Arianism

In the years after Christianity was legalized, when Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in the year 313, the newly accepted church still had obstacles to overcome in regards to maintaining the faith. The Christian church was still undecided in what the true gospel of what should be preached to their followers. Around the years 200 and moving forward several offshoots of Christianity sprung up across the continent caused by what was seen as misinterpretations by the Christian majority of the scriptures. Eventually these conflicting views culminated until action must be taken in order for the church to survive.

The church responded to this conflict of beliefs in the year 200 “As a result, by the year 200, Christians had formulated a statement of faith-the Apostles Creed” (Text pg. 76). Despite this and other actions taken by the Church, other factions of Christians such as the Gnostics and Arians still were in disagreement over who Jesus was. The Gnostics believed that material things were evil, which included the body, therefore Jesus could not have been human “To the Gnostics, Jesus was divine but not human” (Text pg.76). The Arians were the other of the two splinter groups whose ideas were considered heresy by the
mainstream Christians “Calling Jesus divine was merely a courtesy. He was neither God nor human, but somewhere in between” (Text pg. 77). To end the debate once and for all over who Jesus was the Council of Nicaea was called by Constantine in the year 325.

The council called together over three hundred bishops with varied backgrounds from the cultural ties they had across the continent.
During their time of discussion they ruled out Arianism because it did not fit with traditional views. They then went on to write a more in depth creed which explained who Jesus was “The bishops also wrote a more elaborate creed than the earlier Apostles creed, one that would incorporate the understanding of Jesus as both God and human” (Text pg.77). This new creed became known as the Nicene Creed which defined the church for centuries afterward. What the bishops did at their council best fits the model of the church as an institution because of the formal structure of organization provided by church
officials.

Having studied this topic I now realize how, before technology and infrastructure of our day, it was incredibly hard to mobilize and get the word out about important issues. To spread a message usually meant traveling many miles by foot in the time the Nicene Creed was created. I think we all take for granted how easy it is to interact and connect with people miles away instantaneously with social media being so widespread. It is not surprising that there was so much contention between the various groups of Christians because it took a lot of time for news to travel. People were more isolated because of this, so self interpretation was more common when there were no answers immediately available to them. Now that most people have access to the Internet answers are readily accessible and there is less speculation as to what is factual and correct. To defeat misconception one must have the knowledge to do so.