A. K. Chidgzey

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, the only-begotten, that is, of the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, Who for of us men and for of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come again to judge the living and the dead;

And in the Holy Spirit.

The early centuries of Christianity were, to put it simply, pretty crazy. Basically, there were lots of different movements and different varieties of Jesus followers, lots of different texts and books and groups and different practices of this burgeoning Jesus movement. But it was growing quite rapidly and spreading. Despite the fact that it was technically illegal.

There were a handful of periods of persecution, and there were executions and general prejudice, but by and large Christians were tolerated and it seems, most of the time, their Roman neighbours generally either accepted them or even liked them. The general imperial policy was not to hunt out Christians and instead, only bring them in for questioning when someone dobbed them in. They then were given the opportunity to renounce any faith in Jesus that they may or may not have had and then offer tribute to the Roman gods. If they failed to do this they would be executed.

So the ongoing existence of Christianity basically relied on the good will of their neighbours. Though there were times when Christians were persecuted quite heavily. Though even here, many of these persecutions weren’t very popular.

Overall, it was pretty rough to be a Jesus follower. That is until the Roman Emperor named Constantine who was born in 272. He was one of the four rulers of what is called the tetrarchy, and his actions are possibly partly responsible for the civil war which broke out, and which he invariably won. The battle that ultimately saw him become the single ruler of the Roman Empire is known as the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the year 312.

Constantine marched against his most formidable opponent, Maxentius, and they met at the Milvian Bridge, which crossed the Tiber River just outside of Rome. Maxentius occupied Rome and holding this bridge was important. It was strategically defensible and he had a much bigger army, so it was a big ask for Constantine and his army.

It was common practice at the time to petition the gods and dedicate battles to them, hoping they would interfere and win them the battle.

Reportedly, Constantine received a vision as he was preparing for the battle. Reports of this vision differ, but the most well known report is that Constantine saw the symbol of the Chi-Rho in the sky, which were the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, which would become a significant symbol in Christianity. Accompanying this sign, apparently, was the phrase, “By this sign, you shall conquer.” Constantine dedicated this enormously significant battle to this deity that was not especially well known or well respected. It was a bit of a hail mary – excuse the pun – on Constantine’s part, like withdrawing all of your money and betting on a single number at the blackjack table.

But Constantine and his army were victorious, Maxentius drowned in the river during the battle, and he now controlled the west. It wouldn’t take long, with some tactful politics and the odd conspiracy, for Constantine to take control of the east and then be declared the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. He then moved the capital to Byzantium, because of its strategic location between the east and west, and he renamed it Constantinople. Because why not name a city after yourself?

A year after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where Constantine dedicated the battle to the Christian god, the edict of Milan was declared, which made Christianity legal.

Suddenly Christians who had been relegated to the side, it was shameful in Roman culture to be Christian, but now they were thrust into the centre of everything and were favoured by the emperor himself. Now whether Constantine genuinely converted to Christianity or not is debated and a little unclear. He continued to worship Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, and moved the sabbath to Sunday, the day of the sun, but he grew contemptuous of pagan worship, and he did build churches, reduce taxes, and end pagan sacrifices. So we can really only guess.

Regardless, he wanted to unify the Jesus movements into a single Christianity. With this was the goal of unifying theological doctrine, formalizing what would become orthodoxy. To take the many various strands of this nascent Christianity and to synthesize it into a single unit, which could be easily governed and administrated by a centralized authority, which, of course, was himself. It was part of his vision for a unified empire.

But part of this was addressing and resolving controversy. And there was a pretty major controversy at the time.

Prior to Constantine becoming sole ruler, a man by the name of Arius, a leader of the church in Alexandria, started saying some stuff about Jesus that caused a bit of a stir. He was concerned with a particular theology proposed by a priest named Sabellius, that God appeared in the mode of Father, and then appeared in the mode of Son, and then the Holy Spirit. This became known as Sabellianism, which is related to modalism, an ism that might be worth exploring in a later episode. But Arius wanted to assert the son’s distinction from the Father.

So far, so good. This is similar to the Christological statements that would come a century or so later when the church would formulate the doctrine of the Trinity.

But Arius actually stated that Jesus was completely dependent from the Father, in that Jesus, the Son, was a created being and was not God, albeit he was a perfect creature. He held strictly to a monotheism and could not reconcile how Jesus fit within that. Jesus had to be separate from the father, otherwise the father could not be father and he could not be son. If Jesus was begotten, then there was a time when he did not exist and so God created him, the first created being. He had a beginning and was subordinate to the Father.

The Bishop of Alexandria, confusingly named Alexander, clashed with Arius. Alexander steadfastly argued for the divinity of Jesus, based on the fact the early Jesus followers worshipped Jesus. If Arius is correct, then these followers were worshipping a created being, which would be idolatry. He was concerned that if there was a time when Jesus did not exist, then that means there was a time when God was not the Father. And so when God created Jesus, there was some change in God – he became father. And he didn’t like the suggestion that God could change. But for Arius, Alexander’s position was untenable, because calling Jesus God was a denial of monotheism. Arius thought that Alexander’s position implied polytheism, or the belief in multiple gods.

This theological debate evolved into public controversy when Alexander condemned Arius and kicked him from his leadership positions. Arius appealed to the people and to others across the eastern empire, and it spilled out onto the streets. There were demonstrations on the streets with people chanting Arius’ statements. Letters were written by other theologians across the empire declaring that Alexander was in the wrong. So it became a major issue that could potentially have divided the eastern empire.

And when Constantine took control, this was unacceptable. He invoked a great assembly to be held in Nicea, which was close to Constantinople. In 325, around 300 bishops from all over the empire descended upon this city for what would become known as the First Ecumenical Council. There had been other councils prior to this, and different traditions recognize different councils as authoritative, such as the Jerusalem Council recorded in Acts 15, but none came anywhere the scale and scope of this council of Nicea, where the true universality of the church became clear. The central goal was unity, structure, and order. The church could now exist as a legal organization, so what would or should it look like?

Constantine himself delivered the opening speech, where he said that division is worse than war. And then all sorts of other things were discussed, but Arianism was one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest. And there were different camps; some supporting Arius and some supporting Alexander. Arius himself could not actually sit in the council as he was not a bishop, but there was a group of Arians who spoke on his behalf. They perhaps were a bit naïve, expecting the council to see basic reason and to accept the Arian position without much argument or persuasion. I should clarify at this point that this term Arian is not in any way related to the term Aryan as would be used by the Nazi Party. Alexander was present at the council of Nicea, and he obviously opposed this position.

However, most of the bishops at this council were not overly concerned with the debate and had other issues on their mind. They hoped for a quick resolution. But when the leader of the Arian party, Eusebius of Nicomedia laid out the Arian position, people were outraged, catching the Arians by surprise. People shouted at Eusebius calling him a liar and a blasphemer, some stormed the stage and snatched Eusebius’ speech and tore the paper.

Arianism was swiftly rejected by the council. There is even a story that when summoned to face the wrath of the council, Arius was physically assaulted by no less than St Nicholas – that’s right. Santa Claus. So next time you write a letter to Santa, make sure you don’t sound remotely like a heretic.  

Now that is probably not exactly true, and not just because recent scholarly research has suggested that Santa Claus may not actually exist, but also because St Nicholas is not directly Santa Clause. The typical Santa we have today is probably an amalgamation of a few different traditions, including the German Kris Kringle, which comes from the word Christ Kind, meaning the Christ Child, the literal Christmas gift bringer, the Dutch figure Sinterklaas, the traditions that grew around St Nicholas of Myra, who became the patron saint of children, sailors, and brewers – which honestly sounds like a rather unsavoury mix – some Victorian imagination, and of course some embellishments from Coca Cola.

What came out of the council was the Nicene Creed, which I recited in the opening of this episode, and which would go on to define orthodox Christianity to this day, in both Eastern and Western traditions, and is often recited in churches. In fact Hillsong even wrote a song using the creed.

We can see a few things from the creed that directly addresses Arianism.

“We believe in one God” – confirming their monotheism.

“And in one Lord Jesus Christ…begotten from the Father…of the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father” – obviously directly against Arius’ views that Jesus was separate from the Father, was not God, and was made.

And it was here that the word homoousios was introduced, at least formally, as a description of Jesus’ relationship with the Father. I mentioned this word in the episode on Christology, and means of one being, or essence, or substance. It means that Jesus was of the same stuff as the Father. Whatever makes God God, Jesus has it.

Arius and his followers, including Eusebius, were declared heretical and were deposed. Constantine stepped in and had them exiled. This is the first instance of a civil sentence attached to an ecclesiastical one. In other words, when the state has enforced a church proclamation and so is the first instance of the church and state working together and would birth Christendom.

Politics aside, if you’ve listened to my episode on heresiology, you could probably guess that I think this punishment is seriously harsh. Arius was not trying to deceive people; he was wrestling with a really difficult theological issue. In my opinion, unity in the shape of conformity is not true unity.

Not everyone was happy with the word homoousios even though they might have signed the creed. Some thought this left no room at all for distinction between Father and Son. So some resistance was brewing almost immediately.

Eusebius, who had been exiled, was an able politician, and managed to charm Constantine into letting him return. He was given an opportunity to present his case to the emperor, and Arius was called back out of exile. Now an old man in his 80’s, Arius was no longer banished and died in the year 336, 8 years after Alexander. Some suspect he might have been poisoned, while others suggest his death was God’s divine judgment on Arius’ heresy. The controversy did not end there.

Alexander was succeeded by a man named Athanasius, who was present at the Council of Nicea as a deacon and would go on to become the leader of the Nicene cause, over against the Arianism which was growing in popularity, despite its condemnation at the council. Eusebius grew in power and popularity and had the favour of the emperor. Eventually, Athanasius along with most of the bishops who supported the Nicene creed, were themselves banished.

Athanasius had been accused of dealing with magic and for murder. He was summoned to a council which was attended by the man who Athanasius had supposedly murdered. Convinced by the rumours, people changed their tune to believing that Athanasius had cut the man’s hands. Athanasius uncovered one of the man’s hands, to which someone shouted, “It was the other hand!” So Athanasius revealed the other hand, which was still connected to the man’s wrist, and he cried, “What sort of monster do you think this man was? One with three hands?” So Athanasius was let free. For now. Eusebius nevertheless managed to convince Constantine to banish Athanasius, and so he was.

Constantine died in 337 and was succeeded by his son Constantine II, who supported the Nicene leaders and recalled those who had been banished. Constantine II ruled over the Western portion of Europe, while Constantine’s second son, Constans, ruled Italy and North Africa, while the third of the sons, Constantius ruled over the east. Constantius happened to be pro-Arian and so Athanasius was exiled a second time. He went on to become sole emperor and basically enforced Arianism.

Just to make it all the more confusing, when Constantius died, Julian become emperor who wanted to return the empire to Paganism.

But that’s a whole other story. But he was unconcerned with these silly Christian theological debates and so cancelled all orders of exile.

Athanasius returned to Alexandria, where we worked to get a bit of a following and his campaign against Arianism really ramped up. His main concern had to do with salvation, and argued that if Jesus was human, as Arianism insisted, then he was no true saviour. Only the creator could save creation from the miss it got itself into, not another created being.

But many people still struggled with the word homoousios, arguing that it obliterated any distinction between Father and Son. So with some technical theological diplomacy, it became acceptable to speak not just of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being of one substance, but also that they could be recognized as three substances. This would set the scene for later trinitarian discussions, but it went a long way in the mid-fourth century toward establishing unity and orthodoxy. Support swung heavily toward the Nicene position against the Arian position, which was ultimately stamped out finally and definitively at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

And ever since Arianism has been declared most assuredly as heretical.

That’s it for this week. An ism and a schism – Arianism. What’s really interesting about this story is just how close mainstream Christian came to being Arian. The Nicene view of Jesus was battered and bruised, left to die in the sewers. But the persistence of Athanasius, with some help from the imperial Roman government and a few timely deaths, meant that Nicene Christology ultimately won the day. So much of this was driven by politics rather than theology, and Christian doctrine might have looked very different today.

Some might say it was providence and the work of the Holy Spirit which directed everything. But I’ll leave that up to you to decide.