Next year, 2025, will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Church, held a few years after the decriminalization of Christianity, at the initiative of Emperor Constantine himself.
The causes: the Arian controversy and the date of Easter
The Council of Nicaea was convened in 325 to face two problems: on a doctrinal level, the controversy raised by the preaching of the priest Arius in Alexandria and, on a practical level, the unification of the date of Easter between Christian communities.
Christianity, throughout the centuries, has been confronted with key questions about the Mystery of God, of Jesus Christ, and of the salvation of man. The first of these proposes how the affirmation of one God, following the faith of Israel, is articulated with the divine reality of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is what is commonly known as the Mystery of the Trinity. Throughout the history of the Church, even before Nicaea, solutions to this question have appeared that have tended to dissolve the paradox, and which have been rejected as heresies.
In his case, Arius sought to distinguish the Father and the Son, but to do so he presented the Son as subordinate to the Father, as a divine creature, an intermediate god, created from nothing at a certain moment, before creation, and who more He would later have been incarnated in Jesus Christ.
Arius’s preaching not only confronted his bishop Alexander, but also stirred the waters of the various theological schools, mainly in the Christian East, to the point that the emperor Constantine, with the help of his advisor on ecclesiastical matters, the bishop Osius of Córdoba decided to resolve them in a council, that is, a meeting of bishops whose decisions would be addressed to the entire Church. For this reason, it is considered the first “ecumenical” (universal) council. In this case, it would enjoy the supervision and protection of the emperor himself, as an example of Constantinian ecclesial policy.
In the spring of 325, around 300 bishops met in Nicaea, in modern-day Turkey, the vast majority from the East, and a creed was developed, a formula of faith that sought to be incompatible with the doctrine attributed to Arius and his followers. , since it was seen that the affirmation of the Bible was not sufficient to refute their arguments. The Nicene Creed affirms that the Son has not been created, but begotten of the Father and that he is “of the same substance” with the Father, “consubstantial” with him.
Additionally, the council established the celebration of Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon of spring. A series of rules, or canons, were also approved that would help form a basis for the organization of the Church.
At Nicaea the unity between the Son and the Father was clearly stated, but the distinction between them was not addressed. This flank marked the beginning of a long and dramatic controversy, in which many other factors intervened, which did not subside until the celebration of the Council of Constantinople in 381, considered today as the second ecumenical council, and which, among other things, reformulated the Nicene creed, to arrive at the version that is basically recited today at mass.
It may seem to us that the Council of Nicea faced an issue far removed from the daily life of believers, but it really put the Christian world in check for decades. If Jesus Christ, the Savior, is not fully God, what kind of salvation does he offer us? For the Savior to be able to give full communion with God to human beings, he had to be true God (and true man), as defended by Saint Athanasius, Alexander’s successor as bishop of Alexandria, and staunch defender of the Nicene faith. A “half-baked” god does not totally transform life.
On the occasion of this centenary, the Christian academic world is carrying out numerous initiatives, including publications and conferences, involving different disciplines and Christian confessions.
In Barcelona, ??the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (AUSP), the academic institution of the Church in Catalonia, has just organized the first part of the conference “Council of Nicaea (325): History and reception”. On April 18 and 19, we sought to confront the history of the council, the doctrinal controversy and the practical issues, managing to offer an updated portrait and the possibility of reflecting, bringing into play not only the specialists, but also the general public.
Now it is time to prepare the second and final part, which will take place next February 2025, and will also seek to address more current issues, linked to the reception of the council.
