An ancient creed is relevant
March 21, 2025
During spring and summer of the year 325, bishops from across the church gathered in Nicaea for the church’s first ecumenical council. At 325 years, the church was still relatively young and fluid. There were many schools of thought about the nature of the Trinity and the three persons of the Trinity. Some taught that the God of the Old Testament is a different god than the God of the New Testament (Marcionism), that Jesus only appeared to be human (Docetism), that Jesus didn’t have a human mind or soul but only a human body (Apollinarianism), that there are three modes of God (Modalism), that Jesus is not fully divine but is a created being (Arianism), and a whole host of others. Confusing.
Constantine had recently become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He wanted to unify the church and solidify the relationship between church and state. The competing theories about the nature of God, particularly Arianism, was frustrating Constantine’s vision of a united church and a united empire. So he summoned the bishops to sort it out. The Trinity is a complex idea to start with, but putting 300 bishops with strongly held beliefs in a room was bound to cause conflict. One (apocryphal) story was that St. Nicholas punched out Arius, the author of Arianism. Our congregational meetings, synod assemblies and churchwide assembles seem tame by comparison.
The hoped-for outcome was to have a unified understanding of the faith. The result was the Nicene Creed, used by churches around the world and across the centuries. This elegant statement of belief gives a clear exposition of who God is and how God chooses to be God for the sake of the world.
The Nicene Creed also places each one of us in a global—in fact, cosmic—context. “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.” Sometimes it helps to look beyond ourselves and the here and now and get caught up in God’s breathtaking vastness. We aren’t alone. We are part of a great company of the faithful—past, present and future.
Many of Emperor Constantine’s goals for the Council of Nicaea were met, but not all of them. Perhaps human language is too small or human intellect too limited to comprehend the mystery of the Trinity or to put it into words. Soon a dispute arose about the nature of the Spirit. Originally the creed stated: “We believe in the Holy Spirit … who proceeds from the Father.” Only later was the clause “who proceeds from the Father and the Son” added. The Latin word for this is filioque. The Western church insisted on it. The Eastern church rejected it. This led to the split between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054.
If an over 1,000-year-old argument that bitterly divided the church can be resolved, then there is hope that the most complex issues that split the church can be engaged and overcome through careful listening and dialogue. We don’t have to be divided.
This year we mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. For 40 years Lutherans and Orthodox have been in dialogue about the Nicene Creed. The “Joint Statement on the Filioque” was approved by the Joint Commission on Theological Dialogue in May 2024. This controversy was found to be no longer church-dividing.
So what? What relevance does an ancient argument between academics have to do with the real world? Here’s what. If an over 1,000-year-old argument that bitterly divided the church can be resolved, then there is hope that the most complex issues that split the church can be engaged and overcome through careful listening and dialogue. We don’t have to be divided. Division is a human invention, not divine.
There was another issue that the council didn’t resolve—establishing a uniform date for Easter. It so happens every once in a while that Easter falls on the same date for the West and for the East. This Easter during the 1,700th year anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, the whole church, West and East, will celebrate the Resurrection on the same day. God is smiling.
