Defining God: Athanasius, Nicaea and the Trinitarian Controversy of the Fourth Century
Ebook
Throughout its history, the Church has never been far from controversy and conflict, exhibiting its all-too-human nature. The greatest and most fundamental controversy was the fourth-century debate about the status of Christ and the Spirit as being fully divine: in other words, the Doctrine of the Trinity.
The controversy lasted at least a hundred years, and much longer among the Goths. Defining God tells the story of that controversy: its main protagonists, the involvement of imperial power from Constantine and his successors, its history and its theological twists and turns, and the many creeds and councils of this period, including the Nicene Creed which many Christians say week by week.
As the Church continues to face controversy over human identity and how it understands the God it worships, this book, vivid in description and comprehensive in coverage, surely teaches us lessons from the past for the present.
“A bitter struggle took place in the fourth century to maintain that the Son and the Holy Spirit were of the same substance as the Father and equally co-eternal and con-substantial. What the Church might take for granted today involved a century of struggle involving councils, creeds, emperors and church leaders. If you wish to understand both the issues at stake and the cross currents of this controversy, you could not do better than start with this faithful and vivid account of its theology and history, deftly woven together.”
— The Most Reverend Dr Mouneer H. Anis
Archbishop Emeritus of the Anglican Province of Alexandria
- Title: Defining God: Athanasius, Nicaea and the Trinitarian Controversy of the Fourth Century
- Authors: Patrick Whitworth, Mouneer H. Anis
- Publisher: Sacristy Press
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781789592696, 9781789592672, 1789592674, 9781789592689, 1789592682, 1789592690
- Resource ID: LLS:9781789592696
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-07-20T10:10:29Z
Patrick Whitworth, having completed an MA in History at Oxford and one on Historical Theology in Durham, served for 40 years in Anglican ministry. He has written three books on Early Church history and theology including Three Wise Men from the East: The Cappadocian Fathers and the Struggle for Orthodoxy as well as a history of the Church in England called And Did Those Feet. All of these have been published by Sacristy Press. He is married to Olivia, and they have four married children and eight grandchildren .