The Official Newsletter of Christian History & Biography Magazine
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The Road to Nicaea
The Council of Nicaea strove to answer one of the central questions of the Christian faith, but it also proved that theology is never a tidy business.
By John Anthony McGuckin, from Issue 85: The Council of Nicaea: Debating Jesus' Divinity
Graffiti emblazoned on walls, a vicious war of pamphlets, riots in the streets, lawsuits, catchy songs of ridicule ... It's hard for modern Christians to imagine how such public turmoil could be created by an argument between theologians—or how God could work through the messiness of human conflict to bring the church to an understanding of truth.
To us, in retrospect, the Council of Nicaea is a veritable mountain in the landscape of the early church. For the protagonists themselves, it was more in the nature of an emergency meeting forced on hostile parties by imperial power and designed to stop an internal row.
Finish this article from the Christian History & Biography website.
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 Constantine
First Christian emperor
"I have experienced this in others and in myself, for I walked not in the way of righteousness. But the Almighty God, who sits in the court of heaven, granted what I did not deserve."
The first Life of Constantine describes its subject as "resplendent with every virtue that godliness bestows." This praise-filled biography came from the hand of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, and perhaps Constantine's greatest admirer. It is the classic image that prevailed in Eastern Christianity for more than a thousand years.
Read more about Constantine.
More from Christian History & Biography below.
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 Christology of the Later Fathers
Includes important works from three of the leading
Christian thinkers of the fourth century, Athanasius,
Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa.
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July 25, 325: The Council of Nicea closes.
The first ecumenical council, convened by Constantine, rejected the Arians (who denied the full divinity of Christ) as heretics (see issue 85: Debating Jesus' Divinity).
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The Nicene Creed Isn't What You Think It Is
The creed you may recite in church each Sunday is not the original creed as crafted by the Council of Nicaea in 325. It is, in fact, a more developed version of the creed as issued by the Council of Constantinople in 381. The original Nicene creed had fewer clauses and a much simpler theology of the Holy Spirit. It also had an "anathema" or legal condemnation that directly attacked the Arian position. The later council dropped this to make the creed more universally applicable.
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The Original Nicene Creed
"We believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance from the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, will come to judge the living and the dead;
And in the Holy Spirit.
But as for those who say, there was when he was not, and, before being born he was not, and he came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the son of God is a different hypostasis or substance, or is subject to change or alteration--these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes."
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A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity
