Arianism

Arianism was a 4th-century Christian heresy named for Arius (c.250-c.336), a priest in Alexandria. Arius denied the full deity of the preexistent Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ. He held that the Son, while divine and like God ("of like substance"), was created by God as the agent through whom he created the universe. Arius said of the Son, "there was a time when he was not." Arianism became so widespread in the Christian church and resulted in such disunity that the emperor Constantine convoked a church council at Nicaea in 325 (see Councils of Nicaea).

Led by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, the council condemned Arianism and stated that the Son was consubstantial (of one and the same substance or being) and coeternal with the Father, a belief formulated as homoousios ("of one substance") against the Arian position of homoiousios ("of like substance"). Nonetheless, the conflict continued, aided by the conflicting politics of the empire after the death of Constantine (337).

Three types of Arianism emerged: radical Arianism, which asserted that the Son was "dissimilar" to the Father; homoeanism, which held that the Son was similar to the Father; and semi-Arianism, which shaded off into orthodoxy and held that the Son was similar yet distinct from the Father.

After an initial victory of the homoean party in 357, the semi-Arians joined the ranks of orthodoxy, which finally triumphed except in Teutonic Christianity, where Arianism survived until after the conversion (496) of the Franks. Although much of the dispute about Arianism seems a battle over words (Edward Gibbon scornfully observed that Christianity was split over a single iota, the difference between homoousios and homoiousios), a fundamental issue involving the integrity of the Gospel was at stake: whether God was really in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

Reginald H. Fuller

Bibliography
Gregg, R. C., ed., Arianism: Historical and Theological Reassessments (1987); Gwatkin, H. M., Studies of Arianism, 2d ed. (1900); Newman, John Henry, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833; repr. 1968).

Semi-Arianism

Semi-Arianism was the doctrine of Christ's sonship as held by fourth century theologians who were reluctant to accept either the strict Nicene definition or the extreme Arian position. After the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) a single term came to identify each position.

• Orthodox theologians, led by Athanasius, used the term homoousios to express the doctrine that Christ, the Logos, was "of one substance" with the eternal Father.

• The Arian party held that Christ was a created being, in substance unlike the Father. The term for this view was anomoios.

• Semi-Arians, the third group, avoided either extreme and adopted the term homoiusios, which defined Christ as "of like substance" with the Father, but left vague the extent to which Christ differed from other created beings.

Some students of the controversy have argued that the term "Semi-Arianism" is an unfair term, associating the movement too closely with Arianism, and that "Semi-Nicene" might better represent the movement's tendency toward orthodoxy. The term "Anti-Nicene" has been used as often, however, because Semi-Arians did, in fact, deny that Christ was fully one with the Father.

The Semi-Arian position arose at the Council of Nicaea, called by Emperor Constantine to deal with the Arian question, which had raised enough controversy to threaten the unity of the church. All but two of the bishops present at the council signed the orthodox statement, though many did so with reservations. Semi-Arians also came to be called "Eusebians" after Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia and later patriarch of Constantinople. As a young man Eusebius had studied with Arius. Though he signed the creed at the Council of Nicaea, he later became a key leader in the reaction against it.

The most prominent leader of the Semi-Arians at the Council, however, was Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, the early church historian. Following the council the Semi-Arian position remained prominent, but a resugence of the Old Arians, seeking to reinstate the original heresy, led to the disintegration of Semi-Arian support. In August 357, a small but important synod met at Sirmium in Illyricum. The creed that emerged from the synod condemned the term ousia in any form and clearly subordinated the Son to the Father. This creed split the opponents of Nicaea so decisively that it turned sentiment in favor of the orthodox view. Many bishops renounced their errors and subscribed to the Nicene Creed. After this point Semi-Arians never existed in significant numbers. Some became Arian and many reaffirmed orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

B L Shelley
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
E. R. Hardy, ed., Christology of the Later Fathers; J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines; G. L. Prestige, Fathers and Heretics.

Council of Nicaea