The Road to Nicaea
What were the key events leading up to the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD?
Remember, next year is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed, so to get you ready for the epic party of theological celebrations, let’s do some background!
The Nicene Creed is one of the most ancient and universal statements of the Christian faith that is widely used in liturgical worship across the world today. It is called Nicene Creed because it was originally composed and promulgated at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD in modern-day Iznik in Turkey, then was later reaffirmed and expanded at the first council of Constantinople in 381 AD to become the Niceno-Constantinpolitan Creed.
The Nicene Creed was an attempt to define the meaning of Jesus’s divinity, to reach a consensus as to the precise manner in which Jesus was divine? Was Jesus divine in the sense that he was a human being who had been adopted as God’s Son or deified upon death? Was he an angel who became human and then reached uber-angel status? Or was he divine the same way as God the Father?
In many ways, the Nicene Creed was the attempt to answer those questions in response to the controversial teachings of a Libyan presbyter named Arius, in light of disagreements among clergy in Egypt and in the eastern churches, and at the behest of the emperor Constantine who had only recently solidified his control of the eastern and western theatres of the empire. So the Nicene Creed emerged out of a mixture of theological tussles, church politics, and imperial concerns about the unity of the Christian churches.
Now, I don’t want to flog a dead horse, or resurrect a dead heretic, as I’ve already made a video about Arius and the Arian controversy, which provides an aerial overview of the many of the events leading up to and following Nicaea.
So, to briefly recap that, Arius argued that Jesus was divine in the sense of being a supreme angelic creature, a creation of the Father, who preceded creation, but was not co-eternal or co-equal with God the Father. Arius was expelled from the Diocese of Alexandria by bishop Alexander, but he found refuge and support from bishops in Palestine and Asia Minor who supported his case and argued for his readmittance to the church of Alexandria. Then at the Council of Nicaea which Emperor Constantine sponsored, Arius’ views were condemned and he was exiled. There were subsequent attempts to restore Arius to the church, with bishops and imperial officials politicking behind the scenes, but Arius died before he could be restored to fellowship in Alexandria. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the basic picture.
What I want to explain here is take a more granular look at the course of events following on from Arius’ expulsion from Alexandria around 318 AD up to the eve of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Some other day, I’ll talk about the Council of Nicaea itself, what went down, who said what, how it panned out, but for now it is all about the road to Nicaea, 318-325.
It is quite the story of theology, politics, intrigue, emperors, and feuding bishops!