God the Son in the Holy Scripture
The Nicene question is associated with Arius who was commissioned to deal with the interpretation of the Holy Scripture and provided the largest heresy in the history of Christianity, on the one hand, while promoted the formation of patristics, on the other hand. The independent and original interpretation of the fundamental Christian formula of the Trinity based on his deep knowledge of dialectics, Aristotelian logic, and the Holy Scripture combined with his personal charm and oratory ensured the popularity of the new doctrine.
The controversy revolved around the following question: what position in the heavenly hierarchy should Jesus Christ occupy as the further fate of Christianity as a religion depended on the solution of this question. According to Church Fathers who stood at the origins of orthodoxy, the founder of Christianity could not be either a person or a secondary deity. The followers of Arius, avoiding the hidden tritheism, tried to preserve the unity of the deity by completely separating these entities, subordinating them to each other and counting God in the absolute sense of one God the Father (Mueller 127). The struggle against Arianism is central to the history of Christianity in the era of the first ecumenical councils.
Council of Nicaea
Emperor Constantius convened the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in order to establish the divine nature of Christ by means of voting and thereby strengthening the foundations of the imperial power (Mueller 127). Approximately 300 bishops from different countries gathered for the first time in the history of Christianity to identify the formula of worship, in which the divinity of the Son called the consubstantial Father was proclaimed. After that, the anathematizing of Arianism was omitted, and the third part of the formula was enlarged, in which the deity of the Holy Spirit was proclaimed as well as His equality to the Father and the Son. According to the Creed, God the Father is the creator of all things, both visible and invisible, God the Son is born from God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father eternally.
Alexandria Cathedral gathered in AD 362 summed up the preceding work of theological reflection on the disclosure of the doctrine of the Trinity, deciding or seriously affecting the key issues put forward by that time and making a strong impact on the subsequent events in the development of Church’s teaching. Emperor Constantius gave Church the formula to reconcile faith. However, the Arian dispute and the Nicene definition and formula, which were associated solely with the Eastern dispute, later became an event of the whole Church. The change in government created opportunities for the exiles, including those of Athanasius of Alexandria, to return to their departments, and peace prevailed in Church until there was an internecine war. Less than a year after Constantius’ death, the Council convened by Athanasius stated that even though some wanted to reflect on the account of the faith of the Council of Nicaea, the holy Cathedral was indignant on this occasion (Helfrich 146). It was to be contented with faith confessed by Fathers in Nicaea as this confession was not lacking anything, especially in the performance of piety, and it is not necessary to recite what was written in Nicaea, redefining the core postulates.
Works Cited
Helfrich, Michael. The Root of Christianity: A Layman’s Response. Xlibris, 2013.
Mueller, John J, editor. Theological Foundations: Concepts and Methods for Understanding Christian Faith. Anselm Academic, 2011.