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The article presents information on the key players in the politics and theology at the Council of Nicaea. Constantine occupied a prominent position at the Council of Nicaea, but he did not actually do very much. Generations of critics have accused him of manipulating the proceedings, jamming words into the creed and generally trumping theology with politics, but in fact he mainly sat and listened. Alexander could hardly have become bishop of Alexandria at a worse time. Harsh persecutions had taken many lives in Egypt between 303 and 311. A 1925 history of the Council of Nicaea describes Arius as a man of tall stature, of austere countenance and ascetic life.

The article presents information on the Council of Nicaea. The council is a veritable mountain in the landscape of the early church. For the protagonists themselves, it was more in the nature of an emergency meeting forced on hostile parties by imperial power and designed to stop an internal row. After the council, many of the same bishops who had signed its creed appeared at other councils, often reversing their previous decisions according to the way the winds of preferment were blowing. They found themselves less in a domain of monumental clarity and more in a swamp of confusing arguments and controversies that at times seemed to threaten the very continuity of the Christian church. INSET: Who Came to the Council of Nicaea?.

The article discusses the role played by the Nicaea creed in the protection of the pure Gospel. All Christians asserted that Jesus was God and worshipped Him as such, following the understanding laid down in an early second-century sermon known as II Clement. However, those baptismal creeds which have come down from local churches said very little beyond the basic wording. Such confessional statements left many questions unanswered. It was inevitable, therefore, that the early church would eventually require a more universal statement of faith like the Nicene Creed. As the church grew in numbers, geographical distance and theological sophistication, the need for a comprehensive explanation of the Christian faith grew as well.

The article focuses on why one should care about the early councils even today or even recite a creed. The Bible is not a doctrinal treatise. It's not a catechism. It's not a set of well-defined teachings. It's basically a narrative, a story about what God has done in the coming of Christ. The conviction of the early church was that the Bible was one book. It had one story. So one had to try to find a way to bring what was read in Paul into relation to what was read in Mark. The basic problem was that Christians began, as Jews, with the belief that God is one.

The article presents information on the Nicaea creed. The Council of Nicaea's attempt to appeal to Scripture ended up revealing the fundamental difference between Alexander and Arius. Alexander and Athanasius appealed to scriptural texts that spoke of the Son's generation from the Father or that declared the unity of Father and Son. In 325 the Council of Antioch supported Alexander's views against Arius, deposes Eusebius of Caesarea and plans a general council to be held in Ancrya. In 325 the Council of Nicaea produces a creed affirming that Jesus Christ is of the same substance as the Father and condemns the teaching of Arius.

The article presents information on the Nicene Creed and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. In 381, the Council of Constantinople affirmed the Nicene Creed and condemned heresies that had since arisen against Nicaea. But from later records one knows that another creed was also used, now known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. This creed is more strictly Trinitarian than the Nicene, describing each member of the Trinity in relation to the other members. The creed of 325 says less about the Father and only mentions the Holy Spirit with no description at all, since the council's attention was fixed on how the Son is no less divine that the Father.

The article focuses on the Council of Nicaea. The Greek-speaking Eastern church insisted that the celebration of Ester had to be on the date of Jesus' resurrection. The Western, Latin-speaking church, on the other hand, decreed that it had to be on the day of the resurrection. The Council of Nicaea decided that Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday. However, even today, the Eastern Orthodox church, which uses the old Julian calendar, often observes Easter on a different Sunday from the Western church, which uses the Gregorian calendar. Another significant issue at Nicaea was a proposal for clerical celibacy, probably introduced by Ossius of Cordoba.