Nicaea and the Future of Christianity
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Commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, this volume offers an original examination of the enduring impact of the single most famous gathering of Christians since the apostolic age
Despite the longstanding historical and theological study of the Council of Nicaea, several central questions remain. Was Nicaea a theological event or a political one? What does it mean if it was both? Was Constantine’s intervention without precedent, or was he simply continuing a long-standing role of a Roman emperor who was responsible for leading a religious cult (albeit now for a different faith tradition)? And what about the actual theological debates of Nicaea and our ability to understand them? Scholars might never exhaust this avenue of inquiry, despite the numerous studies in recent decades.
For many scholars and Christian activists today, the significance of Nicaea centers around the idea of conciliarity and what this has meant, both historically and theologically, for the Christian community. Why and how did Nicaea become foundational for thinking that the church operates in a conciliar manner? How did that work historically in different parts of the Christian world? And how should it work today?
Nicaea and the Future of Christianity offers a fresh, globally-diverse, ecumenically-minded approach to these questions with an impressive collection of both senior and junior scholars, reflecting a diversity of views within the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions. The great benefit of this wide-ranging approach lies precisely in its ability to see the many ways in which Nicaea continues to speak to the future of Christianity.
The Council of Nicaea is a grain of mustard seed from Jesus's parable. It started as a modest gathering to address a local theological issue that emerged in northeastern Africa and it grew to one of the most comprehensive frames for global Christianity. The volume explores this plant from its roots up to the crown, as well as the phases of its growth.—Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
In this timely volume, the editors have assembled a stellar cast of scholars from a range of perspectives and ecclesial commitments. Adopting historical, systematic, and cultural approaches to the first ecumenical council of 325, the authors explore not only the theology of Nicaea, but its ongoing reception and its meaning for the church in our world. The learned chapters challenge standard assumptions about the history and legacy of the council in hopes of providing a new vision of God’s action in the decrees, disputes, and dialogue that inform so much of Christian thought.—Brian Dunkle, Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
If you wish to understand the contemporary significance of Nicaea, this is one of the top three books you need to read. You will find a wealth of insight on such issues as the development of doctrine, the authority of the creeds, and the importance of the synodal process for decision-making. Highly recommended!—Paul Gavrilyuk, Founding President of the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA)
An illuminating work that from a number of different perspectives stimulates readers of all levels to follow up exciting new lines of thought, Nicaea and the Future of Christianity is a landmark publication. It will no longer be possible to view councils simply as institutions for closing debates and producing definitions. The way in which councils from Nicaea onwards need constantly to be re-received is here brilliantly expounded by a star cast of authors.—Norman Russell, Honorary Research Fellow, St Stephen's House, University of Oxford
This volume is a must read. The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 is fundamental for the history of Christianity and the church, yet almost everything around it is controversial, including the so-called Nicene Creed, the proceedings of the Council and the part played by the Emperor Constantine. In the 1700th year after 325 a variety of leading scholars offer important new assessments of Nicaea’s significance today and for the future.—Dame Averil Cameron, author of Transitions: A Historian's Memoir
The editors of this excellent collection have drawn from the very best of historical scholarship and contemporary theology to provide a wide range of perspectives on the Council of Nicaea. Attentive to ecumenical questions, as well as to the phenomenon of “conciliarity” itself, the volume looks to the future as well as the past. It will become a landmark treatment of the most significant event in early Christian history.—David G. Hunter, Margaret O’Brien Flatley Chair of Catholic Theology at Boston College
George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is also a Co-founding Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He serves as a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and as President of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. He is the author of five monographs and dozens of scholarly articles of the history of Christianity in the premodern period.
Aristotle Papanikolaou (Edited By)
Aristotle Papanikolaou is professor of theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and a Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scholarly articles on Orthodox theology, as well as co-editor of ten volumes.
Introduction
George Demacopoulos and Aristotle Papanikolaou | 1
PART I: NICAEAN THEOLOGIES
Under the Shadow of the Samosatene: From Antioch 268 to Nicaea 325 and Beyond | 9
John Behr
Christophanic Exegesis in Defense of the Nicaean Faith: Patristic Authors and Scholars of Patristics | 22
Bogdan G. Bucur
Nicaea in the Dogmatic Order of Late Antiquity | 42
Emanuel Fiano
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, and the Paradox of Nicaea | 52
Francesca Aran Murphy
The Theologian, the Historian, and the Holy Spirit: Reflections Around Nicaea | 67
Karen Kilby
God with Us: A Contemporary Sophiological Christology | 75
Brandon Gallaher
PART II: HISTORICAL MEMORY
The First Council of Nicaea: Golden Standard or Squandered Opportunity? | 97
John Chryssavgis
Preaching Nicaea in Verse: The Legacy of the Council in the Writings of Jacob of Serugh | 117
Erin Walsh
Civic Religion in the Long Roman Empire | 137
Leonora Neville
Nicaea’s Digital Afterlives | 155
Caroline T. Schroeder
PART III: CONCILIARITY
The Council of Jerusalem and the Council of Nicaea | 177
Leslie Baynes
Nature, Will, and Grace: The Council of Nicaea and the Ontological Presuppositions of Conciliarity | 191
Demetrios Bathrellos
Conciliarity Beyond the Greco-Roman Empire:
Thomas Christian Yogams and Lay Participation in Ecclesial Decision Making | 208
Jaisy A. Joseph
Nicaea, Negative Theology, Democracy | 225
Vincent Lloyd
PART IV: ECUMENICAL IMPLICATIONS
A Symbol of the Whole: The Nicene Creed and Dogmatic Minimalism | 239
Alexis Torrance
Nicaea, Pelikan, and the Legitimacy of Doctrinal Development in Orthodoxy | 250
A. Edward Siecienski
Newman, Nicaea, and the Prerogatives of the Past | 260
Cyril O’Regan
Nicaea and the Legacy of Truth: Bounded Virtue and Ascetical Spirituality | 281
Stephen M. Meawad
PART V: THE FUTURE OF NICAEA
Re-Reception of the Faith of Nicaea Then and Now:
Reflections on the Role of Reinterpretation of Theology Through Conciliarity | 293
Maxim Vasiljevic
The Future of Nicaea | 305
Christophe Chalamet
Nicaea as a Task for the Future | 315
Kathryn Tanner
List of Contributors | 329
