The “Arian” Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered

LEMENTARY TEXTBOOKS often paint a clear and dramatic picture of the controversy, more or less as follows. Shortly before 318, in Alexandria, Arius began to preach that the Son of God is a creature. In 318 a synod convoked by the bishop, Alexander of Alexandria, con­ demned Arius' teaching. Arius then withdrew to Asia Minor, where he won many converts to his doctrines, especially from among the Sylloukianistai, his fellow pupils of the martyr Lucian of Antioch. In 325 the Council of Nicaea decisively rejected Arianism and proclaimed the ortho­ dox doctrine in its creed and particularly in the renowned word komoousion. But the majority of Eastern bishops continued to adhere to the Arian heresy in subtler and subtler forms; and Arianizing emperors, especially Constantius, conspired with these bishops to force Arius' heresy on the whole Church. At first, resistance to Arianism came almost singlehandedly from Athanasius of Alexandria, who, despite persecution and exile, indefatigably defended Nicene orthodoxy. year 360 marked the nadir: The whole world groaned and marveled that it was Arian, wrote Jerome.1 Constantius' death in 361 was a turning point. three Cappadocian Fathers received the baton of orthodoxy from Athanasius and continued the defense of the Nicene doctrine. ascendancy of Arianism was definitively ended by the Council of Constantinople in 381, and orthodoxy triumphed. But in order to present so clear a picture, several problems and inconsistencies must be glossed over. It is hard, for example, to explain how Arius could have found such quick and enthusiastic acceptance in Syria and Asia Minor if his doctrine were new and strange. And then, the Eastern bishops refused, in fact, to be called Arians and in their creeds regularly anathematized typically doctrines such as that the Son was created out of nothing, or that he is from a different EDITOR'S NOTE.—This article is based on a Habilitationsschrift entitled Contra Marcelktm: Influence of Marcellus of Ancyra on Fourth-Century Greek Theology accepted by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Freiburg i. Br. in 1986. Much of the research was done in Freiburg in 1984 under a fellowship from the Alexander von HumboldtStiftung, Bonn. 1 Jerome, Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi 19 (PL 23 [1883] 181B): Ingemuit totus orbis, et Arianum se esse miratus est. 415