The Outcome of the Trinitarian Controversy
• Although the theological battles over the Trinity are complex and
not entirely edifying—the fact of human power politics is all too
obvious—they were not insignificant for the development of the
Christian religion.
• It would be a mistake to regard the controversies as quibbling over
words: Genuine convictions concerning the nature of salvation
were at stake.
o Those on the Arian side thought that they were protecting the
“Oneness” of God by making Christ a creature.o For Athanasius and his friends, however, it was a question
of whether humans were saved by God or by themselves;
the divinity of Christ was critical to God alone being given
the glory.• The debate over the nature of the Word, the nature of the Son,
and the use of ontological metaphysical language in definition
inevitably shifted attention away from what Jesus did or what God
did in Jesus to who or what Jesus “is.” In a sense, this was a shift
from Easter (the feast of the Resurrection) to Christmas (the feast of
the Incarnation).• The upshot of these developments was that Christian monotheism
became a richer, more complex, and more paradoxical monotheism
than that of Judaism or Islam: Three persons (prosopon, persona)
in one God suggests an understanding of “unity” not simply as
singleness but as embracing a rich diversity of life.Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy.
Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, pp. 223–279.
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