The deity of Jesus, Arius and the Council of Nicea
Though Tertullian had provided the church with the formula that God is one substance, consisting in three persons, he had by no means given the world a complete understanding of the Trinity. Indeed, this doctrine has puzzled the greatest theologians.
Early in the fourth century a pastor of Alexandria, Egypt—Arius—called himself a Christian. But Arius also accepted Greek theology, which taught that God is unique and unknowable.
According to such thought, He is so radically different that He cannot share His substance with anything: Only God can be God. In his book Thalia Arius proclaimed that Jesus was divine, but not God. Only God the Father, Arius said, could be immortal, so the Son had to be a created being. He was like the Father, but not truly God.
Many former pagans felt comfortable with Arius’s views, because they could preserve the familiar idea of an unknowable God and see Jesus as a kind of divine superhero, not much different from the divine-human heroes of Greek mythology.
An eloquent preacher, Arius knew how to make the most of this appeal and even put some of his propositions into jingles, which the common folk sang.
Why would anyone make a fuss about Arius’s ideas? Many wondered. But Arius’s bishop, Alexander, saw that in order to save sinful humanity Jesus had to be truly God. Alexander had Arius condemned by the synod, but the popular pastor had many supporters. Soon riots erupted in Alexandria over this ticklish theological contest and other clergymen began to take sides.
Once the riots had erupted, Emperor Constantine could not afford to see the debate as “just a religious issue.” This “religious issue” threatened the security of his empire. To deal with the problem, Constantine called an empire wide council at the city of Nicea, in Asia Minor.
Dressed in jewel-encrusted, multicolored robes, Constantine opened the council. He told the more than three hundred bishops attending that they must resolve the issue. Division in the church, he said, was worse than war, because it involved eternal souls.
The emperor let the bishops debate. Called before them, Arius plainly proclaimed that the Son of God was a created being, and unlike the Father, He was capable of change.
The assembly denounced and condemned Arius’s view—but they needed to go beyond that. Making their own view plain required a creed.
So they formulated some statements about God the Father and God the Son. In it they described the Son as “true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the father.”
That “of one substance” was critical. The Greek word they used was homoousios. Homo meant “same”; ousios meant “substance.” The Arian party wanted to add one more letter to that word: Homoiousios meant “of like [similar] substance.”
All but two bishops signed the statement of faith. Those two and Arius were exiled. Constantine seemed pleased with the results of his work, but it did not last.
Though Arius was temporarily out of the picture, his theology would remain for decades. A deacon of Alexandria, Athanasius, became one of Arianism’s most capable foes. In 328 Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria and continued the fight within that flock.
But the battle was hotly waged throughout the Eastern church until another council, held in Constantinople in 381, reaffirmed the Council of Nicea. Even so, traces of Arius’s thoughts have remained within the church.
The Council of Nicea both began to settle a theological issue and set precedents for church and state. In later years, when thorny issues arose in the church, it would consult the collective wisdom of its bishops. Constantine had also begun the practice of uniting an empire and church in decision making; it would have many baneful consequences in the centuries to come.
Curtis, A., Lang, J. S., Petersen, R., & Curtis, J. S. L. A. K. (1998). 100 most important events in christian history, the. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
