Heritage from the Council of Nicaea

In 2025, the Christian world celebrate 1700 years since the first ecumenical church council held in Nicaea AD 325. Emperor Constantine invited between 250-300 Christian bishops from the whole Roman Empire to discuss and agree on a whole list of issues concerning theology and church structure.  

In 313, Emperor Constantine instituted freedom of religion in the Roman Empire. However, within the young church there continued to be a controversial theological dispute concerning the relationship of God’s son Jesus Christ to God the Father.  The center of the conflict was in Alexandria where one side of the argument was represented by bishop Alexander and the other by the priest Arius. The issue concretely was the question of how the Son is a like entity (homoiousios) and subordinate to the Father as the Arian side argued or one and the same entity (homoousious) as the Father and therefore God as bishop Alexandra asserted.

The Council of Nicaea, held in Izmir i todays Turkey, decided that the Father and Son were one entity which laid the basis for the Nicene Creed’s confession of faith (Apostles’ creed). All the bishops except three including Arius, signed the Council’s confession of faith and Arius was banned and deported from the Roman Empire for a period of time.   

Another important decision from Nicaea was to confirm the date for the celebration of Easter: the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  

Continued discussions in Constantinople…

However, the discussion and controversy surrounding the Holy Trinity and confession of faith continued and 56 years later in 381 AD, at the First Council of Constantinople, present day Istanbul in Turkey, solved the remaining issues. Christianity had just become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Constantinople became the capital city of the Ottoman Empire. This Council mainly discussed how the Spirit is related to the other two persons of the Trinity.

The Council of Constantinople decided that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity with the same entity as the Father and the Son. The Council therefore completed the confession of faith on the issue of the Holy Spirit.

The conclusions from the two church councils can be summarised in the Nicene-Constantinople confession of faith (see below).

… and in Ephesus

Over 100 years after the Council of Nicaea, another Council was held in Ephesus in 431 AD. This Council brought clarity on issues concerning the consequences of confession of Jesus Christ as true God and true man. The basic theological issue was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her role in giving birth to God’s son: Did she really give birth to God and therefore have the title of the Virgin Mary (Theotokos), or was it only the human part of God that she gave birth to?  

Kyrillos, the patriarch of Alexandria, represents the first assertion while Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople asserted the second. The Council of Ephesus supported Kyrillos’s line, that is that Mary should be called the Virgin Mary. Nestorius was banned, released from his position and exiled. The church tradition in eastern Syria still do not accept the decisions made at the Council of Ephesus.  

… and also in Chalcedon

The theological developments around the Son of God’s divinity and humanity continued and led to a new church council in Chalcedon, Kadikoy in today’s Turkey in 451 AD. The main issue concerned how God’s son could be both God and man ”an incarnation divine in nature, without  joining the two, changing , separating or distinction” or ”two natures, the divine and the human in unity, without joining the two, changing, separating or distinction”.  

Alexandria’s church followed the first line (because of the Council of Ephesus), while Rome and Constantinople preferred the second. It simply came down to the description of different semantric expressions and understanding concerning the term ”nature”

Today it is the accepted understanding that both lines are theologically compatible. Despite this conclusion, the churches in the oriental orthodox tradition (Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian) and the Bysantine orthodox traditions (Greek, German, Russian, Serbian, Rumanian, Bulgarian) continue not to celebrate communion because of the schism at the Council of Chalcedon.   

Misha Jaksic
Coordinator, Orthodox church family
Christian Council of Sweden