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Arian controversy

Series of Christian disputes

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Through Christianity, Jesus and Roman Empire

It began in 318 as a dispute between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and a priest in his diocese named Arius, both Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt.

The most important of these controversies concerned the relationship between the substance of God the Father and the substance of His Son. Arius argued that the Son of God did not always exist and that His substance is different from the Father's. This conflicted with the view advanced by Alexander, and later also by Athanasius, who argued that the Christ is coeternal and consubstantial (of the same substance) with God the Father.

Emperor Constantine, through the Council of Nicaea in 325, attempted to unite Christianity and establish a single, imperially approved version of the faith. Ironically, his efforts were the cause of the deep divisions created by the disputes after Nicaea. In the decade after Nicaea, the deposed Arians were readmitted to communion, and all the leading supporters of the Nicene Creed were deposed, disgraced, or exiled.

While there was no formal schism, these disagreements divided the Church into various factions for over 55 years, from the time before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 until after the First Council of Constantinople in 381.

Inside the Roman Empire, the Trinitarian faction ultimately gained the upper hand through the Edict of Thessalonica, issued on 27 February AD 380, which made Nicene Christology the state religion of the Roman Empire, and through strict enforcement of that edict. However, outside the Roman Empire, Arianism and other forms of Unitarianism continued to be preached for some time (without the blessing of the Empire), but it was eventually killed off. The modern Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as all Protestant denominations, have generally followed the Trinitarian formulation, though each has its own specific theology on the matter.

History

Beginnings

The early history of the controversy must be pieced together from about 35 documents found in various sources. Christians in the first two decades of the fourth century had to concern themselves first of all with survival, in the face of what was perhaps the only systematic attempt ever, on the part of the Roman government, to destroy the Christian Church. Roman persecution of Christians was brought to an end by Galerius’ Edict of Toleration in 311, followed by Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313.

The 4th-century Controversy continued the controversies of the previous centuries. Following Justin Martyr in the second century, Logos-theology dominated, but was opposed by Monarchianism. In the 3rd century, authors like Sabellius, Tertullian, and Origen made significant but conflicting contributions to the debate over the nature of Christ.

Around the year 260, some Sabellians in Libya used the term homoousios (consubstantial) to say that the Father and Son are one substance. In a letter, the bishop of Alexandria opposed them and denied the term. The Sabellians appealed to the bishop of Rome. Rome reprimanded Alexandria in a letter, after which Alexandria accepted the term, but as meaning that the Father and Son are two Beings of similar substance, rather than one substance.

The Trinitarian historian Socrates of Constantinople reports that Arius first became controversial under the bishop Alexander of Alexandria, when Arius formulated the following syllogism:

"If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: hence it is that there was when the Son was not. It follows then of necessity that he had his existence from the non-existence".

The dispute between Arius and Alexander was a continuation of a dispute between two preexisting theological traditions. Arius defended what he regarded as the Alexandrian tradition. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria was criticised for his slow reaction against Arius. Like his predecessor, Dionysius, he has been charged with vacillation. According to Eusebius's work, The Life of Constantine, the controversy had spread from Alexandria into almost all the African regions, and was considered a disturbance of the public order by the Roman Empire. Constantine the Great (Constantine I) sent two letters to Arius and Bishop Alexander, asking the religious leaders to stop the controversy. The ongoing controversy led to Constantine's oversight of the First Council of Nicaea.

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