Arianism

: This article is about theological views like those of Arius. Aryan is an unrelated ethnic concept.

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Arianism was a Christological view held by followers of Arius, a Christian priest who lived and taught in Alexandria, Egypt, in the early 4th century. Arius taught that God the Father and the Son were not always contemporary, seeing the pre-incarnate Jesus as a divine being but nonetheless created by (and consequently inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a "creature"; in this context, the word is being used in its original sense of "created being."

Related Topics:
Christological - Arius - Alexandria - God the Father - The Son - Pre-incarnate - Jesus

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The conflict between Arianism and the Trinitarian beliefs that have since become dominant in Christianity was the first important doctrinal difficulty in the Church after the legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine I. At one point in the conflict, Arianism held sway in the family of the Emperor and the Imperial nobility; later, because the Arian Ulfilas was the apostle to the Goths, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths arrived in western Europe already Christianized, but as Arians.

Related Topics:
Trinitarian - Constantine I - Goths - Ostrogoths - Visigoths - Christianized

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