Arianism

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

"Arian" as a polemical epithet

In many ways, the conflict around Arian beliefs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries helped firmly define the centrality of the Trinity in mainstream Christian theology. As the first major intra-Christian conflict after Christianity's legalization, the struggle between Nicenes and Arians left a deep impression on the institutional memory of Nicene churches. Thus, over the past 1,500 years, some Christians have used the term Arian to refer to those groups that see themselves as worshipping Jesus Christ or respecting his teachings, but do not hold to the Nicene creed.

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Like the Arians, many groups have embraced the belief that Jesus is not the one God, but a separate being subordinate to the Father, and that Jesus at one time did not exist. Some of these profess, as the Arians did, that God made all things through the pre-existent Christ. Some profess that Jesus became divine, through exaltation, just as the Arians believed. Drawing a parallel between these groups and Arians can be useful for distinguishing a type of unbelief in the Trinity. But, despite the frequency with which this name is used as a polemical label, there has been no historically continuous survival of Arianism into the modern era. The groups so labelled do not hold beliefs identical to Arianism. For this reason, they do not use the name as a self-description, even if they acknowledge that their beliefs are at points in agreement with, or in broad terms similar to, Arianism.

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Those whose religious beliefs have been compared to or labeled as Arianism include:

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• Unitarians, who believe that God is one as opposed to a Trinity, and many of whom believe in the moral authority, but not the deity, of Jesus.
• Jehovah's Witnesses, who hold that at one point in time Jesus did not exist.
• Followers of the various churches of the Latter Day Saint movement, who believe in the unity of the Godhead and the subordination of Jesus to God the father.
• Muslims, who believe that Jesus (generally called by the Arabic version of his name, Isa), was a prophet of the one god, but not himself divine

For more on the theology of these groups, see their respective articles.

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