The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 15, 2009
Vol. 12 No. 44

Everything But...

A name long forgotten, but whose influence has never been lost, is that of the presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt, Arius - always watch out for those presbytery types! Arius died in 336, but his ideas about Jesus, first promoted around 320, helped create the “Arian controversy” that lasted for over a century, and it keeps coming back today. The Nicene Creed was written specifically to refute the ideas of Arius and his followers.

Arius’ problem was one that many still wonder about: how can Jesus, a human being, be also the divine Son of God? Arius charged that we were really worshipping two Gods and that is polytheism, exactly what Christianity and Judaism had always rejected. Arius carried the metaphor of Jesus as Son of God to its literal conclusion - if Jesus is the Son, he had to be created by the Father and so is not quite equal to the Father, perhaps a marvelous human being, and a lesser god at best.

A lot of people thought this would destroy the fundamental basis of Christianity. We are ‘Christians’ after all, and Jesus Christ is at the centre of everything we think and do. To reduce Jesus to a human being means that not being divine he would not have the power to save humanity.

On the other hand, a lot of people then and now believe that Jesus is best understood as merely an exemplary human being, that the idea of a God-Human Being simply does not make sense. Don’t fret, in a scientific way of speaking this does not make sense. The Council at Nicea in 325 emerged with the Nicene Creed that affirmed the understanding of the One God as Three in One, the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The centre of any of the creeds is how we speak of Jesus. Everything else swirls around the Jesus question. It’s all about Jesus.