The Reception of Nicaea and <span class='italic'>Homoousios</span> to 360

doi:10.1017/9781108613200.011

11 - The Reception of Nicaea and Homoousios to 360

from Part IV - The Aftermath

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2020

Sara Parvis

Edited by

Young Richard Kim

Show author details

Young Richard Kim: Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The main acts of Nicaea were gradually reversed over the years 327-60. Constantine honored its name and canons throughout his life, but recalled Arius from exile, leaned on church leaders to restore him to communion, and sidelined Arius’s opponents. Constantius II flouted Nicaea’s canons and officially replaced its creed. Nonetheless, Nicaea’s pronouncements on the Son’s relationship to the ousia of the Father, including the term homoousios, which had been a response to Eusebius of Nicomedia’s Letter to Paulinus of Tyre, continued to be debated throughout this period in a succession of mutually allusive theological works. These include Eusebius of Caesarea’s Letter to his Church, Eustathius of Antioch’s Against the Arian Madness, Asterius the Sophist’s Defence of Eusebius of Nicomedia, Marcellus of Ancyra’s Against Asterius, Eusebius’s Against Marcellus and On Ecclesiastical Theology, Acacius of Caesarea’s Against Marcellus, Marcellus’ Letter to Julius of Rome, Athanasius’s Orations Against the Arians, the Profession of Faith of Sirmium 351, and Athanasius’s On the Decrees of Nicaea. The last of these, together with his formidable political skills, established the Nicene Creed against all the odds as the only formula which was able to command widespread support among bishops across the empire after the death of Constantius.

Keywords

homoousios ousia Athanasius Eustathius of Antioch Marcellus of Ancyra Pope Julius I Arius Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Nicomedia Constantius II

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea , pp. 225 - 255

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108613200.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select References

Anatolios, Khaled. 1998. Athanasius: The Coherence of His Thought. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar

Anatolios, Khaled. 2011. Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.Google Scholar

Ayres, Lewis. 2004. Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Barnes, Timothy D. 1993. Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Burgess, R. W. 2008. “The Summer of Blood: The ‘Great Massacre’ of 337 and the Promotion of the Sons of Constantine.” DOP 62:5–51.Google Scholar

Cartwright, Sophie. 2015. The Theological Anthropology of Eustathius of Antioch. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Hanson, R. P. C. 1988. The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318–381. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.Google Scholar

Kinzig, Wolfram, ed. 2017. Faith in Formulae: A Collection of Early Christian Creeds and Creed-related Texts, 4 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Lienhard, S. J., Joseph, T. 1987. “The ‘Arian’ Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered.” Theological Studies 48:415–37.Google Scholar

Lienhard, Joseph T. 1993. “Did Athanasius Reject Marcellus?” In Arianism after Arius: Essays on the Development of the Fourth Century Trinitarian Conflicts, ed. Barnes, Michel R. and Williams, Daniel H., 65–80. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.Google Scholar

Parvis, Paul. 2006. “Constantine’s Letter to Arius and Alexander?” StPat 39: 89–95.Google Scholar

Parvis, Sara. 2006. Marcellus of Ancyra and the Lost Years of the Arian Controversy, 325–345. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Parvis, Sara. 2008. “‘Τὰ τίνων ἄρα ῥήματα θεολογεῖ;’: The Exegetical Relationship between Athanasius’ Orationes contra Arianos I–III and Marcellus of Ancyra’s Contra Asterium.” In The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity: Proceedings of the Montréal Colloquium in Honour of Charles Kannengiesser, 11–13 October 2006, ed. DiTommaso, Lorenzo and Turcescu, Lucian, 121–48. The Bible in Ancient Christianity 6. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Parvis, Sara. 2010. “Joseph Lienhard, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Marcellus’ Rule of Faith.” In Tradition and the Rule of Faith in the Early Church: Essays in Honor of Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., ed. Rombs, Ronnie J. and Hwang, Alexander Y., 89–108. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar

Spoerl, Kelley McCarthy. 2016. “Eustathius on Jesus’ Digestion.” St Pat 74: 147–58.Google Scholar