The Canon · No. 041
Arianism
The Arian controversy
c.318 – c.700 CE · Abrahamic · Extinct · Roman empire; later the Germanic kingdoms
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
Extinct. Non-trinitarian positions with a family resemblance survive in Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians and Unitarianism, though none is directly descended.
Who began it
Arius (c.256–336 CE), a presbyter of Alexandria.
What it is for
To defend the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God against what Arius saw as a slide into worshipping two gods.
What it worships
God the Father, supreme and alone unbegotten. The Son is worshipped as divine but as a created being.
What it holds
The formula was there was a time when the Son was not. Christ is the first and greatest of all creatures, the agent through whom everything else was made, of similar substance to the Father (homoiousios) rather than the same substance (homoousios). The whole imperial church split over a single Greek letter, which Gibbon mocked and which was in fact load-bearing: if Christ is a creature, then a creature saves you, and the incarnation is not God entering the world.
What it does
Ordinary Christian practice. Arius reportedly spread his teaching in popular songs written for dockworkers and sailors, which is one of the earliest recorded uses of pop music for doctrinal propaganda.
After death
Standard Christian resurrection and judgment.
Its texts
Arius' Thalia survives only in quotations by his opponents. The controversy is documented in Athanasius, Eusebius, Socrates Scholasticus and the conciliar acts.
Its branches
Homoian, Anomoean and semi-Arian positions; the Gothic churches.
Of note
Included because it is the clearest demonstration that Christian orthodoxy was not obvious, was not original, and was decided by councils under imperial pressure over three centuries. For much of the 4th century the Arians were winning.
Its timeline
- c.318 CE Arius clashes with Bishop Alexander of Alexandria.
- 325 CE Council of Nicaea, summoned by Constantine, condemns Arius and produces the creed with homoousios. Arius is exiled.
- 328–373 CE Athanasius is exiled five times as imperial favour swings back and forth. For decades Arianism is the establishment position, not the fringe.
- c.341 CE Ulfilas is consecrated bishop to the Goths, invents the Gothic alphabet and translates the Bible — as an Arian. The Germanic peoples are therefore converted to Arian Christianity.
- 381 CE Council of Constantinople reaffirms Nicaea and finalises the creed still recited today.
- c.400–589 CE Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians and Lombards are Arian, ruling Catholic populations — a religious divide that shapes the politics of the entire post-Roman West.
- 496 CE Clovis, king of the Franks, converts directly to Nicene Christianity rather than Arianism, which is why the Franks and not the Goths become the papacy's partner.
- 589 CE The Third Council of Toledo: Visigothic Spain converts to Catholicism. Arianism effectively ends.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.