Theological Inquiry Christological Heresies - Essay Example

Athanasius of Alexandria strongly opposed these teachings and emphasized that Jesus Christ was indeed fully divine. Arius argued with the bishop Alexandria stating that Jesus Christ was not immortal and that he was the first creation of God. Arius’ ideas had a huge impact on the definition of Orthodoxy following several creeds, for instance with Jehovah Witnesses who are considered present-day Arians. They present several Biblical arguments stating that Jesus Christ is not God (Fitzgerald 26-27).

Arius being a presbyter insisted upon Jesus Christ’s inferiority to God and because Alexandria along with the Greek East was characterized by an intellectual climate, the argument widened and went on to reach Emperor Constantine. Both sides- the Christian church and the Arians did not let up leading Constantine to call for imperial attention and thus the Council of Nicaea was convened. At this meeting, the framework for the official Orthodox Christianity came into being as over 200 bishops argued out the theological and philosophical language.

The Council of Nicaea came to be regarded as a major event as it brought about the explanation of spiritual reality as the question of both the dogmatic definition and theological language was raised. Notably, also, the relative authority of offices along with individuals, an assembly of bishops and independent bishops, the emperor along with the council, and the pope and the council was argued out. Subsequently, the issue of authority to define orthodoxy as well as heresy came to be associated at the outset with the issue of where authority was placed in the Christian community (Peters 39).

It is crucial to note that Arius got his argument from studying under Lucian of Antioch who depicted Jesus Christ as a semi-divine intermediate being. Since Arius had plenty of friends some of whom were Asian bishops, they tolerated his ideology when he was ordained. This was how he started to raise a following that was spread out.