Nicaea History

The Council of Nicaea was the first council in the history of the Christian church that was intended to address the entire body of believers. It was convened by the emperor Constantine to resolve the controversy of Arianism, a doctrine that held that Christ was not divine but was a created being.

The Council of Nicaea did not invent the doctrine of Christ. Instead, the Council of Nicaea affirmed the apostles’ teaching of who Christ is—the one true God and the Second Person of the Trinity, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We get the first version of the Nicene Creed from this council meeting. Wikipedia does a fantastic job of breaking down the meaning and its subsequent revisions in the First Council of Constantinople or second council meeting, which can be found here. This 220-word creed is still used widely today and is the Church's best effort at conveying the entirety of the gospel and our core beliefs.

The next council meeting was in 381 and it was the First Council of Constantinople. For this meeting, Church leaders debated the person and nature of God. For example, believers in Arianism believed that Jesus was not on the same level as God, and therefore Trinity theology wasn't possible. Apollinarians on the other hand believed Jesus had a human body and soul but a divine mind.

Lastly, Sabellians believed the Father, Son & Holy Spirit are three different modes of God as opposed to three distinct persons within the Trinity.*

From this council meeting, the Nicene Creed was also addressed, added to the original text, and is the version we use today.

*G. T. Stokes, “Sabellianism,” ed. William Smith and Henry Wace, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines.

It's another 50 years later before we see the third ecumenical* Council of Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in 431. The main topic at this council meeting is to confirm the original Nicene Creed, which was first established in 325.

The other hot topic of the day was a debate over Mary's distinction and Christ's human and divine natures.

At the council meeting, it was decided that Mary would be declared Mother of God. This distinction divided the followers and the different versions of the council edict. It wasn't until 1994 that the Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East marked the resolution of a dispute between those two churches that had existed since the Council of Ephesus. They expressed their shared understanding of doctrine concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ, and recognized the legitimacy and rightness of their respective descriptions of Mary as, on the Assyrian side, "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour", and, on the Catholic side, as "the Mother of God" and also as "the Mother of Christ".

Big church words explained: Ecumenical - "representing a number of different Christian Churches"

At this point, the councils are picking up steam, the Council of Chalcedon or the fourth Ecumenical Council being the largest of the first four meetings.

By the time the fourth Ecumenical Council, also known as the Council of Chalcedon, began in 451, the idea of a unified Christianity is put to the test. The primary intent of the meeting was to resolve the controversy over the nature of Christ. Specifically, the council sought to determine whether Christ was one divine person with two distinct natures (one fully human and one fully divine) or whether he was two separate persons, one divine and one human.

After much debate, the council adopted a statement that affirmed Christ was "perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man, consisting of a rational soul and a body." It also declared that the two natures of Christ were "without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation."

Even though this definition wasn't universally accepted at the time, it marked a turning point for Christianity and to this day stands as a pillar of the Christian faith.

The Second Council of Constantinople, also known as the Fifth Ecumenical Council, was held in 553, which would have been just over 100 years since the last council meeting in Chalcedon. Its main purpose was to address theological controversies and disputes that had arisen in the Christina Church, particularly regarding the nature of Christ and the relationship between His divine and human natures.

The council primarily focused on two main issues:

The Three Chapters Controversy: This centered around the writings of three theologians—Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa—collectively referred to as the "Three Chapters." These theologians had opposed the teachings of Cyril of Alexandria at the previous Council in Chalcedon on the nature of Christ. The council condemned certain writings and statements from these theologians while attempting to preserve the orthodox understanding of Christ's nature.

The Controversy over the "Three Chapters": The council aimed to clarify the relationship between the writings of the Three Chapters and the broader theological context of the time. It affirmed the decisions of the earlier Council of Chalcedon (451 AD), which had defined the orthodox Christological position by declaring Christ to be one person with two distinct natures—fully divine and fully human.

In summary, the Second Council of Constantinople was a significant event in early Christian history that aimed to settle theological controversies related to the nature of Christ and the teachings of certain theologians. It reinforced the orthodox understanding of Christ's nature as established by the Council of Chalcedon.