Unsettled Christianity

This was part of a presentation given on the development of the Doctrine of the Trinity earlier this year. I focuses on the history of it. Here is the portion of the First Ecumenical Council. Personally, St. Nicolas is still a hero of mine.

The 4th Century of Christianity is by far the most exiting. With the end of Roman persecutions, when the Empire, and thus the world, stopped turning on the Christians, they started to do it to themselves. First, of course, was the Council of Nicaea which was brought about by Arius’s disputation that Christ was a creature, begotten of God, higher in rank than all others, but in the end, a mere creature. The Emperor stepped in. At the First Ecumenical Council, a creed was produced which was ambivalent enough for both sides to agree to it (except Arius and two of his generals, one of which would later baptize Constantine on his death bed). While many assume that the intervening years between that council and the council of 381 were quiet, in the end, it simply wasn’t. It saw the great Athanasius accused of murder, exiled, and eventually restore back to his bishopric. It also saw the parting of ways begin which would eventually split Christendom into the East and West. (Even today, the West focuses on the unity of the Godhead while the East focuses on the triunity.)

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