*
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.
