Christian Denominations, Unions, and Movements Established in the 4th Century: Arianism, Church of Caucasian Albania, Priscillian, Donatism

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 39. Chapters: Arianism, Church of Caucasian Albania, Priscillian, Donatism, Arius, Arian controversy, Ostrogothic Ravenna, Lucian of Antioch, Gothic Christianity, Photinus, Church of Kish, Palace of Omurtag, Acacians, Pneumatomachi, Council of Seleucia, Macedonians, Amaras Monastery, Anomoeanism, Racovian Academy, Council of Rimini, Arian Baptistry, Collyridianism, Council of Aquileia, 381, Palladius of Ratiaria, Circumcellions, Council of Philippopolis, Meletians, Colluthians, Abelians, Patrick Pakingham, Israel. Excerpt: Arius (, AD 250 or 256 - 336) was a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead, which emphasized the Father's Divinity over the Son, and his opposition to the Athanasian or Trinitarian Christology, made him a controversial figure in the First Council of Nicea, convened by Roman Emperor Constantine in AD 325. After Emperor Constantine legalized and formalized the Christianity of the time in the Roman Empire, the newly recognized Catholic Church sought to unify and clarify its theology. Trinitarian partisans, including Athanasius, used Arius and Arianism as epithets to describe those who disagreed with their doctrine of co-equal Trinitarianism, a Christology representing the Father and Son (Jesus of Nazareth) as of one essence (consubstantial) and coeternal. Although virtually all positive writings on Arius' theology have been suppressed or destroyed, negative writings describe Arius' theology as one in which there was a time before the Son of God, where only God the Father existed. Despite concerted opposition, 'Arian', or nontrinitarian Christian churches persisted throughout Europe and North Africa, in various Gothic and Germanic kingdoms, until suppressed by military conquest or voluntary royal conversion between the fifth and seventh centuries. Although ...