By Editorial Staff
In this article, I will deal with the
bitter conflict which took place between monotheism and the doctrine of
the Trinity and their followers after the convention of Council of
Nicaea and before the prophetic mission and even the birth of Prophet
Muhammad.
First Council of Constantinople
Conflict between monotheism and the Trinity lasted even after the Council of Nicaea.
The most conclusive evidence for the
fact that monotheism existed, had strong presence and was even
widespread since the dawn of Christianity is its multiform re-emergence
shortly after the bishop of Alexandria supported by the pagan Roman
Empire stood up to Arius’ teachings which were closer to monotheism.
After Athanasius, the Bishop of
Alexandria, had fought against Arius’ teachings for many years, other
similar beliefs emerged towards the end of the fourth century of the
Christian era, specifically during the reign of the Roman Emperor
Theodosius I. Therefore, the second ecumenical council was convened in
Constantinople in 381 A.D.
Those beliefs included that of the
Macedonians or the Pneumatomachi. They denied the divinity of the Holy
Spirit, hence the Greek name “Pneumatomachi” or “Combators against the
Spirit”.
They also regarded the substance of
Jesus Christ as being of “similar substance” (homoiousios) but not of
the “same essence” (homoousious) as that of God the Father.
The Pneumatomachi were denounced in 374
by Pope Damasus I. In 381 A.D., the Pneumatomachian concept that the
Holy Spirit was a creation of the Son, and a servant of the Father and
the Son, prompted the First Council of Constantinople (also termed the
Second Ecumenical Council) to add, “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,
the Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father
and the Son is equally worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the
Prophets,” into the Nicene Creed. As a result of the Second Ecumenical
Council, homoousios has become the accepted definition of Christian
orthodoxy. Thereafter, the Macedonians were suppressed by the emperor
Theodosius I.
Another belief is that of Apollinaris.
It appeared to him that the union of complete God with complete man
could not be more than a juxtaposition or collocation. Two perfect
beings with all their attributes, he argued, cannot be one. They are at
most an incongruous compound, not unlike the monsters of mythology.
Inasmuch as the Nicene faith forbade him to belittle the Logos, as Arius
had done, he forthwith proceeded to maim the humanity of Christ, and
divest it of its presumably noblest attribute, and this, he claimed, is
for the sake of true Unity and veritable Incarnation.
He failed to submit even to the more
solemn condemnation of the Council of Constantinople, 381, whose first
canon entered Apollinarianism on the list of heresies.
At the close of this council Emperor
Theodosius issued an imperial decree (30 July) declaring that the
churches should be restored to those bishops who confessed the equal
Divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and who held
communion with Nectarius of Constantinople and other important Oriental
prelates whom he named.
First Council of Ephesus
Only a few years after the convention of the Council of
Constantinople, the Council of Ephesus was convened in 431 A.D. This
third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church
through an assembly representing all of Christendom, confirmed the
original Nicene Creed, and condemned the teachings of Nestorius,
Patriarch of Constantinople that the Virgin Mary may be called the
Christotokos, “Birth Giver of Christ” but not the Theotokos, “Birth
Giver of God”.
Nestorius’ doctrine, Nestorianism, which
emphasized the distinction between Christ’s human and divine natures
and argued that Mary should be called Christokos (Christ-bearer) but not
Theotokos (God-bearer), had brought him into conflict with other church
leaders, most notably Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria. Nestorius himself
had requested that the Emperor convene council, hoping to prove his
orthodoxy, but in the end his teachings were condemned by the council as
heresy. The council declared Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer).
Nestorius was requested to recant his
position or face excommunication. Nestorius was removed from his see,
and his teachings were officially anathematized.
This precipitated the Nestorian Schism,
by which churches supportive of Nestorius, especially in Persia, were
severed from the rest of Christendom and became known as Nestorian
Christianity, the Persian Church, or the Church of the East, whose
present-day representatives are the Assyrian Church of the East, the
Chaldean Syrian Church, the Ancient Church of the East, and the Chaldean
Catholic Church. Nestorius himself retired to a monastery, always
asserting his orthodoxy.
Questions
Had the doctrine of the Trinity been the
predominant belief since of the dawn of Christianity and had monotheism
not been a deep-rooted belief which had strong presence, would such
bitter controversy have taken place over the very nature of God in
Christianity?
Had the Trinity been a clear-cut, evident and generally accepted in the sight of all Christians from the very beginning, is it logical that the greatest patriarchs and bishops would have disagreed over it throughout history as we have just read?
Had the Trinity been a clear-cut, evident and generally accepted in the sight of all Christians from the very beginning, is it logical that the greatest patriarchs and bishops would have disagreed over it throughout history as we have just read?
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