STUDENT NUMBER: BDLMR194123

UNIT NAME: GENERAL CHURCH HISTORY 1

UNIT CODE: TCH 100

UNIT FACILITATOR: DR. EMILY AWINO

ONYANGO

SUBMISSION DATE: 18th NOVEMBER 2022

SUBMISSION SPECIFICS: CAT THREE

1a) Explain the teaching of Arius and how they were a challenge to the Church (pg
142)
Teaching
Arius, (born c. 250, Libya—died 336, Constantinople [now Istanbul,
Turkey]), an Alexandria Christian priest whose teachings gave rise to a theological
doctrine known asArianism.
Arius taught subordinationism. He subordinated the son to the father. His
understanding of Christ at first glance looks very closely to the orthodox

0
understanding. For Arius, Jesus of Nazareth preexisted as the Son of God who,
however, is not fully God for Arius. The son is a little less than the father as with
any parent/child relationship.( Wilwhite 110)
God's nature. According to Arius, God is simple. By simple, he means that ;

10
God is simply God, no parts and nothing else is greater. (Wilwhite 110)
Separation. Arius separated God from the creation as he argued that only
God was uncreated whereas the rest was created. This line of thinking separated
God from creation and the father from the son.(Wilwhite 112)
Jesus’ nature. Since Arius argued that Jesus was second from the father, the
question therefore remained: is Jesus really God? Arius continued to explain that
although Jesus was begotten, and bearing in mind that God has no parts ,he still
H
had some attributes similar to God. (Wilwhite 112)
Challenge
Conflicts. Constant conflict engulfed those who believed and those who
did not. According to justo gonzalez, soon there was a popular demonstration
in alexandria, with people marching on the streets chanting arius’ theological
TC

refrains. The local disagreement in Alexandria threatened to divide the entire

eastern church. ( Justo 1984;161-162)
Division. The arianists felt they were left out in crucial decision making
processes such as the formation of the Nicene creed. They segregated
themselves and started their own churches that had their own bishops and
other clergymen. They also had their own form of worship. Arius was even
excommunicated by his own bishop who went to the extent of stripping him
of any responsibility and rank in the church.
b) Discuss the decisions of the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople
Council of Nicaea
In 325, Constantine summoned a group of church officials to the council of Nicaea,
at Nicaea. It was aimed at weighing in on debates over the true nature of a religion

2
and looking for a unanimous position on the true divine nature of christ. The
council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council to be formed. Constantine
declared himself as the bishop of bishops and therefore he led the council of
bishops. It brought many changes including but not limited to the first version of
the Nicene creed.
One of the decisions that was made by the synod was that eunuchs could be
ordained to the priesthood so long as their castration was not voluntary.(Olson
152). According to the first canon, If anyone due to sickness has undergone a
surgical operation, or if he has been castrated by barbarians, he is allowed to
remain among the clergy. But if anyone enrolled among the clergy has castrated
himself when in perfect health, it is good for him to leave the ministry. From now

0
on, no such person should be promoted to the clergy. But since this applies only to
those who willfully castrate themselves, if anyone has been made a eunuch by
barbarians, or by his master, and is otherwise fit for office, church law admits him

10
to the clergy.
Hosius (Constantine's chaplain) was ordered by the emperor, with the
agreement of the bishops, a unifying and compulsory creed summarizing the
ancient faith of the church”. This was to aid in fighting other heresies such as
arianism that argued that Jesus was not the Son of God. This was disapproved of
using the word begotten to attribute to the son and not made to mean not created or
made as that which is created or made would therefore not be truly God.(Olson
155-156)
H
The calculation of the easter dates.The feast of Easter is linked to the Jewish
Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, as Christians believe that the crucifixion
and resurrection of Jesus occurred at the time of those observances.Some
Christians had set Easter to a Sunday in the lunar month of Nisan. To determine
which lunar month was to be designated as Nisan, Christians relied on the Jewish
TC

community. By the late 3rd century some Christians began to express

dissatisfaction with what they took to be the disorderly state of the Jewish calendar.
They argued that contemporary Jews were identifying the wrong lunar month as
the month of Nisan, choosing a month whose 14th day fell before the spring
equinox.Christians, these thinkers argued, should abandon the custom of relying on
Jewish informants and instead do their own computations to determine which
month should be styled Nisan, setting Easter within this independently computed,
Christian Nisan, which would always locate the festival after the equinox. They
justified this break with tradition by arguing that it was in fact the contemporary
Jewish calendar that had broken with tradition by ignoring the equinox and that in
former times the 14th of Nisan had never preceded the equinox.Others felt that the
customary practice of reliance on the Jewish calendar should continue, even if the
Jewish computations were in error from a Christian point of view.The controversy

3
between those who argued for independent computations and those who argued for
continued reliance on the Jewish calendar was formally resolved by the Council,
which endorsed the independent procedure that had been in use for some time at
Rome and Alexandria. Easter was henceforward to be a Sunday in a lunar month
chosen according to Christian criteria—in effect, these two rules—independence of
the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity—were the only rules for Easter
explicitly laid down by the Council. No details for the computation were specified;
these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated
numerous controversies, some of which remain unresolved. In particular, the
Council did not seem to decree that Easter must fall on Sunday. (Constantine)
The suppression of the Melitian schism, an early breakaway sect, was

0
another important matter that came before the Council of Nicaea. Melitius, it was
decided, should remain in his own city of Lycopolis in Egypt but without
exercising authority or the power to ordain new clergy; he was forbidden to go into

10
the environs of the town or to enter another diocese for the purpose of ordaining its
subjects. Melitius retained his episcopal title, but the ecclesiastics ordained by him
were to receive again the laying on of hands, the ordinations performed by Melitius
being therefore regarded as invalid. Clergy ordained by Melitius were ordered to
yield precedence to those ordained by Alexander, and they were not to do anything
without the consent of Bishop Alexander.In the event of the death of a
non-Melitian bishop or ecclesiastic, the vacant see might be given to a Melitian,
provided he was worthy and the popular election were ratified by Alexander.
H
Melitius' episcopal rights and prerogatives were taken from him. These mild
measures, however, were in vain; the Melitians joined the Arians and caused more
dissension than ever, being among the worst enemies of Athanasius. The Melitians
ultimately died out around the middle of the 5th century. (Constantine, n.d.)
TC

Council of Constantinople
This Council was called in May 321 by Emperor Theodosius; it was
attended by 150 Catholic and 36 heretical Bishops. They met in the church of
Hagia Irene.
The council of Constantinople edited the Creed of Nicaea by removing the
condemnations which had been added because they did not apply to the new
terminology anymore; it also said something about the Holy Spirit which was not
included at Nicaea. the primary theological issue and step down to the question of
Christ's relation to God the Father before incarnation. Many bishops had refused to
accept the nicene term homoousios usually translated as the same substance to
describe the relationship between the son and the father, a term which Constantine
himself had endorsed. Emperor Constantine 2 sought to unite Christendom by the
less stringent Creed. he stressed the likeness of the father and the son and banned

4
both the Arian and nicene terminology dealing with the question of ousia.
opponents of this policy characterized it and similar non-nicene formulas as
semi-arianism. (Exiguus)
Canons. Seven canons were created during the first sitting of the Council. Four
were doctrinal and three disciplinary.However the Roman Catholic Church accepts
only the doctrine ones.The first canon is a dogmatic condemnation of all shades of
Arianism. It also condemned macedonianism.The second canon renews the nicene
legislation imposing upon the Bishops the observance of the diocesian and
patriarchal limits it specifically reigns in the bishop of Alexandria who had
becoming famous the time of athanasius for intruding into the affairs of churches
far and wide.The famous third canon affirmed Constantinople as the new rome

0
second in ecclesiastical honor to rome itself. in the council of chalcedon
Constantinople would be recognised as the ecumenical jurisdiction of highest
ecclesiastical appeal although the papacy has never accepted this.The fourth canon

10
declares invalid the consecration of maximus of constantinople as bishop of
constantinople.The fifth canon accepts the churchmen of Antioch who affirm the
Trinity. It was passed in response to Tom of the Western Bishops, perhaps that of
Pope damasus 1 which is no longer extant.The sixth Cannon limits the ability to
accuse Bishops of wrongdoing, stipulating that those who bring such charges must
be prepared to have their own characters and Orthodox examined.The seventh
canon regards procedures for receiving certain heretics into the church. Those
H
guilty of arianism, novatianism and some other heretics do not require any baptism
but eunomians, montanists, and sabellians must be baptized again. (Exiguus)

2a) Analyze the main Christological controversies

TC

Ebionites Why are Jewish Christian sects. Ebion means poor in Aramaic or
Hebrew. Origen referred to them as people who are poor in understanding.
According to them, Jesus was a man who by his scrupulous observance of the law
was Justified and became the Messiah. he had good human qualities and was a
great example. to them Jesus was certainly not divine in their view. Jesus was a
Godly prophet so God in a sense adopted Jesus as a son . After Jesus was crucified,
God raised him…… (Wilwhite 42)
Supersessionism. In the middle of the second century,marcion approached
the highly revered bishop polycarp, asking for approval and recognition’. In
response, polycarp retorted, “i recognize you. You are the first born of satan!”.
Marcion had taught hereticand blasphemous teachings and he therefore earned

5
such hostility. The principal matter was Marcion's doctrine of christ. Marcion
understood Jesus with the character of love. A love so complete that it is self
sacrificial. Marcion devotes himself to this God of love revealed in christ. Marcion
understood the gospel as that of love and acceptance sent from heaven and so any
God who acts contrary to this must be foreign to the God met in christ, or as
marcion put it, “beneath” the God of christ.he claimed that christ is not the creator
Godand that he is better than the creator-God seems to demand that the
creator-God is less good if not evil. The question therefore remains is Jesus’ body
evil? He denied Christ's birth and arrested that Christ instead came down straight
from heaven to capernaum and therefore denied a bodily resurrection and preferred
a spiritual body in the after life. (Wilwhite 22-31)

0
Docetism. The word docetism comes from the Greek word dokein which
means to seem or appear like. They taught that Christ was only a spectral
application of a man and that he merely suffered. Third century Christian writers

10
repeatedly assert that Marcion denied the incarnation and preferred to think of
Jesus as simply pretending to appear in flesh. This was contrary to the human to
animal Teachings of the Apostles and therefore sound as a heresy.(Wilwhite 64-68)
Modalism. It is also referred to as sabellianism or monarchianism. This is
the belief in God as one person who changes “modes of being”, roles or merely
costumes. modalists are strictly monotheistic and therefore they believe in one God
only. On the Trinity the first mode in which God was known as the father figure he
H
is the creator Shepherd etc beard next God was known as the iPhone through
Christ; he was born of Mary. however this is not another God as machine and the
gnostics claimed. Jesus is Emmanuel; the same God that is “with us”. God was in
the flesh of the body. Thirdly Christ ascended back to Heaven….. (Wilwhite 93 )
Subhumanism. Young apollinaris loved to listen to great orators. He was
TC

excommunicated by his bishop for supporting christian events. He decided to

injure the church by inventing a heresy about Jesus that would lead people
astray.apollinaris claimed that the Son of God was incarnate, that is enfleshed or,
better, “in flesh”. Although his first statement was right, his explanation made it a
heresy. He explained that Christ's body is a tent, an earth-suite, in which the logos
resided. He further explained that Christ was not fully human as he understood the
incarnation in terms of the body or “flesh”. To apollinaris, the word of God is put
on the outer flesh, and he resides where a human soul normally resides within the
body. He concluded that Christ has a human body, but not a human soul and
therefore he is not fully human. (Wilwhite 133)
Subordinationism. Arius subordinated the son to the father. For arius, Jesus
of nazareth preexisted as the Son of God. The Son of God, however, is not fully

6
God to arius. The son is a little less than the father, as which any parent/child
relationship. The son -while firstborn of all creation and so very old!- is still not as
old as the father who is eternal. Since the son is younger, the son is subordinated to
his elder father. So here comes the question: what does it mean for God to be God?
According to arius, God is simple. God is simply God, no parts and nothing else is
greater. So is Jesus God? Arius answered: Jesus is sort of God.he is divine for his
preincarnate divine nature did not have parts, and as co-creator with the father the
Son of God had divine attributes.( i.e. omnipresence, omnipotence, etc.) arius
continued to argue on the distinction between created and uncreated. Only God is
uncreated. The only question that was left was: Is Jesus created or uncreated? Arius
continued to explain that since the son was “begotten” (=gennetos in Greek) of the

0
father and since we know that God does not really have reproductive organs or
“parts”, then the Son of God must have been created(=genetos in Greek). The
terms gennetos and genetos seem to sound synonymous. To be God, he argued, is

10
to be unoriginate. To have divine attributes is not quite the same as being fully
divine. For example, many humans display Godly attributes eg. justice mercy and
so on. The son on the other hand, displays many Godly attributes such as
omnipotence and omniscience. Despite this, there is only one attribute that cannot
be shared: eternality. (Wilwhite 110)
Reductionism. “Thou art the messenger of God, and i am Gabriel.” these
words were said to the prophet Muhammad in his first experience of
H
revelationfrom heaven. He was so scared that he ran home and by throwing himself
down and yelling to his wife, “cover me! Cover me!”. After the wife found out
what had happened, she consulted her cousin who was by then a christian. The
cousin declared ‘verily Muhammad is the prophet of his people. Bid him rest
assured.’ after the reasurrance, Muhammad returned to the place where gabriel
appeared and began to receive the revelations that would eventually become the
TC

Qur'an. Interestingly, according to the Qur'an,Muhammad is the seal of the

prophets’ and is what is understood as the final and most important prophet. The
message was always the same; there is only one God and people should obey God.
Islam believe that until Muhammad, Jesus was the greatest and unique prophet.
According to them Jesus is unique because;(1) his birth was announced by the
angel Gabriel(2) Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus. Jesus is the word
and spirit of God placed in Mary's womb by God. So where is the heresy?
Here is the heresy. Muslims believe three things that make their christology
a heresy. (1) Jesus is not divine. He was a human prophet empowered by God(2) he
did not die on the cross. It merely appeared that way to the jews.(3) Jesus did not
rise from the dead as he never died in the first place. To call Jesus divine in Arabic
would be to say that Jesus is a God and therefore it would bring a sense of

7
polytheism. They then concluded that only the word is divine and the body is
human.(Wilwhite 231-234)
Dyoprosopitism. Nestorius went as far as venerating Mary but refused to call
her by her rightful name: mother of God. He argued that she is the mother of Christ
but not the mother of God. Let's take two questions here: (a), is Jesus God?(b) is
mary Jesus’ mother? The answer to both questions is yes. To nestorius we could
not conclude mary as the mother of God but christ. He further explained that mary
bore Jesus fleshly/ human nature; she did not generate the son’s divine nature and
both natures united at conception but they remain two distinct proposa or persons.
On the nature of christ,m he argued on the example of language. He explained that

0
Christ was both human and divine just like the person who has two
languages/cultures. As a person born into a bilingual household they can utilize
both areas. In the divine nature, can truly/naturally calm the wind while in his
human nature, he can truly/ naturally get sleepy and other traits. For nestorius,

10
christ’s human nature suffers while christ’s divine nature remains impassible.
(Wilwhite 146- 170).
b) How did the Church respond to these controversies?
Excommunication. The Bishops of the church formed councils that acted
very fast to control the spread of the heresies. they excommunicated members of
the church who had begun their own heresies or had started teaching false deeds or
H
customs. The council of Nicaea excommunicated some of them including but not
limited to Arianists.
Formation of creeds by the councils. The council of Nicaea, under the
leadership of Constantine, formulated a creed that was referred to as the Creed of
Nicaea. all the bishops and other clergy were required to sign on an agreement that
TC

the whole church would use that Creed. It summarized the major beliefs of the
church concerning God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and other customs that were
important to the church.

3 Assess the impact of Constantine’s rule in the Church

Constantine was born in 247AD in the Eastern Empire to emperor
Constantius 1 and Helena(a concubine). He ascended to the rank of emperor in 306
AD while in York, Britain after the death of his father who was the emperor of the
western empire. He was brought up in the apollo faith that was based on the
worship of the God of the sun. He married Fausta and they bore a son whom they
named Crispus. They were both executed by Constantine on the grounds of treason

8
and possibly adultery. He died in 337 AD and was succeeded by emperor
Constantius 1, an arian believer.During the rule of Constantine, the growth rate of
the church was greatly influenced. He was a leader who believed in the God of the
christians. It is believed that he saw a flaming cross in the sky and that a voice
came to him with the words “by this sign you will conquer”. he inscribed the sign
of the cross on all the shields. (Constantine The Great Explained in 10 Minutes,
2021)
In 313, Constantine met his eastern counterpart, emperor Licinius. They
agreed on the Edict of Milan, a proclamation for freedom of worship to all. This
effectively legalized christianity as a religion. The edict returned all property

0
confisticated during the persecution. This was a sign of the thing to come.
Persecution was therefore stopped for some time. In 320, things turned around and
Licinius resumed his persecution of christians. This culminated in a civil war by
324 in which Constantine won. He reunited the empire under the banner of

10
christianity. He attributed his success to christianity, writing that he was chosen as
“God’s instrument for the suppression of impiety” and dubbing himself “The Equal
of the Apostles. The triumphal arch built at Rome attributed his victories to the
“inspiration of the Divinity”.Althoughchristians were not persecuted, the Jews- the
“Christ-killers” (as Constantine saw them) intensified during his reign.
(Constantine The Great Explained in 10 Minutes , 2021)
Imperial legislators favored christianity. Constantine favored christianity
H
among the many religions of his subjects but he did not make it the official or
‘established’ religion of the empire. (Chadwick 127). Pagan legislators and
government officials were replaced with christians. Constantine also endeavoured
to express christian ideals in some of his laws protecting children, slaves, peasants
and prisoners. An edict in 316 directed that criminals may not be branded on the
TC

face ‘because man is made in God’s image’.(Chadwick 128)

Constantine’s benefactions to the church were on a large scale. The ravages
he made by financing new copies of the bible and by building churches, especially
the basilicas in Rome.The state used its revenue(taxes) for building the churches.
He also gave the palace of his second wife Fausta, formerly the property of the
Lateran family, to the bishops of Rome as the episcopal residence. (Chadwick
127). He also assigned a fixed proportion of provincial revenues to church charity.
They were so large that even when cut to a third at its restoration after the
suspension under Julian’s pagan revival, it was reckoned generous. (Chadwick
128)
Despite all the good things, by 321, pagan practices had already started
infiltrating the christian church. In 321, constantine gave an order that closed all

9
the law courts on the venerable day of the sun’ except for the pious purpose of
freeing slaves and deprecated Sunday labour except where necessary on farms.
Although the christian practice of commemorating the Lord’s resurrection on the
first day of the week was already traditional before St. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians,
the mithraic sun-cult was also done on that same day. To Constantine, he did not
see the worship of the sun as idol worship as he was both a sun worshiper and a
christian. In the old testament, God n Jesus was referred to as the ‘sun of
righteousness’.(Chadwick 128) (Constantine and the Pagan Sun-Day , 2014)

References

0
Chadwick, H. (1967).The Early Church. Penguin Group.

10
Constantine, E. (n.d.).First Council of Nicaea. Wikipedia. Retrieved November

18, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

Constantine and the Pagan Sun-Day

. (2014, February22). YouTube. Retrieved

November 15, 2022, from

H
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZIHwsEyrMI

Constantine The Great Explained in 10 minutes

. (2021, May 4). YouTube.

Retrieved November 15, 2022, from

TC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FWJXFwvYUQ

Exiguus, D. (n.d.).CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: First Councilof

Constantinople. New Advent. Retrieved November 18,2022, from

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04308a.htm

First Council of Constantinople. (n.d.). New WorldEncyclopedia. Retrieved

November 18, 2022, from

10
 https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/First_Council_of_Constantino

ple

Fourth Century Christianity » Canons of the Council of Nicaea

. (2010, October

13). Fourth Century Christianity. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from

https://www.fourthcentury.com/nicaea-325-canons/

Wilwhite, D. E. (2015).THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HERETICS

. Baker

0
Publishing Group.

10
H
TC

11