What Did Arius Do?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Arius

taught that Jesus Christ was divine/holy and was sent to earth for the salvation of mankind

but that Jesus Christ was not equal to God the Father (infinite, primordial origin) in rank and that God the Father and the Son of God were not equal to the Holy Spirit.

What did Marcionism teach?

Marcion preached that

the benevolent God of the Gospel who sent Jesus Christ into the world as the savior was the true Supreme Being

, different and opposed to the malevolent Demiurge or creator god, identified with the Hebrew God of the Old Testament.

Who was Arius and what did he argue?

Arius argued

for the supremacy of God the Father

, and maintained that the Son of God was simply the oldest and most beloved Creature of God, made from nothing, because of being the direct offspring.

Who was Athanasius and what did he do?

He was

the chief defender of Christian orthodoxy in the 4th-century battle against

Arianism, the heresy that the Son of God was a creature of like, but not of the same, substance as God the Father. His important works include The Life of St. Antony, On the Incarnation, and Four Orations Against the Arians.

Does Arianism still exist today?

To many Christians, the teachings of Arianism are heretical and are not the correct Christian teachings as they deny that Jesus was of the same substance of the God of this monotheistic religion, making it one of the more prominent reasons

Arianism has stopped being practiced today

.

How did the church respond to Arianism?

The council condemned Arius as

a heretic

and issued a creed to safeguard “orthodox” Christian belief. … At a church council held at Antioch (341), an affirmation of faith that omitted the homoousion clause was issued.

How long did Marcionism last?

Marcionism was a controversial form of early Christianity originating from the teachings of Marcion of Sinope, who lived in Rome in the second century C.E. (

115 years and 6 months from the Crucifixion

, according to Tertullian’s reckoning in Adversus Marcionem, xv).

What did the Gnostics believe?

Gnostics considered the

principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight

. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.

What did Athanasius teach about Jesus?

Opposition to Arianism

He embraced a subordinationist Christology which taught that

Christ was the divine Son (Logos) of God

, made, not begotten, heavily influenced by Alexandrian thinkers like Origen, and which was a common Christological view in Alexandria at the time.

Who defeated Arianism?

When Arianism was finally defeated, under

emperor Theodosius

in 381, with a creed coming out of the Council of Constantinople similar to the Nicaean Creed, it essentially went underground. The words of a creed alone could not settle basic differences that still remained regarding the meaning of Jesus’ life.

What does the athanasian creed say?


The Father is made of none; neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created

; but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten; but proceeding.

What are the 4 heresies?

During its early centuries, the Christian church dealt with many heresies. They included, among others,

docetism, Montanism, adoptionism, Sabellianism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and gnosticism

.

What did arianism say about Jesus?

Arius

taught that Jesus Christ was divine/holy and was sent to earth for the salvation of mankind but that Jesus Christ was not equal to God the Father

(infinite, primordial origin) in rank and that God the Father and the Son of God were not equal to the Holy Spirit.

What was the Pelagian controversy about?

Pelagianism, also called Pelagian heresy, a 5th-century Christian

heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will

.

What does Filioque mean in Christianity?

Filioque, (Latin:

“and from the Son

”), phrase added to the text of the Christian creed by the Western church in the Middle Ages and considered one of the major causes of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches.

Amira Khan
Author
Amira Khan
Amira Khan is a philosopher and scholar of religion with a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology. Amira's expertise includes the history of philosophy and religion, ethics, and the philosophy of science. She is passionate about helping readers navigate complex philosophical and religious concepts in a clear and accessible way.