Doctrinal positions in these debates

Between the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381

 The early Christians were monotheists who gave unqualified adherence to the Shema of
Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone” (Deut. 6:4).
 The first centuries of Christian theological reflection assimilated confessions of both the oneness
of God and the triadic form of Christian discipleship
 Tertullian (fl. 200), Hippolytus (ca. 170–ca. 236), and Novatian (mid-third century) all oppose
doctrines that insist on the radical singularity of God
 Tertullian insists that the unity of God must be interpreted through the trinitarian “economy”
and attempts terminological differentiations that make it possible to speak of God in terms of a
monotheistic trinitarianism: Father, Son, and Spirit are one in “substance,” “condition,” and
“power” (substantia, status, potestas) while three in “degree,” “form,” and “aspect” (gradus,
forma, species)
 With Origen, there is a pronounced emphasis on Father, Son, and Spirit as distinct subsistences
(hypostaseis) and on the eternal generation of the Son from the Father. Origen spoke of varying
degrees of transcendence among the three hypostaseis, though he strictly differentiated the
divine Trinity from creation.[38] More fatefully, he conjectured that God’s eternal sovereignty,
mediated by the preexistent Word and Wisdom, implied the existence from eternity of the
creation over which he is sovereign
 eternal generation of the Word from the Father and the everlasting existence of the creation
 Methodius of Olympus, the doctrine of creation from nothing was brought to the foreground of
theological reflection.
 if only the one God was unoriginated (agen[n]ētos/agenētos), did the derivation of the Son from
the Father also involve a kind of “creation from nothing”?
 Constantine’s reign began in the early fourth century, Christian discourse used a trinitarian
grammar,
 The Early Stages of Controversy
 The trinitarian controversies of the fourth century constitute what is arguably the most crucially
formative period in the development of the Christian doctrine of God. The fifth-century historian
Socrates gives a plausible rendering of the outbreak of the debate.
 Egyptian presbyter, Arius, took issue with the preaching of Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria,
on the mystery of “the unity of the holy Trinity.
 Alexander’s doctrine prominently stressed Origen’s idea of the eternal generation of the Son
from the Father.
 In contrast, the doctrine of Arius combined Origen’s emphasis on the real distinctions within the
Trinity with an unflagging insistence on the utter singularity of the one unoriginated and
Unbegotten God
 The unity of this Trinity, composed of unequal hypostaseis, is a unity of will rather than of
substance.
 Given the demarcation between the unoriginate God and the creation from nothing by divine
will, the Son must be placed in the latter category. His generation from the Father is thus the first
and highest instance of creaturehood.
 Thus his divine status is a consequence of grace rather than nature.
 The controversy between Arius and Alexander was exacerbated by factionalism within the
Egyptian church dating back to the Diocletianic persecution
 Both the political unification under Constantine and the centrality to Christian teaching of the
issues under discussion ensured that the controversy would quickly cross Egyptian boundaries
and spread throughout the Roman Empire
 After Constantine defeated his Eastern rival, Licinius, and became sole emperor in 324, he
quickly addressed the threat to unity created by this ecclesial debate.
 This council rejected Arius’s slogan, “there was once when the Son was not,” asserting that the
Son’s generation from the Father was of a different order than that of creation: “God of God,
Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made.” It used the term homoousios (“of the
same substance”)
 We believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the
substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not
made, consubstantial (homoousion) with the Father, through whom all things came into being,
those on heaven and on earth; who for us humans and for our salvation came down and was
incarnate and became human, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into the
heavens, and is coming to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But as for those
who say, “there was once when he was not,” and “before being begotten he was not,” and that
“he came into being from non-being,” or who declare that the Son of God is of another
hypostasis or ousia, or alterable or changeable, these the Catholic and Apostolic Church
anathematizes.
 Nicene council as ushering in the victory of Athanasian “orthodoxy” over “the Arian heresy” with
the inspired confession of the homoousios
 the Council of Nicaea resulted in more confusion than resolution,
 The task of articulating an alternative theology to that propounded by Nicaea passed to the
leadership of Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Asterius.
 His own theology emphasized the divine title “unbegotten” (age[n]nētos) as applicable only to
one.
 e. The Son, who is produced by the Father’s will, differs from the Father in substance and power
but is united to him through a “likeness of disposition.”
 Eusebius of Caesarea had reluctantly agreed to the Nicene homoousios, but his own doctrine,
often articulated in terms of the Son’s being the “image of the Father’s substance,” is centrally
concerned with maintaining the clear priority of the Father over the Son.
 Asterius“the unchanging image of the substance and will and glory and power” of the Father.
 Asterius did share fundamental common ground with Arius in his affirmation that the Son is not
integral to the divine essence but a creature, produced by the Father’s will
 the rise of two important figures who were largely responsible for the designation of non-
Nicene theology as “Arian,” Marcellus and Athanasius.
 Marcellus propounded his theology by way of a denunciation of Asterius’s doctrine of the Son as
a subordinate hypostasis produced by the Father’s will.
 . Branded as a “new Sabellius” by the authoritative figure Eusebius of Caesarea, Marcellus was
deposed by a synod in Constantinople in 336.
  Athanasius had been present at the Council of Nicaea as a young deacon accompanying his
bishop, Alexander. n he pens his Orations against the Arians.
 They shunned the language of unity of substance, employing the biblical term “image” to
designate the relation between Father and Son (cf. Col. 1:15).
 Crisis and Resolution

Arianism- influential, bec of the baptism of Constantine by Eusebuis, follower of Arius

Conflict-inside- in the beginning, there was no doctrine, started with kerygma. Proclamation
33- Jesus died.
Early church- 33-50 (apostolic age)- kerygma
50- direct apostles of the apostles. (apostolic fathers)- persecution systematic-strengthening of faith
- Strengthening- teaching, didache, sacraments, building community
100- early Church Fathers, Charlemagne (apologist)- Hellenization, Gnosticism (100)
- Seminal formation of doctrines
299- late Church Fathers

IV. Trinity before Nicaea

-heresies- (proof and traces of trinity before Nicaea)
-what led to the distortions
-contemporary traces of distortions
TRINITY
- One God
- 3 DISTINCT PERSONS
- EACH PERSON IS FULLY GOD
- EQUAL DIGNITY AMONG 3 PERSONS
- 3 PERSONS ARE RELATIONAL

Heresies in the early Christian

- Heresy- pest, he creates dissention-Paul acts 24:5
- Heresy is a choice to disagree with or confront established religious or political doctrine
- A species of infidelity in men who having professed the faith of Christ corrupt its dogmas. St
Thomas
TRINITARIAN HERESIES
- TRITHEISM- 3 GODS-NOT UNITED, separated
- MODALISM- the persons are modes of One God. Appear as Jesus, as Father as Holy Spirit.
Costume- mask. ( How can a Father be called without Son)-
a. Monarchianism- one stuff (water, fire)- no persons here
b. Sabellianism- theater- modes
c. Patripassianism- Ftaher suffered in Jesus.
- PARTIALISM- Father, Son and Holy Spirit 1/3
- SUBORDINATIONISM- (hierarchical rankings) higher form and lower forms, violate the equal
dignity of the Trinity.
a. Adoptionism- Jesus was adopted during baptism (mere man)
 b. Christological heresies-
. favoring Jesus humanity
.favoring Jesus Divinity
.confusing Jesus nature.
c. Pneumatological Heresies- lower form of higher form of Father
- Docetism- Jesus´body is illusion, seeiming to have a physical body- to save Jesus Divinity.ç
- Monophysiticim- (phosus) one nature-. Divine nature overwhelms, dominates and absorbs his
human nature. MIB
- Apolinarianism- had human body and sensitive soul, but no rational mind, as it was taken over
by Divine logos
- Monothelitism- Jesus had two natures, but only one will (divine)
- Nestorianism- human and divine essences of Christ are separate and that there are two persons,
the man Jesus, and the divine Logos, which dwelt in the man.
a. Mary become Mother of God
b. Christotokos. Not Theotokos
c. You are compartmentalizing Christ- no unity
- Collyriadianism- Trinity, Father, Son and Mary
PNEUMATOLOGICAL HERSIES
- Macedoniaism- denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Spirit- force
The Lord be with you. The Spirit.
- Pneumatomacians- HS creation of the Son and servant

Trinity Before Nicaea- Sean Finnegan (heretic)

Baptismal Liturgical Rite
- Mt 28:19 Father, Son, Holy Spirit
- Ratzinger- doctrine started in liturgy- part of our Christian life.
- Didache 7:1- and corcerning baptism, baptize this way….
- Didache and Trinity- by Daniel Nessim- theology of the Trinity in didache- relationship and
persons.
- Clement of Rome,
- Ignatius of Antioch, for our God, Jesus Christ
- Shepherd of Hermas, ¨preexistent Spirit¨
- Justin the Martyr- Father- talking to Moses- It was in fact the Son of God who spoke to him
- Ireneaus of Lyons- Jesus is Himself in His own right God and Lord and Eternal
- Tertullian- ¨trinitas¨, connecton… prosuces three, are distinct One from another. These three
are One
- Origen- ¨we believe that there are three Persons, unbegotten Father. All things were produces
through the Word. Holy spirit produced by the Father through Son.
HISTORICAL TRACE OF DISTORTION
- Prevalence of Gnosticim
- Hellenization of the faith
- (kerygma transition to scholarly)
- GNOSTICISM- Jewish-Christian origins
- Neoplatonic influences /world of forms) – allegory of cave go out.
a. Matter is a prison,
- Aramaic- Mesopotamian influences
- Buddhist paralles
 - Gnosis (knowledge)- search, idea of matter of something fallen, look for ur salvation. Theory of
participation. Creeps out till our times
- Spirit over matter- emphasis on spirit- must be freed from the body
- Dualism- there is world of matter and world of form- fight against body- Christian asceticism
(flagellation)- strengthen the Spirit by weakening the body through ascetiscm
- Secret and Private- they bond together- enlightened ones
- Mistrust of Authority-
CONTEMPORARY OF GNOSTICISM-
- EVIL AS the opposite of good.
- Thomistic- privation of good. There is evil because there are evil people.
- The Shadow Council- theology of love vs theology the body (the body is like this, we could not
divorce, same-sex marriage) (synod of family- homosexuals)-
- Press leak-
- Theology of love supplanting the theology of the body-
- Culture of Self-Invention- ( woman trapped in the body)
- Gender ideology- crisis
- Conspiracy theories- there is more in what you have been told.
- Private clubs and its secrets
- Culture of wokism ( this is the truth)

IRENAEUS- proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015

- Defended body as not evil but good
- Why would you believe in the authority of a private person.
WHY GNOSTICISM PERDURES?
- Intellectual reasons- Dualism is attractive
- Psychological reasons- self´-invention, secrecy, private knowledge, private club
- Alvin Toffler- power shifted to information.
-