format_quote Originally Posted by
Born_Believer
Yeah that's the very basic story but what was Arius' theological teaching?
Arius' theological teaching was incredibly similar to every other Christian in the world. People who believed in his teaching did not call themselves Arians, they called themselves Catholics or they called themselves Christians. At any given time over the course of about four centuries, there were varying numbers of Catholic bishops that believed in his teaching, and I remember seeing some of them after his death quoted as taking great offense at being called Arians. They said we are bishops, how are you going to say we follow a priest? (A bishop is several steps further up the hierarchy of Catholic teaching authority, they were basically saying I'm in a position where I'm the boss of his boss, so don't name our thing after him).
With that being said, there is one particular part of Arius' teaching that always stuck out as being unique, and he didn't really try to hide it. He emphasized it, put it front and center. That was the idea that "There was a time when Jesus was not." In other words, Jesus was not eternally existent, he is a created being that God created. When was he created? Arius seemed to be fairly certain that he was the first being of any kind that God created (per his interpretation of "firstborn of all creation") and this probably coincided with the creation of the universe or happened immediately or shortly thereafter. I don't think he came down any more specifically than that.
Now, in the early history of Christianity, there was a superabundance of a variety of teachings. I'm talking about the first two-and-a-half to three centuries- yes there was a certain point where that was clamped down, but before that it was kind of a free-for-all. This involved a large variety of interpretations, and there was also the Gnostic movement that introduced a bunch of literature outside the Bible that informed some unique teachings. A great deal of the impetus that led to an ecumenical council at all, was a desire to bring this under control and ensure that all Christians could have some beliefs in common. What made Arius a bit different, however, was this. Pretty much all the other variety was acknowledged as new changes to belief being introduced at a more recent time, while he claimed that his teaching vis a vis the nature of Christ was faithful to the original teaching of Jesus and his disciples. That was the main point of contention- was this teaching truly faithful to some type of unbroken chain of teaching going all the way back to those who lived and walked with Jesus?
So when the First Council of Nicea was convened, about one third of those in attendance were truly familiar with the controversy, and they were pretty much evenly split. This controversy, this argument, wasn't widely known in all places where Christians were, so because of that about two thirds of those present genuinely needed to get some more information before they could make a judgment. (I don't have the source in front of me at the moment so these figures are rough estimates from what I remember). What I definitely remember very clearly though, is that Arius was doing pretty well early on. Much of what he explained about himself over the first couple of days was clearly very similar to what all Christians believed in, and in the early going there was very little to be arguing about. But then a few days in (can't remember exactly how many) he went hard into his explanation of how "there was a time when Jesus was not." And in that exact moment, it all got away from him.
You see, he's coming from Egypt. The largest contingent of bishops (and I think a few other scholars) were from Syria, and in particular from the school of Christian teaching in Antioch. (Not an actual school, but a school of thought with its roots being there). Antioch, where Christians were called Christians for the first time. Antioch, where Paul (formerly Saul) departed from on his first missionary journeys. This was not the first place that the Gospel came to, it was the first place from which the Gospel proceeded from and then went to the rest of the world. These are people with a strong sense of their history, in particular the sense of an unbroken line between themselves and the authentic teaching of Christianity from its earliest source. And when Arius started telling them "there was a time when Jesus was not, and furthermore this is what Christians have understood from the very beginning....unless people deviated from this truth and screwed up," that is when the roughly-two-thirds in general, and the Syrian contingent in particular, pushed back hard. They came in under-informed and undecided, but they made their decision right then. They came back with something like "We, over here, have always believed that Jesus existed from eternity past. He is not a created being, and this idea of yours has never been believed by anyone over here. We never heard your thing until you told us just now."
That was the major turning point, as far as I've been made aware of it.
And why did what would become the Catholic Church despise him so much?
He posed a uniquely legitimate threat to the Catholic understanding of the nature of God and of how Jesus fits into that. And by Catholic, in this context, I probably mean something a bit more like Orthodox. He posed a legit threat to actual Christian orthodoxy, in all phases, whether we're talking about the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox. (Which were all united at that point in time).
And still do (taking this from the Catholics I have spoken to).
It probably varies a bit, I'm not the best person to answer that though. I could probably dredge up some quotes from a Catholic forum that directly addresses this specific question, if no one else comes along to do this part themselves.