Why was arianism such a threat to christianity

Arius's ideas offered a sensible rational approach to the relationship between the Father and the Son, while the Nicene Creed seemed confusing, nonbiblical, and provocative. In the end, however, the Nicene teaching won out. Theodosius, the first emperor for many years to strongly oppose Arianism, affirmed the legitimacy and orthodoxy of bishops and priests who supported the Nicene Creed.

Under his leadership and imperial authority, the Council of Constantinople reaffirmed and developed the statements made by the Nicene bishops some 56 years earlier.

It truly seemed for a time that it was Athanasius contra mundum. Lewis wrote:. Athanasius did the same. He stood for the Tninitarian doctrine, 'whole and undefiled,' when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius—into one of those 'sensible' synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which, then as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen.

It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away. Christopher A. Click here for reprint information on Christian History. Sections Home. Bible Coronavirus Prayer. Subscribe Member Benefits Give a Gift. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. Christian History Archives Eras Home. How Arianism Almost Won. Current Issue November Subscribe. Read This Issue. Subscribe to Christianity Today and get instant access to past issues of Christian History!

Also in these books, Athanasius put forward the belief, referencing John —4, that the Son of God, the eternal Word Logos through whom God created the world, entered that world in human form to lead men back into the harmony from which they had earlier fallen away.

It was proposed early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius and was popular throughout much of the Eastern and Western Roman empires, even after it was denounced as a heresy by the Council of Nicaea Definition of modalism. Nestorianism is a Christian theological doctrine that upholds several distinctive teachings in the fields of Christology and Mariology.

It opposes the concept of hypostatic union and emphasizes that the two natures human and divine of Jesus Christ were joined by will rather than personhood. Apollinarism or Apollinarianism is a Christological concept proposed by Apollinaris of Laodicea died that argues that Jesus had a normal human body but a divine mind instead of a regular human soul.

It was deemed heretical in and virtually died out within the following decades. The Ebionites "poor ones" were a sect of Jewish Christians who flourished in the early centuries of Christianity, especially east of the Jordan. They emphasized the binding character of the Mosaic Law and believed Jesus was the human son of Mary. The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the church. Most significantly, it resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed.

The term Christology has two meanings in theology. It can be used in the narrow sense of the question as to how the divine and human are related in the person of Jesus Christ, or alternatively of the overall study of his life and work.

Here it is used in the restricted, narrow sense. Literally, the magic of the Holy Spirit , was made live and well, beavering away on behalf of the Bishop of Rome and his henchmen. Ambrose Prevails. The elevation of the soldier Valentinian I in brought a Catholic to the throne in the West, though not a particularly devout one. But it was he who brought Ambrose city boss of Milan to the fore. Ambrose persuaded Valentinian's son, the young caesar Gratian, to depose six Arian bishops and enact a series of laws between and prohibiting Arianism in the West.

The argument was settled, as ever, by force. With Gratian dead at 24 Ambrose moved on to his younger sibling. In the hands of Ambrose the 'Trinitarian creed' was developed to inform the dim witted Valentinian II, a child otherwise under the influence of his Arian mother, the Empress Justina. The naked power struggle between politico bishop and Regent masqueraded as a theological dispute on the nature of the godhead.

A mob animated by some convenient martyr's bones settled the matter. The Trinity, "that unfathomable mystery", had become the central doctrine of Roman Christianity, enforced on pain of death. In the Spanish fanatic Theodosius I and a mob of rumbustious bishops arrived in Constantinople from the west.

The new pious Emperor outlawed Arianism and everything else of which he disapproved throughout the empire. Early in the 5th century the Trinitarian dogma was re-labelled the "Athanasian Creed" , in honour of the original fanatic who had preferred Egyptian mysteries to Greek philosophy. In later centuries, the rather woolly concept of the 'Holy Spirit' would be upstaged by the altogether more visual 'Mary Mother of Jesus'. The Trinity itself would give the 'Scholastics' of the Middle Ages a lifetime of leisured theorising.

Arian Twilight. When Roman captives, gold or troops passed beyond the northern frontier, Arian Christianity went with them. As early as the s some of the Vandal tribes had acquired Christian talismans and from them the trinkets of Christ passed to remoter tribes.

Or maybe not. By the s, Arianism had been adopted by the Goths and spread from them to nearly all the German tribes. During the migrations and invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries, the barbarian kingdoms which arose on the fallen empire of the west, were almost all of Arian persuasion. Arianism served each in the same fashion it had served Constantinople under the Arian emperors: as a 'national' religion, in embryonic form potentially a 'department' of a 'national administration,' with bishops chosen by kings.

The very notion was anathema to the 'universal' persuasion of the Catholics whose grand design was for ecclesiastic not secular power, under the international authority of a papal monarch in Rome.

The symbiotic relationship between the Catholic bishops and the Frankish warlords brought both to the mastery of Western Europe.

Some fifty articles are now available as a book. For your copy order:. Christianity's "civil war" Arianism vs. Catholicism — The Struggle for Power. Complete Rubbish! The Bishop who did not know of Jesus! Befuddled Proles " It is a strange experience The Ebionites regarded Jesus as the chosen one: "Christ a man chosen by God on whom the Holy Spirit rested and made divine. Tertullian - Tertullian , a bishop of Carthage, provided a hybrid theology, a 'missing link' between the one god nonsense and three god nonsense.

Origen A self-castrating fanatic from Alexandria, Origen wrote prolifically but little of his work survived. This Time its Personal Arian Tolerance vs. Catholic Intolerance "Though we believe not the things which ye believe, yet we do not speak evil of them, for the holding of this or that belief may not be imputed as a crime.

Response from Gregory of Tours, Catholic bishop : "Thou art a defender of the Gentiles, and a champion of heretics, for thou dost defile the dogmas of the Church and dost proclaim the worship of pagan abominations. Serious stuff this. Wisdom from a Fool: " Just a matter of words In letters to both protagonists in he tried to reconcile them by saying that their disagreement was "merely just a matter of words. Do you really think it all began with a sanctimonious Jewish wonder-worker, strolling about 1st century Palestine?

Prepare to be enlightened. Still holding to the idea that some sort of holy man lies behind the legend? Better check out Godman — Gestation of a Superhero. A closer look at the glib assertion that the Jesus story "got off the ground quickly and spread rapidly. Many currents fed the Jesus myth, like streams and tributaries joining to form a major river. Sourcing the legend — The Syncretic Heritage of Christianity.

Much of the mythology of Christianity is a rehash of an older and even more transparent fabrication — Judaism. Jew Story — The Way of the Rabb i. Human ingenuity and cunning is matched by mankind's equally monumental credulity and wishful thinking. Christianity's Fabrication Factory. Church organisation, authority and membership preceded rather than followed the justifying doctrine. Dogma — The Word in all its Savage Glory. From religious policeman to grandee of the church, from beast fighter in Ephesus to beheading in Rome, Paul's story has more holes than a swiss cheese.

Orchestrated by ambitious Christian clerics, a cancer of superstition, fear and brutality was imposed across Europe. The Christian Heaven may have been a vain folly but the Christian Hell has been real enough.

Adoptionism was first officially taught by elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, Spain, c. The Great Schism came about due to a complex mix of religious disagreements and political conflicts. One of the many religious disagreements between the western Roman and eastern Byzantine branches of the church had to do with whether or not it was acceptable to use unleavened bread for the sacrament of communion.

Nestorius appeared to teach that there were two persons in Christ, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God. A flurry of theological polemics and political maneuvering ensued. In Celestine, bishop of Rome, condemned Nestorius, and a year later Cyril presided over the Council of Ephesus, which also anathematized him. Pelagianism, also called Pelagian heresy, a 5th-century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will.

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