Origen of Alexandria (184 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early
Christian scholar, ascetic and theologian. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000
treatises in multiple branches of theology. He was one of the most influential
figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described as "the
greatest genius the early church ever produced".
Origen
came into conflict with Demetrius, the bishop
of Alexandria, in 231with his revolutionary view on the Holy Trinity. Origen
taught that, before the creation of the material universe, God had created the souls of all the intelligent beings.
These souls, at first fully devoted to God, fell away from him and were given
physical bodies. The Christological debate could no longer be contained within
the Alexandrian diocese. It had become a topic of discussion—and disturbance—for the entire
Church. The Church was now a powerful force in the Roman world,
This debate continued even after Origen. It
was a priest Arius - 256–336 - believed that Jesus was divine but somewhat
less so than God. This was in Alexandria in Egypt and Arius was
tremendously popular, in part because he was also a poet and a singer. Arius’s
basic premise was the uniqueness of
God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything
else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the
self-existent and immutable God. This was considered to be a form of Unitarian theology.
There
were endless religious debates, often leading to violence between partisans and
riots in the street, were a source of significant annoyance to Constantine, the
Roman Emperor. These disagreements divided the Church into
two opposing theological factions for many years. The Emperor Constantine viewed uniting the
Christian Church as a way to strengthen and unify the Roman Empire and to bring
order to the outlying areas. In 325 he convened a council at his summer
residence at Nicaea, in what is now Turkey, insisting that the bishops agree on
a creed that would bring unity to the church. Arius himself attended the
council, as did his bishop, Alexander. The debate at the council became so
heated that at one point, Nicholas struck Arius across the face. Arius appealed
to Scripture, quoting verses such as John 14:28: "the Father is greater than I". And also Colossians 1:15: "the firstborn of all creation." Thus, Arius
insisted that the Father's Divinity was greater than the Son's, and that the Son was under God the
Father, and not co-equal or co-eternal with Him.
One purpose of the Council
was to resolve disagreements arising from within the Church
of Alexandria over the
nature of the
Son in his
relationship to the Father: in particular, whether the Son had been 'begotten'
by the Father from his own being, and therefore having no beginning, or else
created out of nothing, and therefore having a beginning. St. Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius took the first
position; the popular presbyter Arius, from whom the term Arianism comes, took the second. The Council decided
against the Arians overwhelmingly (of the estimated 250–318 attendees.
Some 22 of the bishops at the Council, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia, came as
supporters of Arius. But when some of the more shocking passages from his
writings were read, they were almost universally seen as blasphemous. Of
course, there was some language problem - the exact meaning of many of the
words used in the debates at Nicaea were still unclear to speakers of other
languages. Nevertheless, at the end, all but two agreed to sign the creed and
these two -Theonas and Secundus - along with Arius, were banished to Illyria.
The edict by Emperor Constantine against the
Arians:
If any
writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the
flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated,
but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a
public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing
composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed
it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this
offense, he shall be submitted for capital punishment....."
In
Nicaea, questions regarding the Holy Spirit were left largely unaddressed until
after the relationship between the Father and the Son was settled around the
year 362. Constantine gradually became more lenient toward those whom the
Council of Nicaea had exiled.
There are several contemporary
Christian and Post-Christian denominations today that echo Arian thinking. Jehovah's Witnesses are often referred to as
"modern-day Arians" or sometimes "Semi-Arians", usually
by their opponents.
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