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From the Archives
The Road to Nicaea
The Council of Nicaea strove to answer one of the central questions of the Christian faith, but it also proved that theology is never a tidy business
By John Anthony Mcguckin, from issue 85: Debating Jesus' Divinity

Graffiti emblazoned on walls, a vicious war of pamphlets, riots in the streets, lawsuits, catchy songs of ridicule … It's hard for modem Christians to imagine how such public turmoil could be created by an argument between theologians—or how God could work through the messiness of human conflict to bring the church to an understanding of truth. More …

Also:

Person of the Week: Constantine
THIS WEEK IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY: The Council of Nicea closes
Did You Know: The Nicene Creed Isn't What You Think It Is
Quote of the Week: The Original Nicene Creed

From the Current Issue: [image]

Christianity in China
Christian History & Biography

From the Editor

Christianity Fever
Through a century of political turmoil and disillusionment, waves of Chinese intellectuals have come to Christ.
by Stacey Bieler and Carol Lee Hamrin

Caught Between Rome and Beijing
Chinese Catholics have endured devastating division in the past century.
by Kim-Kwong Chan

As for Me and My House
The house-church movement survived persecution and created a surge of Christian growth across China.
by Tony Lambert

Worshiping Under the Communist Eye
The birth of an "official" Chinese church helped Christianity thrive in public under political constraints.
by Ryan Dunch

From Foreign Mission to Chinese Church
Missionaries in China were hampered by pressures from home, mistakes in leadership, and identification with the West, but they planted the seeds that would someday yield an astonishing harvest.
By Daniel H. Bays

Person of the Week [image]

RULERS
Constantine
First Christian emperor

"I have experienced this in others and in myself, for I walked not in the way of righteousness. … But the Almighty God, who sits in the court of heaven, granted what I did not deserve."
—Constantine

This Week in Christian History [image]

July 25, 325: The Council of Nicea closes. The first ecumenical council, convened by Constantine, it rejected the Arians (who denied the full divinity of Christ) as heretics (see issue 85: Debating Jesus' Divinity)

More This Week in Christian History

Did You Know? [image]

The Nicene Creed Isn't What You Think It Is

The creed you may recite in church each Sunday is not the original creed as crafted by the Council of Nicaea in 325. It is, in fact, a more developed version of the creed as issued by the Council of Constantinople in 381. The original Nicene creed had fewer clauses and a much simpler theology of the Holy Spirit. It also had an "anathema" or legal condemnation that directly attacked the Arian position. The later council dropped this to make the creed more universally applicable.

Quote of the Week [image]

We believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance from the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, will come to judge the living and the dead;

And in the Holy Spirit.

But as for those who say, there was when he was not, and, before being born he was not, and he came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the son of God is a different hypostasis or substance, or is subject to change or alteration—these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.

—The Original Nicene Creed

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