ. In each view there are shades, variations. All were rejected as heresy by the Church. Despite this, you might even recognize some of them in the views of some today.
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