What was the Arian Controversy and the Council of Nicaea?
The Arian meaning is Christian. The Arian controversy was a chain of Christian disputes about the character of Christ that started out with a dispute among Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. The most critical of those controversies involved the connection between the substance of God the Father and the substance of His Son.
Emperor Constantine, via the Council of Nicaea in 325, tried to unite Christianity and set up a single, imperially accredited model of the religion. Ironically, his attempt was the cause for the deep divisions created by the disputes after Nicaea.
These disagreements divided the Church into diverse factions for over 55 years, from the time before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 till after the First Council of Constantinople in 381. There was no formal schism.
Inside the Roman Empire, the Trinitarian faction eventually won the upper hand via the Edict of Thessalonica, issued on 27 February AD 380. This edict made Nicene Christology the national religion of the Roman Empire, and via stringent enforcement of that edict.
On this page, we will understand more about the Arian controversy and the council of Nicaea and the interesting historical facts on the Arian controversy timeline.
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Disagreements Regarding the Christological Model
The ongoing disagreements about which Christological model was regarded as normative burst into the open in the early 4th century during the Arian controversy, probably the most severe and most consequential theological dispute in early Christianity.
The protagonists, Arius (c. 250 - 336) and Athanasius (c. 293 - 373), differentiated subjects of theology, however, have been quite similar in temperament and personality - learned, self-confident, and unyielding. Both have been from Alexandria, Arius a prominent churchman and scholar, and Athanasius a remarkable theologian.
In 325 AD, the First Council of Nicaea was inaugurated by Christian bishops in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I, to settle the controversy. The council condemned Arius as a nonconformist and issued a creed to protect “orthodox” Christian beliefs.
What After Disagreements?
Though disagreements were the cause of the clash and the strict enactment of the Christian religion, however, outside the Roman Empire, Arianism, and different types of Unitarianism endured to be preached for a few times (without the blessing of the Empire), however, it was subsequently killed off. The modern Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as most other modern Christian sects, have usually followed the Trinitarian formulation, even though each has its own particular theology on the matter.
Now, let us understand what is Arius Christology.
Arius Christology
Arius’s Christology was a combination of adoptionism and logos theology. His fundamental perception was that the Son came into being through the will of the Father; the Son, therefore, had a beginning. Although the Son reached eternity, he was not eternal, and father and son never had an identical essence. In Jesus, who faced pain and wept, the logos became human.
One strength of Arius’s position was that it was regarded to protect a strict monotheism while offering the language interpretation of the New Testament—noteworthy, the word Son - that conformed to trendy utilization and meaning. The weakness of his view was that accurately because Jesus was able to struggle as a human, it was tough to understand how he could be completely divine and thus impact the redemption of humankind.
Belief for Christianity
According to Athanasius, God had to form a human so that people turn to divinity. Thus, the heart of Athanasius’s Christology was non secular referring to a speculative concern.
Further, this led him to summarise that the divine nature in Jesus was equal to that of the Father and that Father and Son have identical substance. He relied on the requirement for the Nicene homoousios to describe Son’s unity with the Father.
The controversy did extra than significantly agitate and bitterly divided the Christian community; it additionally threatened the political balance of the Roman Empire. Eager for a resolution, Emperor Constantine inaugurated and presided over the Council of Nicaea, which formed the Nicene Creed, declaring the Athanasian role. Constantine, in step with his biographer Eusebius of Caesarea, had sought to reap a rapprochement among the 2 aspects with the aid of using suggesting the usage of the phrase homoousios, which turned into regularly occurring with the aid of using all in attendance excluding Arius and Libyan bishops.
The Western bishops, who like most of the bishops in a sequence were not given an awful lot concept to the issue, had been now no longer afflicted with the aid of using Constantine’s term, which they understood as equal to the Latin phrase substantia, which Tertullian had used to explain the 2 substances of Jesus. The Nicene Class states that Jesus is:
Eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the
Father.
The council rejected the opinion of those who argued, as Eusebius put it in a famous letter, that Once he was not, or he was not before his generation, or he came to be out of nothing, or…he, the Son of God, is of a different hypostasis or ousia (Greek: “essence”), or that he is a creature, or changeable or mutable.
Arian Controversy Timeline: Facts and Information
Below is the chronological order for the timeline of the Arian Controversy:
From our topic, Arian controversy and the Council of Nicaea, we understand that the Arian controversy was a sequence of Christian conflicts about the nature of Christ that started with a clash between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, two Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt.
FAQs on Arian Controversy
1. What is Arianism?
Arianism is a significant Christological doctrine from the 4th century AD, named after its proponent, Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria. Its central belief is that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, was created by God the Father. According to this view, the Son is not co-eternal with the Father and is of a different substance, making him subordinate to the Father rather than being one in being with Him. This teaching was a major point of conflict in early Christianity.
2. What was the core theological dispute in the Arian Controversy?
The core dispute of the Arian Controversy revolved around the divine nature of Jesus Christ in relation to God the Father. The central question was whether the Son was:
Of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father, making Him fully and eternally God. This was the orthodox Trinitarian position.
A created being, made out of nothing, and therefore of a different substance than the Father. This was the Arian position, which implied that Jesus was divine but not in the same sense as God the Father.
This disagreement had profound implications for the Christian understanding of God, the Trinity, and the nature of salvation.
3. Who was Arius, and what was his main argument?
Arius (c. 256–336 AD) was a popular Christian presbyter and priest in Alexandria, Egypt. His main argument was based on a simple, logical premise: a father must exist before his son. Applying this to theology, he argued that God the Father must have existed before Jesus the Son. From this, he concluded that the Son had a beginning, was created by the Father, and could not be co-eternal or co-equal with God. His famous slogan was, “There was a time when the Son was not.”
4. What was the role of the Council of Nicaea in the Arian Controversy?
The First Council of Nicaea, convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 AD, was the first ecumenical council of the Christian church. Its primary purpose was to resolve the Arian Controversy which was causing a major schism. The council's role was to:
Listen to the arguments from both Arius and the orthodox side, led by figures like Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and his deacon, Athanasius.
Formally condemn Arianism as a heresy.
Establish a unified, orthodox doctrine of Christ's divinity by formulating the Nicene Creed.
5. How did the Nicene Creed specifically counter Arian beliefs?
The Nicene Creed was carefully worded to directly refute the core tenets of Arianism. It achieved this by including specific phrases:
"Begotten, not made": This directly contradicted Arius's claim that the Son was a created being. 'Begotten' implies a unique relationship of the same nature, unlike a creation made from nothing.
"Consubstantial with the Father" (homoousios): This was the most critical anti-Arian statement. It declared that the Son is of the very same substance or essence as the Father, affirming His full and equal divinity and refuting the Arian idea of a different, lesser substance.
6. Why was Arianism considered such a significant threat to early Christianity?
Arianism was seen as a profound threat for several reasons. Theologically, it challenged the core of Christian belief in the full divinity of Christ, which was seen as essential for the concept of salvation. Politically, the widespread and often violent disputes threatened the unity of the Christian Church, which Emperor Constantine viewed as a threat to the stability of the Roman Empire. This dispute was not just an academic debate; it divided communities and congregations, making it one of the most serious crises in History for the early Church.
7. Did the Council of Nicaea completely end the Arian Controversy?
No, the Council of Nicaea did not immediately end the controversy. Despite the condemnation of Arius and the creation of the Creed, Arianism remained highly influential for more than 50 years. Several subsequent Roman emperors favoured Arianism, leading to the exile of orthodox bishops like Athanasius. The theological and political struggle continued until the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, which reaffirmed and expanded the Nicene Creed, solidifying the orthodox Trinitarian position as the official doctrine of the Roman Empire.
8. Does Arianism have any influence today?
As an organized Christian denomination, Arianism largely disappeared by the 8th century. However, its core ideas—specifically the rejection of the Trinity and the belief that Jesus is a distinct, subordinate entity created by God—are found in some modern Nontrinitarian religious groups. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is the Son of God but is a created being, not co-eternal or co-equal with God the Father, a view that shares key similarities with the foundational principles of Arianism.
