The Church Fathers, pt (i). From ‘The Story of Christian Theology’ by Olson (IVP).
In the 4th century, the dispute between the world’s two major theological schools (Alexandria and Antioch) started to simmer. The dispute originated over Origen, who was in two minds about the nature of Jesus: on the one hand, he believed Jesus was equal with the Father, but on the other hand subordinate to the Father. Alexandrians and Antiochenes both claimed to be in true agreement with Origen, but emphasised different sides (equality/divinity and subordination/humanity respectively). There was, however, agreement over the nature of God’s immutability, which stemmed from Greek philosophical thought.
Arius, educated in Antioch but teaching in Alexandria, challenged Bishop Alexander on his teaching of the divinity of the Logos (the Son of God, who took on human form in the person of Jesus Christ). Arius accused Alexander of promoting Sabellianism and denying Jesus’ humanity. Arius captured the public imagination and the dispute led to public marches (with banners stating ‘There was when the Son was not!’) folk songs and even riots on the street, with mobs on his side who probably didn’t understand the theological issues at stake.
The two key elements of Arius’ thought about God and the Logos are these: First, God is by nature removed from creatureliness, and if the Logos became human in Jesus Christ, he must be a creature. Second, salvation is a process of being joined with God by grace and free will, and if Jesus communicates salvation to us, it must be something he accomplished by grace and free will in a manner we can emulate; and if he was God, then salvation would not be something he could accomplish.
Alexander needed to respond, and did so with a Synod in 318 (where 100 bishops condemned Arius’ stance), and in argument. He argued along the line of immutability, and thus undermined one of the main Arian arguments; he argued that if there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time that the Father was not a father, and so by claiming this you are undermining God’s immutability.
Arianism was such an issue to Alexander because he saw how important the deity of Christ was to salvation. Only if Jesus is fully God and fully man are we saved, and Arianism was denying the former.
The dispute was also, however, an issue to the Emperor Constantine. He hoped that Christianity would be the glue to hold his shaky Empire together, and yet its leaders were divided. So he sought to solve it and stepped in, by arranging the first ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325. Arguably it caused more dispute than it resolved, and resulted in Athanasius making what has been described as the most important defence of the gospel in the history of the world…
