Religion and Theology

The history of the worlds Christian movement shows that Christianity has been the worlds religion shaped and informed through the world, the gospel and the culture of the church. The first council Nicaea was a council of Christian Bishops who convened in the present Turkey by the Roman Emperor Constantine around 325 A.D.  Historically, the council was significant as the initial efforts to attain consensus in the church were initiated through the league of this bishops in the assembly representing all Christendom. This paper seeks to examine the history of Christianity of Nicaea council.

Overview of the Nicaea Council
The constitution of the Nicaea council was built on the ecumenical tenets limiting its jurisdiction of the Roman Empire. In this context, the principle of the council was driven by the claims of Augustine to be the ruler of the world and thus, the earliest extant mandate of the council was to monitor the progress of the Christian community. According to ethnography studies, the first council of Nicaea is considered to have given birth to the ecumenical council of the Christian churches (Lindberg, 2005). Ultimately, this resulted in the fundamental uniformity of Christian doctrine famously known as the creed of Nicaea. The creation of this creed led to the establishment of a precedent for the subsequent council of bishops called synods.

The original motivation of the council of Nicaea was reflected in the council of Bishops which created a statement of belief as well as canons of doctrinal orthodox. Irvin and Suquist (2001) postulate that the intentions behind these doctrines and canons resided in the paradigm of defining unity of beliefs for the entire Christendom. With regard to this, it should be understood that the council did not invent doctrines of the deity of Christ as it is commonly claimed. The invention of the doctrine of deity of Christ was an idea that existed long in the various parts of the Roman Empire. Its entry into Christianity was as a result of its endorsement by the Christian community of the hitherto pagan city of Rome. Essentially, the council of Nicaea affirmed what it found to be the teachings of the apostles considering who Christ is such that Christ is one true God in deity with the Father.

Formation of the Council
The council of Nicaea was formed after Constantine the Great summoned the Bishops of the Christian church to Nicaea to address divisions that were eminent in the church. Therefore, the fist council of Nicaea was then convened by Constantine on the basis of recommendations of the synod in the Eastertide of 325 (Lindberg, 2005). Accordingly, the synod had been charged with the mandate of investigating the trouble brought about by the Arian controversy in the Greek speaking East. With regard to this, the bishops of Nicaea regard the teachings of Arius as heretical as well as dangerous to the salvation of souls. The council of Nicaea was thus formed with Bishops from a wide range of the attending countries.

It is worth noting that the council of Nicaea was the first general council in the history of the church since the apostolic council of Jerusalem. This had established the conditions upon which gentiles could join the church. Irvin and Suquist (2001) claim that the council of Nicaea provided the church with the first great step to defining doctrines more articulately in the light of the challenging heretical theology. Lindberg (2005) further asserts that the teachings as well as the writings of the early church fathers proved challenging for the church especially in defining what was considered the gospel of treachery prior to that council of Nicaea.

Role of the Council
The original purpose of the council of Nicaea was to resolve the disagreements and misunderstanding that arose within the church of Alexandria. According to Lindberg (2005) such disagreements were over the nature of Jesus particularly in regard to the Father, whether Jesus was a symbolic son of God like other Christians or a literal son of God. For example, Athanasius and Alexander of Alexandria took the first position over the Arian controversy. As a result, ruled against the Arians.

In addition, the council became an integral part in resolving cases as to whether Easter should be celebrated as an important feast of the ecclesiastical calendar. As a result, the council decided in favor of celebrating the resurrection of Christ on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Lindberg (2005) points out that the council authorized the then Bishop Alexandria using the Alexandrian calendar to announce annually the exact date of celebrate Easter.

Fundamentally, alongside settling disagreements in the church, the council was braced with the task of developing Christology. Through the council of Nicaea, a precedent was set for subsequent councils to adopt cannons and creeds and as a result, this council was generally considered the beginning of the period of the first seven ecumenical councils in the history o the Christianity.

Considering these underlying factors, the controversies in the Christian church especially concerning the mystery of the trinity which began in the second centaury alongside the metaphysical argument to explain the divine nature, led to the constitution of the Nicaea council. Because the emperor Constantine had become the patron of the Christians, he conceived that the controversy could be effectively settled by an assembly of the whole church. With regard to all the unfolding in the church through history, no part of the church history has acquired more celebrity than this council with its effort to settle the affairs of the church.

Although it is still very singular that scarcely a part of the ecclesiastical history has been investigated the ancient theologians have not agreed on the exact place, time and year or even the presidents the council (Irvin and Suquist, 2001).

Lindberg (2005) argue that the question of how many canons or ecclesiastical laws were enacted is not agreed upon by Christians from both eastern and western. With every group of Christians with their different views about the council of Nicaea as regard the canon laws enacted to be precisely twenty in number, the Orientals make them far more numerous. For examples, from the canons that are universally spread, as well as other historical documents of the council, it appears that it is only Arius who was condemned but other things were succinctly decreed to settle the affairs of the church.
The passion of Christians in the early church was more efficient than the decrees of both the council or even the authority of the emperor. Lindberg (2005) argues that it is the council and the emperor who did not fail with the doctrine of the Arius yet they were dissatisfied with certain things in the decree as well as the creed of the Arians. It will be noted that the council left the pedestal on which the current council of the church operates. As such, the Arians left no means untried to free themselves from the evils inflicted on them by the canons and decrees. According to the issue was favorable to their wishes and for a few years after the Nicaea council, an Arian presbyter succeeded in persuading Constantine that Arius had been wrongfully condemned from personal enmity.

Later on after the death of Constantine, one of his sons, became very partial to the Arian cause thus supported the western part which governed every decision of the Nicaea council. As a result, many broils and commotions, plots and injuries ensued and became bound such that both the eastern and western sides had councils being assembled to oppose councils. This revolution became more disastrous to the friends of Nicaea council due to the fact that the emperor was now devoted to the Arians and involved others in numerous evils and calamities by  and by punishments as well as threats, many of them  we re compelled to apostatize to the sect to which the emperor was attached.

Conclusion
The history of Christianity of the council of Nicaea presents the picture of a most stormy period, and of a war among brethren which was carried on without religion or justice or humanity. It was instituted and constituted for the good of Christianity. From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the council was chiefly assembled to oversee the deliberations of the church especially where there were disagreements over what was to be done in the church. The council particularly led to the renunciation of the Arian doctrine and made efforts for its extirpation among its subjects by means of legal enactments and council. As such, the council of Nicaea facilitated the resolution of faith based controversies within the Christian fraternity.