ARIANISM:
CHRISTIANITY'S most troublesome schism named after its principle
exponent ARIUS who was a thorough-going Greek RATIONALIST who inherited the almost
universally held LOGOS CHRISTOLOGY of the Eastern Roman Empire. He contended that GOD was
immutable and unknowable therefore CHRIST had to be a created BEING made by God as the
first in the created order. The ORTHODOX counter-attack on Arianism pointed out that Arian
THEOLOGY reduced CHRIST to a demigod and in effect reintroduced POLYTHEISM into
Christianity because Christ was worshipped among Arians. Politically, Arianism has been
accused of seeing the Emperor as a semi-divine BEING and promoting the sacralization of
the State. In February 325, Arius was condemned as a heretic at a Synod in Antioch. The
Emperor Constantine, who was sympathetic to Arianism, then called the first ECUMENICAL
council—known as the Council of Nicaea—which met in May 325 and also condemned Arius and
his teachings, but instead of resolving the issues, the Council launched an Empire-wide
Christological debate during which it often seemed that Arianism would triumph as the
dominant form of Christianity. Only after a hundred years of heated debate did ORTHODOXY
emerge triumphant. Today, a FORM of Arianism has been revived among UNITARIANS and the
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES. Wild claims are also made by various OCCULT groups about Arianism as
a persecuted source of occult knowledge.
