Arianism

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The Arian was a theological position within the early Christian , directly eponymous of their theologians Arius (ca. 260-327 n. Chr.) And its followers was represented. Arius regarded the identity of God / God-Father and Son, asserted in the Confession of Nicaea (325), as a false doctrine , since it contradicts monotheism , in which the Son and the Holy Spirit were only conceivable in a subordinate position and dignity that was not equal to God . Positions such as the Trinity with a Son and Holy Spirit of equal rank in the Nicano-Constantinopolitanum (381), raised to the status of dogma, were even more 'heretical' from his theological perspective. Conversely, from the point of view of the representatives of the doctrine of the Trinity of Nicaea or Constantinople and the Christian communities and churches that still recognize them today, Arianism was and is viewed as heresy ( Arian controversy ).

Since late antiquity, however, the term “Arians” has often been used by followers of the “Nicene” doctrine of the Trinity as a battle term for various non-Nenaean Christologies or non-Neanian concepts of the Trinity, even if these currents and their followers did not share the special views of Arius. In contrast to earlier research, many ancient historians and church historians have therefore limited the term "Arians" to the immediate followers of Arius for a few decades , while for example the Homoeists with their non-Nnican doctrine of the Trinity, which since late antiquity has also not been referred to objectively as "Arians", in the scientific research have now been established as an independent, 'non-Aryan' trinitarian / christological current of late antiquity. From the late 350s onwards, supposed 'New Arians' in the strict sense only existed in the followers of Aetius , the Heterousians (formerly also 'Anhomöer' or 'Neuarianer'), who denied an essential similarity between father and son, but one Asserted equality of will between the two.

Theology of Arius

Fresco in the Visigothic church of Santa Comba de Bande
Emperor Constantine has Arian books burned (medieval illustration)

The Arian doctrine is based on a special interpretation of Origen 's subordinatianism of the three hypostases of the Trinity consisting of God, Logos-Son and Holy Spirit:

“If the father and the son are two persons, then one would be violating the commandment of monotheism if one assumed that father and son are of the same nature, because then one would have two gods; on the other hand, however, it cannot be a question of a person, because that would be the modalism that has already been condemned . "

Based on his religious-philosophical education (which was mainly based on Plato ), Arius took the following positions with regard to the Trinity and Christology :

  • that God created the Logos-Son out of nothing through his own will, and that the Logos-Son was thus not created from the being of God
  • that the Logos and the Father are accordingly not of the same nature ( identity of nature )
  • that only God is therefore true God, whereas the Logos Son is not a true God
  • that the Son is a creature, albeit a unique one, of the Father
  • that God did not become a Father until he became the father of the Logos Son
  • that there was a time when the son did not yet exist; he had a beginning (denial of the beginningless equality of father and son, see pre-existence of Christ )
  • that the Logos son is therefore subordinate to God (see subordinatianism )

With Arius God is thus uncommon and ungenerated, beginningless and eternal, unchangeable as well as unchangeable and absolutely transcendent . The Logos Son is created as an independent hypostasis like everything extra-divine, but directly from God, but not identical with the Logos who is inherent in God. Christ, as the bearer of the created Logos, was also created an unthinkable time ago, but there was a - logical - time in which Christ was not yet created. With Arius, the logos becomes a not divine, but special creation mediator with whom God created all other creatures. According to Arius, Jesus is considered to be created and thus not divine, not of the same nature as God. In addition, only a person could die suffering on the cross, not a god; human nature was thus dominant in Christ.

The subsequent arguments about Arius' statements focused primarily on the theses that Logos-Son / God's Son or Father Son was' created 'and had a beginning. Similarly, the Logos son was not a true god with Arius. For the critics of the theses of Arius, however, the redemption through the New Testament Christ was inevitably connected with the fact that the Logos Son or Father Son was also true God.

The Christological and Trinitarian questions shaped the time up to the 6th century. Arius found followers especially in educated Hellenistic circles, as his understanding of the Trinity was influenced by Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism and was conveyed primarily by Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the educated, Greek-speaking Christianity of the eastern Mediterranean region. The postulate of the oneness of God against Gnosis led them to cling to the subordination of the Son to the Father.

Just like the “Nicene Trinitarians”, the “Arians” referred to the Bible; As with them, in some directions of supposedly 'Arian' currents the inspiration of the Spirit of God played an important role, in others the appeal to the Aristotelian philosophy . In the biblical justification of their teaching, the Arians often quoted other passages than the Nicene (= followers of the Council of Nicaea); for the New Testament contains no clear statements about the nature of Jesus. In particular, they referred to Origen's commentary on the Bible, who held fast to the essential unity of the father with the son, who came to his divine being through inner-divine procreation before all times: "Now it is possible that some do not appreciate what we said by we presented the Father as the one true God and admitted that other beings besides the true God could become gods by having a part in God. "and on Tertullian , who had taught that Jesus was subordinate to the Father ( subordinatianism ).

Heterousians, Homeers, and Homeusians

Oldest known representation of Origen

Between the first council of Nicaea in 325 and the first council of Constantinople in 381, various, sometimes only supposedly Arian, mainly non-Arian-Origenistic ('Origenistic middle group') and thus non-Nnicean christologies and doctrines of the Trinity emerged, some of which contradicted each other.

The directions named below, heterousians, homoeists and homeusians, did not develop until around AD 357, whereby the emerging, supposed 'neo-Arianism' of the heterousians with its radicalism had mainly triggered this development dynamic.

  • The heterousians (from the Greek ἑτερο-ούσιος [hetero-ousios] , another in essence [ sc. As God-Father] ') around Aëtios of Antioch and Eunomius taught that father and son are different in essence, but in will agreed with regard to the act of salvation history. Followers of this direction were earlier also - incorrectly - referred to as Neuarian or Anomoe or Anhomoe.
  • The Homoeists (from Greek ὁμοῖος [homoios kata tas grafas] , similar to the Scriptures) like Acacius of Caesarea differentiated descriptions of God the Father and Logos the Son, and taught that the father and the son were accordingly similar .
  • The Homeusians (from the Greek ὁμοι-ούσιος [homoi-oúsios] , 'similar in essence'), who were close to the Trinitarian doctrine, according to Basil of Ancyra , taught that the father and the son were similar in essence and the same in substance.

The different directions were not only in dispute with the Nicans ( homousie ), but also with each other. Homeers and Homeusians are no longer assigned to 'Arianism', but to the 'Origenist middle group', a direction from the theology of Origen .

Reich political significance of the dispute

Resistance arose above all from the theologians of the West and Athanasius of Alexandria , who emphasized the essential unity of father and son: If Christ were not God himself, he would not be able to redeem people. The great desire for redemption in Christianity of the time explains why this school dispute led to a great schism and tied up considerable energies. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted from a pagan-ironic perspective: “[...] subtle and complicated debates about dogma, which were basically no attempt at a real agreement, led to constant controversy [...] multitudes of bishops rushed to and fro their various synods and thus disorganized the public postal service. "

At the moment when the church had become a pillar of state authority, this schism also threatened a political conflict that was more explosive than the dispute between paganism and Christianity, which had since subsided, because some of the Christian members of the empire threatened to lose their loyalty. This forced the emperor, advised by Ossius of Córdoba, to intervene and led to the elevation of homoousius to dogma at the Council of Nicaea, which he had convened and led by Ossius . In fact, many anti-Arian decrees had to be revised in the following period.

history

development

The Arian dispute , the disputes between the followers of the Nicene Trinity or the equality of nature between God-Father and Son and the 'real' Arian Christians as well as supposedly 'Arian' Christians such as the Homoeists and Homeusians together with the supposedly 'Neo-Arian' heterousians dominated them Church history in the 4th century. Non-trinitarian teachings and non-Nnicene doctrines of the Trinity, which have been indiscriminately referred to as 'Arianism' for a very long time since the disputes in the 4th century, shaped the life of the Church in the Roman Empire at that time and in part.

The majority of the bishops in the east of the Roman Empire - this became clear in the years following the Nicene Council through the more far- reaching disputes about Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity - belonged to the 'Origenist middle group'. Constantine the Great , who advocated the Trinitarian formula adopted at the Nicene Council to the exclusion of 'Arian' positions, had set himself the goal of reconciling the opposing conceptions of the Trinity after the Council. For example, in 327/328 Eusebius of Nicomedia and Arius of Emperor Constantine were rehabilitated, Arius after he had made a ' orthodox confession '. Constantine was baptized in 337 on the death bed by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was later regarded as supposedly 'Arian' but actually belonged to the Origenist middle group. His son Constantius II also preferred and promoted the Origenist middle party, later specifically the direction of the 'Homöer'. After a few years of interruption since the death of Constantius II, the 'homoic' creed was once again made an official church dogma by Emperor Valens . He was particularly fond of many in the army.

The anti-Trinitarians and non-Nicene Trinitarians were weakened by disputes between the different schools; moreover, they dominated only in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. From 362 onwards, the Nicene Trinitarians and theologians of the 'Origenist middle group' developed a doctrine that was suitable for the majority, supported by a clearer definition of the expressions used, which enabled them to clear up linguistic misunderstandings within the Greek and between Greek and Latin church regions and thus also acceptable to many which previously stood between the parties.

Phases

The disputes can roughly be divided into three phases, described in detail in the articles Arian Controversy and First Council of Nicaea :

  • approx. 318–325: A local dispute between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius escalated in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. The new sole ruler over the entire Roman Empire since autumn 324, Emperor Constantine I , convened a synod in Nicaea for 325. One of the tasks of the council was to unite the parties and find a compromise formula, the Nicene Creed .
  • 325–361: Reaction of Arians, 'anti-Nicene' and later supposed 'Neuarian', the heterousians, and other supposedly 'Arian' currents such as the Homeusians and the Homeers; The latter achieved a temporary political and religious supremacy due to the suggestion and support of several emperors, especially Constantius II .
  • 362 / 79–381: There was a turning point in the 370s, after the most important anti-Arian, Bishop Athanasius in Alexandria, had taken a path that was far more willing to compromise. Basil of Caesarea became Bishop of Caesarea in 370 and above all he, along with his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianz , the three 'Cappadocian Church Fathers', used his strength to develop a new creed, despite pressure from Emperor Valens , which solve the controversial problem of hypostasis and the associated subordination in the doctrine of the Trinity between 'anti-Arians' or 'anti-origins' (one hypostasis and one being) and the 'anti-Nicene' (three hypostases, three beings) should. Since January 379 Theodosius I ruled as emperor over the east of the Roman Empire and in November 380 the 'homoic' bishop in Constantinople is expelled by Theodosius. Theodosius I also invited to the first ecumenical council of Constantinople (381), where the decade-long dispute over the correct formula of the Trinity largely ended with the confession of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed .

distribution

The Germanic tribes, who settled on the north-eastern borders of the Roman Empire around the middle of the 4th century , were Christianized during the supposed predominance of Arianism, as many Germanic warriors entered the service of Rome. In fact, the Origenist middle group dominated at that time in the eastern part of the Roman Empire , from which after 358 the two directions of the Homoeists and the Homeusians developed. The Gothic bishop Wulfila , initially trinitarian with the Origenist middle group and subsequently with the Homoeists, wrote a Bible in the Gothic language ( Wulfilabibel ), which became a unifying volume of the Germanic tribes who had accepted the Homoic creed. Wulfila tried in vain to prevent the condemnation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381 , but in the second canon achieved the formulation "The churches of God among the barbarian peoples should be governed in the manner that already ruled under the fathers"; this created the space in which Arianism could maintain itself as a Gothic and Vandal tribal church. Since they were closely related to the Roman Empire, but formally did not belong to it, the resolutions of 381 had no effect on them.

During the Great Migration , Germanic warrior associations of the Burgundians and Lombards , Ostrogoths and Rugians , Suebi and Vandals as well as Visigoths mostly came as foederati , sometimes also as conquerors, in areas of the culturally progressive Roman Empire, which were largely shaped by parishes that follow the doctrine of the Trinity of the Nicea Confession or Nicano-Constantinople had taken over. Most of these warriors shared the anti-Nicene homoic creed, however, and this creed may have led to some separation between them and the Roman population. In the course of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire , independent Germanic successor empires formed on the soil of the former Western Empire, in which therefore mostly a small Germanic, homeic minority ruled over a Romance majority with a Nicene-Constantinople creed. In some cases, political pressure resulted in the minority adopting the majority's creed. The homoic Burgundian king Sigismund was baptized in 516, the Suebi king Miro in 572 and the homoic Visigoth king Rekkared I in 587 according to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. It is sometimes assumed that the Merovingian Clovis I was also not a heathen (as is usually assumed), but a Homoeist, before he converted to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed. In any case, through his Catholic, Nicene creed, he avoided tensions with the Romansh majority population. According to Gregor von Tours , his grandson Chilperich I is said to have written an anti-Nicene script himself in 580, which, however, had no consequences.

The Vandal rulers in North Africa, with the exception of Thrasamund and Hilderich , persecuted non-homoic, Nicene Christians to a greater or lesser extent. Apparently they considered Christian parishes with a Nicene creed to be dangerous because they represented the same creed as the Roman emperor. Clergymen were sent into exile, monasteries dissolved and believers of the Nicene Confession put under pressure. The persecution by the Vandals met with resistance from the Catholic Christians as well as the Donatists . After it had long since subsided, it ended with the military defeat of the Vandals against Emperor Justinian .

In the former Vandal empire in North Africa and on Sardinia , which now came under Eastern Roman rule, there were parallel Latin-Nicene, Greco-Nicene and homoean-non-Nican Christians until the conquest by the Arabs. In the Visigoth Empire in Spain, possibly until the Islamic conquest, homoic and Latin-Nicene Christians coexisted. Between 603 and 610, the Visigoth King Witterich temporarily reactivated the homeic creed in an alliance with the Lombards and Burgundians, and the Homoean creed was finally replaced by the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed in 662 under King Grimoald I.

Anti-Nicene Christianity was widespread among the Arabs in late antiquity . In research, therefore, a connection with the strict monotheism of later Islam is suspected or a lower threshold for anti-Nicene Christians to convert to Islam. The Nicene or Nicene-Constantinopolitan Trinity, etc. a. So the divinity of Jesus and his sonship are also expressly rejected in the Quran in the following places, among others:

“Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, is only the Messenger of God and his Word, which He brought over to Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in God and His Messengers. And don't say: three. "

- Quran 4: 171, translation by Khoury

"He [God] did not create, and He was not created."

- Koran 112: 3, translation by Khoury

Representatives and opponents

The most important representative of Arianism was Arius himself. Aetios of Antioch and Eunomius belong to the later heterousians. Eusebius of Nicomedia can theologically be counted among the 'Origenist middle group', Basilius of Ancyra among the Homeusians who had little contact with 'Arianism'. Acacius of Caesarea and Eudoxius of Antioch are the main representatives of the Homoeists .

Athanasius of Alexandria and Alexander of Alexandria , in the west of the Roman Empire Hilarius of Poitiers and Ambrosius of Milan, represented the opposing position to Arianism and to the positions of the 'Origenist middle group' .

Basil of Caesarea and his brother Gregory of Nyssa as well as their mutual friend Gregory of Nazianz , the three Cappadocian church fathers , can be described as the main actors in the further development of the doctrine of the Trinity and overcoming the dispute over it from the 370s.

successor

During the Reformation , anti-Trinitarian positions developed again. The Reformation anti-Trinitarians, who, along with other nonconformists , can be assigned to the Radical Reformation , rejected the dogma of the Trinity because they saw Luther's Reformation principle sola scriptura ("solely through Scripture") being violated. Permanent churches were only formed in Poland-Lithuania ( Polish Brothers ) and in Transylvania ( Unitarian Church in Transylvania ). In Poland, anti-Trinitarianism was mainly shaped by Fausto Sozzini (1539–1604), in Transylvania the reformer Franz David can be mentioned. It was from here that the concept of unitarianism spread across Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and as far as the USA. Above all, founded by Fausto Sozzini Socinianism had a great influence on the theology and particular religion critical literature of the Enlightenment in the 18th century. Even Isaac Newton was in his theological writings Antitrinitarier. Opponents often accused the anti-Trinitarians of the imprecise or sweeping accusation of Arianism.

In the meantime, however, a non-Christian humanistic tendency has developed among the modern Unitarians , so that Unitarianism can no longer be fully assigned to Christian Reformation anti-Trinitarianism. In addition to the Unitarians, however, other anti-Trinitarian groups also developed later, such as the Christadelphians , who stand in the traditional teaching of Unitarian socinianism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses . However, it would be unhistorical to call Jehovah's Witnesses Arian, especially since they reject many doctrines that the historical Arians had adopted.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hanns Christof Brennecke : Augustin and the 'Arianism'. In: Therese Fuhrer (ed.): The Christian-philosophical discourses of late antiquity. Texts, people, institutions. Stuttgart 2008, here p. 178.
  2. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild , Volker Henning Drecoll : Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, pp. 90–92.
  3. Franz Dünzl : Brief history of the Trinitarian dogma in the old church. Herder publishing house, Freiburg (Breisgau) u. a. 2006, ISBN 3-451-28946-6 , pp. 53-59.
  4. Jan Rohls : God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck , Tübingen 2014, pp. 120f.
  5. Origen, Commentary on John 2: 3
  6. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 1. Leipzig 1905, pp. 755–775, entry Arianischer Streit.
  7. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 92.
  8. Jan Rohls: God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, p. 133.
  9. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 90.
  10. Jan Rohls: God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, p. 92.
  11. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 76f., P. 90.
  12. Ammianus Marcellinus 22, 16, 19, cit. after Franz Georg Maier : The transformation of the Mediterranean world (Fischer Weltgeschichte, Vol. 9). Frankfurt 1968, p. 105.
  13. ^ Franz Georg Maier: The transformation of the Mediterranean world. Frankfurt 1968, p. 105 f.
  14. Jan Rohls: God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, pp. 130f.
  15. Jan Rohls: God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, p. 126.
  16. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 93.
  17. Eike Faber: From Ulfila to Rekkared. The Goths and their Christianity . Franz Steiner Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, p. 16.
  18. Franz Dünzl: Brief history of the Trinitarian dogma in the old church. Herder publishing house, Freiburg (Breisgau) u. a. 2006, p. 120.
  19. Justin Mossay:  Gregory of Nazianzus (died 390th) . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 14, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1985, ISBN 3-11-008583-6 , pp. 164-173. here p. 166f. (for a fee , accessed via Theologische Realenzyklopädie , De Gruyter Online).
  20. Hanns Christof Brennecke: Augustin and the 'Arianism'. In: Therese Fuhrer (ed.): The Christian-philosophical discourses of late antiquity. Texts, people, institutions. Stuttgart 2008, here p. 178f.
  21. Knut Schäferdiek : The supposed Arianism of the Ulfila Bible. In: Journal for ancient Christianity , Volume 6 (2002), Issue 2, p. 320ff.
  22. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 92.
  23. Jan Rohls: God, Trinity and Spirit (History of Ideas of Christianity, Volume III / 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, p. 126.
  24. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, Volker Henning Drecoll: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 1. Old Church and Middle Ages . 5th, completely revised new edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2016, p. 91.