Council Of Nicaea Analysis

Athanasius and the Council of Nicaea Two important doctrines of the Christian doctrines are that the Father and the Son are one and the codification on the Bible. At times, both of these truths were debated. The validity of these truths can be credited to one man, Athanasius. Athanasius “the Great” of Alexandria is most well-known for two things: standing up to Arius at the Council of Nicaea and canonizing the New Testament. The Council of Nicaea plays a critical role in Christianity. According to Philip Schaff (1910), a German theologian and church historian, in his work The History of the Christian Church, the Council of Nicaea that met in Asia Minor in 325 was divided into three parties: the orthodox, who fought for Christ’s deity under
According to Robert Payne (1996), an author of history and biographies, in his article “A Hammer Struck at Hersey” from Christian History after much debating and even the emperor having to step in, Arius with his belief that the Son is subordinate to the Father was deemed a heretic (p. 12). Now with Arianism eliminated, the church could focus their efforts on other concerns such as developing their theology. If Arius and his beliefs had been accepted, Christianity would have lost one of its defining qualities, monotheism. Monotheism is the belief of only one god. During this time, this was a huge distinctive of the Christian faith because most Romans worshipped multiple gods. Kenneth Scott Laouette (2003), American Orientalist, missiologist, and historian of the expansion of Christianity, in his book A History of Christianity, tells how Athanasius helped develop the Nicene Creed which establishes that God the Father and God the Son are one or homoousious (p. 155). Homoousious means that the Father and the Son are equal in power and of the same substance. The Son is not subordinate to the Father because they are one. Without solidifying the fact that the Father and Son are
Two of the theological giants of the works of Athanasius are The Life of St. Antony and Four Orations against the Arians (Glenn, 2010). His most famous, Four Orations against the Arians, is written with the intent to prove why Arians could not be Christians. In his work, Athanasius explains how if Christ was not God, then Christ's blood could not redemptive. Although Constantine is credited as the political giant of the Nicene Age, Athanasius was the major theological influence (Schaff, 1910, p. 885). Constantine legalized Christianity, but Athanasius was the one who explained it. Athanasius highly influenced Christianity in multiple ways. Without him, the Trinity would not exist and the New Testament could look completely different. He boldly stood for what he believed was right and true, and it paid off. Athanasius is a key person in church history because he staunchly believed in the deity of Christ and began the codification of the New