The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD was one of the most pivotal moments in the history of Christianity, leading to the Nicene creed and the affirmation of the full divinity of Jesus Christ.
This month nearly 200 scholars from around the world who have contributed research into the history, reception and contemporary significance of Nicaea gathered in Rome to mark 1700 years since the historic first ecumenical council.
Hosted by the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and Augustinian Patristic Pontifical Institute (Augustinianum) the four-day conference was organised by ACU Professorial Fellow Professor Lewis Ayres from the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (IRCI).
The impressive list of international scholars representing the Latin and eastern Catholic rites, as well as Orthodox and Protestant churches, included early church historian Professor Matthew Crawford and theologian Dr Darren Sarisky, both also with IRCI, as well as Dr Jonatan Simons who completed a doctorate at ACU in 2020 and currently teaches at a seminary in Columbia, and current ACU PhD candidate Grant Sutherland.
ACU's Rome Campus provided accommodation during the conference to 19 senior scholars and early career researchers from Australia, Canada, Austria, France, the UK, the United States, Hungary, Chile, Japan and India. The ACU-hosted scholars were given a private tour, arranged by Professor Crawford, of the collection of ancient Christian sarcophagi held by the Vatican Museums, which are intricately carved with biblical scenes, including one of the earliest surviving images of the Trinity.
In the spirit of ecumenism, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gave the opening plenary address on the pastoral significance of the theology of the Nicene Creed, arguing that it has enormous relevance for contemporary issues like human dignity and care of the environment since it affirms the interdependence of all creation.
Professor Crawford said scholars were invited to deliver papers addressing the Council's ecumenical background, theologies, canons and the debates that followed. His own paper focused on the way opponents of the Nicene Creed are presented in a set of school lectures on the doctrine of the Trinity from Egypt in the late fourth century.
Dr Simons presented a paper on the influence of the second-century theologian Irenaeus of Lyons on the theology of Nicaea, while Mr Sutherland offered a paper on the meaning of the term 'almighty' in Nicaea's profession of 'one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth'.
"Papers at the conference ranged widely across the chronology of the controversy before and after the Council of Nicaea, the reception of the council in later faith traditions, the constructive theological value of the creed and its pastoral significance, including for ecology," Professor Crawford said.
"The Council of Nicaea may have taken place 1700 years ago, but it is one of the defining moments in the catholic intellectual tradition and the Creed that it produced is still widely recited in Christian worship to this day, including in Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches. It therefore serves as a powerful reminder of the very universality of the Church the Creed itself proclaims."
