Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

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Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

2. Nicene council and the emergence of the orthodox teaching regarding the divine nature of Christ

a. Constantine called a council in 324 who finally met in June 325, about 220 bishops, most from the Eastern Church

b. They condemned Arius’ teaching, produced the Nicene Creed (not to be confused with the so-called ‘Nicene Creed’ of Constantinople in 381.

c. Later came to be seen as the first of the ecumenical councils of the Church

3. Athanasius and the Nicene Formula: homoousios (of the same essence as the Father)

a. Born at the end of the 3rd century, accompanied the bishop to the Council of Nicea, succeeded the bishop of Alexandria in 328, died in 373

b. Uncompromising: 17 of his 45 year term as bishop were spent in 5 separate exiles

c. Wrote on a variety of themes, but is remembered much for his defense of the deity of Christ, seeing that all our salvation depends on it

d. “For he became human that we might become divine; he revealed himself in a body that we might under stand the unseen Father; he endured men’s insults that we might inherit immortality,” ( The Incarnation of the Word , 54).