A Creed That United Christianity Turns 1,700

Some 1,700 years ago, bishops from all over the Roman Empire gathered in what is now Turkey to hash out Christian doctrine. The result was the Nicene Creed, one of the most widely-recited statements of faith in Christianity. Next week, Pope Leo XIV will travel to the site of the original council in Izmir, formerly Nicaea, accompanied by Eastern Orthodox leader Patriarch Bartholomew, to mark the anniversary, the AP reports.

• The Nicene Creed remains the most widely accepted creed among Christians. It was drafted in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Roman emperor Constantine in order to address the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. The council rejected the doctrine of Arianism, which held that Jesus was not equal to God. The creed declared Jesus to be of "one substance" with the Father.

• The council gave the Arians one win: It settled a raging controversy by approving the Arian formula for setting the date of Easter, making it the Sunday after the first spring full moon.
• "The Council of Nicaea was an extraordinary diplomatic success for Constantine, because he got the two sides to agree," says David Potter, author of Constantine the Emperor. "I've often thought that it's nice that a piece of imperial legislation is read out every Sunday."
• Despite the council, disagreement and debate continued for generations. the AP notes. In Constantinople, "old-clothes men, money changers, food sellers, they are all busy arguing," St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote late in the fourth century. "If you ask someone to give you change, he philosophizes about the Begotten and the Unbegotten. If you inquire about the price of a loaf, you are told … the Father is greater and the Son inferior."

• In later centuries, there were many schisms in Christianity, thought most churches still affirm the creed, with the exceptions including Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while evangelical churches like Baptists have similar statements of faith.
• The council has been commemorated elsewhere, with the World Council of Churches marking the anniversary in October, the AP reports. "Party like it's 325" was the catchphrase of an ecumenical celebration in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
• The National Catholic Reporter notes that a phrase still in use today comes from the council's debate. "There is not an iota's worth of difference," referring to the Greek equivalent of the letter "i," has its roots in the debate over whether God and Jesus were "homoousios," meaning of the same substance, or, as the Arians argued, "homoiousios," meaning of similar substance.