Nicaea 2025 Part 1: What is the Council of Nicaea?
This post is part of our Faithfully Asked Questions series, in which we provide answers to common questions of faith. In this Lenten season, we are presenting a special series on church unity, as we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed and a shared Easter date for all Christians in 2025. Have a question you want answered? A story to contribute? Email Matt at mcomer@ststephenumc.net.
In last week’s introduction to this short blog series, we generally explored some of the ways 2025 is a special year for Christians around the globe. Chief among this year’s commemorations is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.
Future editions will explore the Nicene Creed specifically and how we came to have the Easter dates we do. First, however, we need to dig a little into the historical background and the details of the Council of Nicaea. Church and history geeks like me will love this edition, but some of you might find this boring or think it irrelevant. I encourage you to soldier on! As you do, keep these questions in your mind and return after reading to reflect:
- What does it mean for the Church to be united?
- What happens if enforced unity comes at the expense of community?
- Who are the “winners” and “losers” when a belief is condemned as a “heresy”?
- When can heterodox (“different thinking” as opposed to “orthodox” or “right thinking”) beliefs be given liberty to preserve unity? Think to the common Christian call, cited in the UMC Book of Discipline (¶ 103. Section 2—Our Doctrinal History): “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.”
- After centuries of persecution, what must it have felt like for fourth-century bishops and priests to be honored guests of the emperor? Do you think that affected their decisions? How much power did they really have to stop the slow melding of church and empire? Did they care?
What’s special about Nicaea?
The Council of Nicaea was held in May-July 325, in what is now Ä°znik in modern Turkey. Church leaders had gathered for formal meetings (called councils or synods) before, mostly local or regional. The first such council was held in Jerusalem around AD 49; recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles and leaders of the Jerusalem church debated the admission of gentiles, setting an early model for these gatherings.
Nicaea was wholly different and new, unprecedented in its scope, scale, and significance:
- It was the first attempt to gather a representative whole of the Church and the first to attempt a church-wide consensus on matters of faith, doctrine, and church discipline.
- Tradition holds that 318 bishops attended, out of the 1,800 invited. Most were from the eastern portion of the Roman empire, though the West was represented as were territories outside of Rome, like Persia.
- As many as 1,500 or more other people attended, mostly priests and deacons assisting the bishops.
Another important hallmark of Nicaea was its official, imperial sanction: Those who gathered did so by invitation of the emperor, Constantine, who hosted the council at his imperial palace and who paid all the expenses including the costs of travel.
This turn of events would have been previously unimaginable for many of the scarred and crippled bishops who made their way to the city. The last great Roman persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian had occurred just a little over 20 years prior. Christian churches were razed, scriptures confiscated and burned, and assemblies for worship prohibited. Bishops, priests, deacons, and laypeople were arrested, tortured, and executed. These series of persecutions slowed after an act of toleration in 311 and, later, Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313, which legalized the practice of the Christian religion.
Why was Nicaea called?
Constantine wanted stability, order, and unity in the newly legalized Christian religion. A theological dispute between the Bishop of Alexandria and a priest named Arius had spread throughout the empire, causing public disturbances.
The Alexandrian bishop and most other Church leaders taught what most Christians now believe — that God and Christ are of the same essence and substance, in effect that Jesus is God. Though in the minority, sizeable portions of the Christian community held different views, with Arius’ position among the more popular. Arius taught that Jesus was created by God, and, while divine, was not of the same substance as God and was subordinate to God.
What was discussed at Nicaea?
The council’s primary purpose was to formulate a single declaration of faith (a creed), to unite the Church and stop the divisions caused by Arius’ teachings. The bishops drafted the first version of the Nicene Creed, debating it line by line, and eventually settled on a nearly unanimous understanding. Only two bishops refused to sign. They and Arius were exiled by Constantine and excommunicated. Arius’ teachings were banned and his books were ordered to be confiscated and burned.
The council also passed several new church laws (“canons”) and created a new, common computation for the date of Easter, separating it from the Jewish calendar and its computation for Passover.
Misconceptions: What didn’t happen at Nicaea
- Constantine did not preside over the council, nor did he push for any predetermined outcome other than his desire for unity. (Constantine did, however, decree exile for any person who did not subscribe to the council’s final creed, a not-empty threat.)
- The council did not debate or create the biblical canon.
- The council did not “decide” on the divinity of Jesus; most Christians at the time claimed some kind of divinity for Jesus, even if they differed on Jesus’ exact relationship with God the Father.
- The council did not directly debate the doctrine of the Trinity, though the adopted creed reflected the doctrine’s commonly held status by that time.
- And, one for fun: St. Nicholas (of “Santa Claus” fame) likely did not punch Arius during the debate on Jesus. The first mention of this legend occurs 1,000 years after Nicaea. No matter, the internet memes inspired by this story are totally worth it:
An online meme inspired by the legend that St. Nicholas punched Arius at the Council of Nicaea (via The Sacred Faith).
Nicaea’s long-lasting impact
Ironically, the Council of Nicaea did not achieve Constantine’s desire for complete unity. Debates and divisions on the nature of Christ would last for decades longer, with the seats of bishops and of the imperial throne itself alternating between those holding to Nicene belief and those holding to Arius’ teachings.
Constantine’s actions and his family’s adoption of Christianity furthered the faith’s privileged status. (Constantine himself was  baptized, by an Arian bishop no less, much later and only shortly before his death in AD 337.)
In AD 380, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official imperial religion and, one year later, called the Council of Constantinople to re-affirm and expand the Nicene Creed.
These actions set the final stage for the complete fusion of church and state power, with minority viewpoints labeled as heresies subject to state oppression. This new religiopolitical dynamic, which we call Christendom, lasted in the East until Constantinople’s fall in 1453 and in the West until the rise of the Protestant Reformation and Enlightenment.
In our next edition, we’ll explore Nicaea’s primary contribution to history and the faith — the Nicene Creed itself.