Is the spelling error material? I read this article the other day, and say the connection of Arianism to the Goths, and thought it was the same thing as that of the nazi propaganda. Is it different?
Arianism, a Christian heresy of the 4th century that denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ. It was named for its author, Arius. A native of Libya, Arius studied at the theological school of Lucian of Antioch, where other supporters of the Arian heresy were also trained. After he was ordained a priest in Alexandria, in 319, Arius became involved in a controversy with his bishop concerning the divinity of Christ. In 325 Arius finally was exiled to Illyria because of his beliefs, but debate over his doctrine soon engulfed the whole church and agitated it for more than half a century. Although his doctrine was eventually outlawed throughout the Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius I in 379, it survived for two centuries longer among the barbarian tribes that had been converted to Christianity by Arian bishops.
Arius taught that God is unbegotten and without beginning. The Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, therefore, because he is begotten, cannot be God in the same sense that the Father is. The Son was not generated from the divine substance of the Father; he did not exist from all eternity, but was created out of nothing like all other creatures, and exists by the will of the Father. In other words, the relationship of the Son to the Father is not natural, but adoptive. In proposing this doctrine, Arius was attempting to safeguard the absolute transcendence of God, which in his view was compromised by theological tendencies such as Monarchianism.
The teaching of Arius was condemned in 325 at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (see Nicaea, Councils of). The 318 bishops assembled there drafted a creed that stated that the Son of God was "begotten not made," and consubstantial (Greek homoousios,"of the same substance") with the Father-that is, the Son was part of the Trinity, not of creation (see Nicene Creed). Previously, no creed had been universally accepted by all churches. The status of the new creed as dogma was confirmed by bans against the teaching of Arius.
Despite its condemnation, the teaching of Arius did not die. In part this was due to the interference of imperial politics. Under the influence of the Greek church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, whose orthodoxy had also been questioned, Emperor Constantine I recalled Arius from exile about 334. Soon after, two influential people came to the support of Arianism: Constantine's successor, Constantius II, was attracted to the Arian doctrine; and the bishop and theologian Eusebius of Nicomedia, later patriarch of Constantinople (present-day Ýstanbul), became an Arian leader.
By 359 Arianism had prevailed and was the official faith of the empire. The Arians quarreled among themselves, however, and divided into two parties. The semi-Arians consisted mostly of conservative eastern bishops, who basically agreed with the Nicene Creed but were hesitant about the unscriptural term homoousios (consubstantial) used in the creed. The neo-Arians said that the Son was of a different essence (Greek heteroousios) from, or unlike (Greek anomoios), the Father. This group also included the Pneumatomachi (combatants against the Spirit), who said that the Holy Spirit is a creature like the Son. With the death of Constantius II in 361 and the reign of Valens, who persecuted the semi-Arians, the way was opened for the final victory of Nicene orthodoxy, recognized by Emperor Theodosius in 379 and reaffirmed at the second ecumenical council (Constantinople I) held in 381. Nevertheless, the Gothic bishop Ulfilas had spread Arianism to his people, and they preserved this faith as a distinctive feature of their national identity. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and founder of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, displayed great tolerance toward his orthodox Catholic subjects, whereas the Arian Vandals fiercely persecuted the Catholics after seizing the Roman provinces of Africa. The final conversion of all the Germanic peoples to Catholicism did not occur until the end of the 6th century.
"Arianism," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
