What was the Arian heresy?

Answer 1

The late third century and early part of the fourth were a period in which members of the Church were trying to define the divinity of Jesus. Trinitarianism, the doctrine that would ultimately triumph, held that God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were three persons in one God, equally divine.

Arius, a popular Libyan priest, declared that Christ, while divine, was not divine in the same way as God the Father. Around 318, Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, declared heretical the views of Arius and had him, and the clergy who supported him, excommunicated. In order to fully exclude Arius, Alexander had the wording that Christ was "of one being with God" adopted at the Council of Nicaea.

The Church Father Origen held somewhat similar views to those of Arius, and some later theologians condemned his views by association with those of Arius. Eusebius wrote to Alexander in support of the Arians, and a copy of this letter was cited at the second Council of Nicæa, to prove that Eusebius was a heretic.

The conflict between Arianism and the Trinitarianism that was the first important doctrinal difficulty in the Church after the legalisation of Christianity by Emperor Constantine I. At one point in the conflict, Arianism held sway in the family of the Emperor and this could have resulted in it becoming the eventual truth, with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity relegated to heresy. It was not until the end of the fourth century that the emperor finally declared Arianism illegal.

Answer 2

Arius, a popular Libyan priest, declared that Christ, while divine, was not divine in the same way as God the Father.

Around 318, Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, declared heretical the views of Arius and had him, and the clergy who supported him, excommunicated. In order to fully exclude Arius, Alexander had the wording that Christ was "of one being with God" adopted at Nicaea.

The Christian emperor, Constantius was keen for the Church to accept the Arian creed and pressured the bishops at Councils in Arles (353) and Milan (355) to adopt a formula that the Son was unlike the Father. This new position was called Dissimilarian and was opposed by a majority of Greek bishops, who held that Christ and God were of like essence. A description that Christ was 'of like essence' to God was adopted at a synod in 358.

The concept was now of critical importance to Christian theology. The concept of the Holy Trinity, put forward at Nicaea, could have been untenable if Jesus were inferior to God the Father, and perhaps even a creation of God.

A Council of East and West in 359 declared Christ to be simply 'like' the Father, a major victory for the Arians. Then, in 381, the Council of Constantinople asserted the deity of the Holy Spirit and acknowledged the position taken at Nicaea that the Father and Son were of identical substance. This was the end of Arianism in the Roman Empire, although it continued to flourish among the Goths, who had been converted by Arian missionaries.