AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State (Worthy Reads)

Following the years of the Great Persecution^[i] under Emperor Diocletian, the welcoming news of the cessation of the persecution through the decree of Galerius^[ii] in A.D. 311 met a beleaguered Christianity that had hunkered down in the Roman Empire. This edict, gaining permanence in A.D. 313 through the Edict of Milan signed by Constantine I and Licinius^[iii], would soon serve as the fountainhead for future political decisions regarding the Roman Empire and Christianity. Of the events that would follow, church history comes to a jarring stop in A.D. 325, one year after Constantine assumed complete control of the Empire, as he called together the first ecumenical council of Bishops.^[iv]

A large segment of those claiming Christian orthodoxy believes the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 to be a watershed moment for the church that decisively communicated a true orthodoxy that overcame the dangerous heresy and heterodoxy with the help of the Council’s introduction of the homoouisios (same substance) to recast an understanding of the relationship between the Father and the Son. Historical retellings following the Council would posit that an overwhelming majority of Bishops decisively won the debate, that Arius was strongly condemned and defeated, and that afterward, a collective peace and doctrinal unity followed among the Eastern and Western Bishops. This is false and an attempt to gloss over the truth of subsequent church history. 

While a consensus of Bishops emerged from those present at the Council, “the word homoousios was clearly an embarrassment and was to be condemned in the years to come.” ^[v] Furthermore, the heretic Arius, once demeaned and accused at the Council of great heresy would receive an invitation to return from exile^[vi], even against the direct opposition of Athanasius.^[vii] Simply put, nothing was resolved following the Council of AD 325, and following the death of Constantine in 337, the debate and disagreement over the relationship between the Father and Son would carry on, with many unaffected by the debate that had taken place in Nicaea who had continued to teach and serve as they had always done. 

AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

Most discussions had by Trinitarian adherents of church history discuss AD 381 as the celebrated year in which the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) scored a final victory for orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople.^[viii] Yet, few slow down to consider that the debate continued to rage amongst the bishops nearly 50 years after the Council of Nicaea. Even in Constantinople in the year 380, “the Nicene community….was very small….the congregation without its own priest until the arrival in 379 of the Cappadocian Father, the scholarly Gregory of Nazianzus.”^[ix] Clearly, as Charles Freeman posits, the Nicaean Creed did not gain universal acceptance by the Bishops of the Eastern and Western churches in AD 325, as theological wars continued to rage across the landscape of the Roman Empire regarding the Trinity and the nature of Christ. 

Charles Freeman, centering on the edict of Emperor Theodosius in January of AD 381, outlines a dramatic shift that impacted the ongoing debate with the Trinity and the nature of Christ. By the time of the Council of Constantinople,  the epistula^[x] from Theodosius that imposed the Nicene faith as the only acceptable and uniform belief had been published. Unlike anything in history, the law promised fellowship to the bishops who accepted and ex-communication to those who did not. In one decisive moment, a doctrinal orthodoxy was established as an imperial matter of state. Freeman writes: “The freedom to speculate on what might or might not exist beyond this material world had been an intrinsic part of philosophical debate for centuries and God, ‘the gods,’ Aristotle’s ‘the Unmoved Mover’ and Plato’s ‘the Good’ had been among the many alternative ways of describing this ultimate reality. These alternatives were now being erased or subsumed into a composite ‘Christian’ God embedded in the Nicaea formula.”^[xi]

Other Thoughts

It is difficult to portray the scope of research and information in Freeman’s AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State, but it should be recommended reading for Oneness Pentecostals for many reasons. Freeman’s underlying thesis that the Trinity remained hotly contested until 381 is not a standard discussion in church history, and few are aware of the blanket demand of doctrinal obeisance that effectively set the stage for opposition and debate to the Trinity to be silenced. This masterful book demands thorough engagement involving a seldom-discussed event in church history. 

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^[i] It is estimated that upwards of 3,500 Christians were brutally killed during the years of the Diocletianic Persecution. His persecution, in contrast to Nero’s which focused on the city of Rome, spread throughout the entire Roman Empire. 

^[ii] The Edict of Toleration by Galerius, also called the Edict of Serdica, is ironic in that Galerius played an integral role in the continuation of the Diocletianic Persecution following Diocletian’s abdication of the throne. Constantine and Licinius, the other two of the Roman Tetrarch, were also cosigners to the decree. 

^[iii] Following the death of Galerius in A.D. 311, the remaining powers of the Roman Tetrarchy would find themselves engaged in civil wars until Constantine delivered a fatal blow against Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, moving Constantine one step closer as the ruler of the entire Roman Empire that would occur in A.D. 324 following his defeat of Licinius.  For a more exhaustive understanding of this complex period and the rise of Constantine as the sole Emperor, read Timothy D. Barnes Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1981. 

^[iv] Over 1,800 would be invited, but historical evidence shows a consensus of only 318 attending, with most of that number representative of the Eastern church. For a more detailed discussion on the number of attendees, see A.H.M. Jones, Constantine and the Conversation of Europe. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2001.

^[v] Charles Freeman. AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. New York, NY: Overlook Press, 2009

^[vi] Barnes, T. (2009). THE EXILE AND RECALLS OF ARIUS. The Journal of Theological Studies, 60(1), 109–129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23970859

^[vii] It is believed Arius recanted some of his controversial statements, though Athanasius would still fervently decry Arius and his followers as heretics who had merely adopted orthodox language without changing their beliefs. 

^[viii] From this Council the Trinitarian Doctrine was ratified as what came to be known as the Nicene Creed which is the creed used by modern Trinitarians. 

^[ix] Charles Freeman. AD 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. New York, NY: Overlook Press, 2009, p. 95

^[x] A formal letter

^[xi] Freeman, p. 118