The First Council of Nicaea

10/03/19 • 60 min

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty..." Each week, Catholics recite the Nicene Creed in the liturgy. Why do we do this?

The first lecture of Controversies in Church History for the 2019-2020 academic year will be on the First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical (or general) council in the history of the Christian Church. In 325, the bishops assembled promulgated a creed which is the basis of the one we recite today. Critics in the past have asserted that the Council corrupted Christianity's original message, and that the council invented the canon of Scripture, among other accusations. Come learn the history of this momentous event, which for the first time bound all Christians to believe doctrines as a test of orthodoxy, on pain of excommunication from the Church.

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"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty..." Each week, Catholics recite the Nicene Creed in the liturgy. Why do we do this?

Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms.

LINKS:

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Previous Episode

The Wars of Religion, 1524-1649

"Why were there no wars of religion in the pagan world?" the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau once asked. His answer was that their religions made no universal claims, unlike Christianity, which he called "the most violent despotism in the world." "The Wars of Religion, 1524-1549," discusses the wars fought between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, and how much Christian faith contributed to the wars of that age. Was Christianity responsible for the violent wars of the period? Or were there other factors which complicate this received picture of the era? Listen to find out!

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Next Episode

The Arian Crisis, c.330-381 AD

The First Council of Nicaea (325) proclaimed the doctrine that Jesus was one with the Father, and condemned the idea that he was a mere creature. Yet with a few years, that belief--that Christ could not be truly God and man--gained the acceptance of nearly every bishop in the Christian world, and the support of numerous Roman emperors. How did a belief condemned by an ecumenical council dominate the Church's hierarchy for so long, and how did it fail to successfully perpetuate itself in the end? The second episode of Controversies in Church History for the 2019-2020 season investigates the history of how Nicene orthodoxy eventually overcame the opposition of the various Arian theologies.

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