Arianism
Throughout its entire history, the Christian church has been facing lots of challenges that threaten the unity of the Church and its main injunctions. The leaders of Christians tried to end any manifestation of the ideas that were in contrast to the original form of religion, as they believed such thoughts were coming from the devil. Such false doctrines were called heresies, and some of them represented such a threat to the Church that they were becoming a matter of discussions on the high level councils of the leaders of the Christian church.
The heretic ideas of Arius began to have an impact on the minds of the public as soon as he started practicing his own sermons and teaching his own doctrines. It was not difficult for him, as Arius was a recognized public preacher with the impeccable religious education. Under the influence of the School of Lucian in Antioch, Arius got support for his teaching and “a foundation of rational understanding” (Ignat 108). Arianism, a heresy named for Arius, was one of them and denied the divine nature of Jesus. It spread through Roman Empire very quickly. The congregation believed that Jesus was created by God to complete an exceptional mission in the name of God, but he was not both God and man. Jesus was created from non-existence and he was begotten. Arius claimed that the foundation of his system was: “the Son of God, the Logos, because He was begotten could not truly be God” (Ignat 110). Moreover, Arius followed lots of Aristotle ideas in his intellectual position. He tried to unite Aristotle ideas of the world and religious truth about the act of creation. Arius thought that the Father had absolute transcendence and the act of creation was not directly His doing. He created the world “indirectly through the action of his Son” (“Christological Heresies” 4). This means that the Father made the Son, and he created the world. Therefore, it threatened the very idea of Christianity that lies in atonement and redemption. In addition, this belief was well-grounded: “if the Son is not truly God but only a creature, he cannot redeem and unite him to God (‘deification’). Besides, neither can a creature be worshipped, nor can a creature reveal God to man” (“Christological Heresies” 4).
This heresy had a chance to take root because Orthodoxy was a comparatively new religion and many people were not sure of their faith. Moreover, pagans and former pagans were trying to change Orthodoxy for it to be more rational. Arianism provided a solid ground for mixing religion with products of intellectual, social, moral and literary work. Arian views coincided with people’s interests, but not religious beliefs and they mistakenly believed in them as in the new religion. Army in Roman Empire was Arian. Lots of emperors had sympathy to this ‘religion’, so did many old pagan families. They faced pressure in terms whom to support – the army or the populace. Arius created a prefect system that was quite simple. His ideas were based on Scripture, but with a rational explanation. He also found ‘proves’ of his version of Jesus Christ ‘creation’ in the Bible itself. With his elaborate speeches and persuasive tone, he succeeded in conversion of lots of people within a short time.
However, it spread even outside the boundaries of Roman Empire and established strong roots there. Arian ideas were translated into Gothic language and transmitted through the Gothic people who were baptized as Arians. It was a ‘religion’ exactly for people who just emerged from Germanic paganism and were not adapted to filter any information that they heard. Moreover, there were no monks, no special riots and lots of science in this heresy, and it made Arianism trustworthy in the eyes of people. Arianism spread further to Spain and was not completely finished. However, the majority agrees that Arianism was neither a proper faith, nor a Christian teaching: it was a pagan teaching that adopted some ideas from Orthodoxy. It is an interesting fact that some of its ideas keep strength till the present times after so many centuries past. Arius has become a father of many heresies that appeared after his death (Ignat 126).
Some people may argue that Arianism should take its place among many Christian teachings and should be written off the list of heresies. The main advocates say that it is the main wrongdoing to trust some people who gathered at council of Nicea long time ago and chose which books should comprise Scripture and which of them should not. They claim that no Christian truly knows what books belong to it. Therefore, many heresies should take their place among the Testaments and other holy writings. This gives a right to Arianism to be considered as a proper faith rather than heresy. However, it cannot be that way because at the Council of Nicea, the leaders of the Church did not decide on Scripture, they decided how to achieve unity in the hearts of their congregation. “Nicea did not come up with something “new” in the creed” (White 3), it helped define what the truth was and what the error was. Arian theology was the one that was condemned and banished as an error. Therefore, it was the decision of the many that anti-Trinitarian ideas should be put to the end with no right to return and mess up the minds and hearts of believers.
Works Cited
“Arianism – A Threat to the Early Church.” Pflaum Gospel Weeklies: Catholic Culture. Pflaum Gospel Weeklies, 2012. http://pflaum.com/pdfs_jan_12/cc_arianism.pdf
“Christological Heresies.” Zeltmacher. Zeltmacher, 2010. http://zeltmacher.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Christological_Heresies.pdf
Ignat, A. “The Spread of Arianism. A Critical Analysis of the Arian Heresy.” International Journal of Orthodox Theology 3.3 (2012): 105-128. http://orthodox-theology.com/media/PDF/IJOT3.2012/Ignat.Arianism.pdf
White, J. R. “What Really Happened at Nicea?” CRI Statement DN-206. CRI, n.d. http://www.equip.org/PDF/DN206.pdf
