Synopsis
ARIUS (
) one of the most famous heretics; b. about
256, in Libya (according to others, in Alexandria); d. 336, at Constantinople.
He was educated by Lucian, presbyter in Antioch, and held a prominent position
as presbyter in the Church of Alexandria when the Arian controversy with Bishop
Alexander began (about 318) concerning the eternal deity of Christ and his
equality with the Father (homoousia), which he denied, holding that
Christ was of a different essence, and a creature of the Father, though created
before the world. He is described as a tall, lean man, with a downcast brow,
very austere habits, considerable learning, and a smooth, winning address, but
quarrelsome disposition. The Silence of his enemies conclusively proves that
his general moral character was irreproachable (like that of Nestorius and Pelagius); and, if it had not been for his heresy, he
would have been highly esteemed. His enemies said that the real cause of his
opposition to Alexander was a personal grudge, because he was not himself
elected bishop; but the subordination views which he had imbibed in the
Antiochian school are sufficient to explain the direction of his development
and the course of his life. Condemned by the synod of Alexandria (320), he left
the city; but he was kindly received both by Eusebius of
Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, and it was evident that not a few of
the Asiatic churches favored his ideas. A reconciliation was brought about
between him and Alexander; but hardly had he returned to Alexandria before the
strife broke out again, and with still greater violence. A letter from Constantine, addressed to Alexander and Arius, and carried to Alexandria by
Hosius of Cordova, availed nothing: the whole Christian world rang with the
contest. But, in spite of his many and powerful friends, Arius was defeated at
the Council of Nicaea (325), and banished to Illyria.
Soon, however, a reaction in his favor set in. The Eusebian party espoused his
cause more openly, and through Constantia, the sister of the emperor, he got
access to the court. He was formally recalled from banishment; and all the
chiefs of the Eusebian party were assembled in Constantinople to receive him
back into the bosom of the church, when he suddenly died the day before the
solemnity (336), at the age of over eighty years, at a time and in a manner
that seemed to the orthodox party to be a direct interposition of Providence,
and a condemnation of his doctrine; while his friends attributed the death to
poison. Athanasius relates the fact in a letter to
Serapion, on the authority of a priest, Macarius of Constantinople (De Morte
Arii, Opera, ed. Bened. torn. I., pp. 1., 340), and ventures to interpret
Providence in the uncharitable style of his age, yet not without some
reluctance of his better Christian feeling Epiphanius (Haer. 68, c. 7) compares his death
to that of Judas the traitor. Socrates (Hist. Eccl. I., 38) gives the
following account: "Going out of the imperial palace, attended by a crowd of
Eusebian partisans like guards, Arius paraded proudly through the midst of the
city, attracting the notice of all the people. On approaching the place called
Constantine’s Forum, where the column of porphyry is erected, a terror,
arising from the consciousness of his wickedness, seized him, accompanied by a
violent relaxation of the bowels. He therefore inquired whether there was a
convenient place near, and, being directed to the back of Constantine’s
Forum, he hastened thither. Soon after, a faintness came over him, and,
together with the evacuations, his bowels protruded, followed by a copious
hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines. More over, portions of
his spleen and liver were carried off in the effusion of blood, so that he
almost immediately died." Sozomen (H. E., II., 30) gives a similar
account, and adds, that, for a long period, everybody avoided with horror the
spot on which Arias died, until a rich Arian bought the place of the public,
and built a house on the site, that there might be no perpetual memorial of his
death.
His principal work, called ... The Banquet, which he
wrote during his stay with Eusebius at Nicomedia, was a defence of his doctrine
in an entertaining popular form, half poetry, half prose; but, with the
exception of a few frag ments in the tracts of Athanasius, it is lost. A letter
of his to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and one to Alexander of Alexandria, are still
extant. (See Fabricius, Biblioth. Gr., VIII., p. 309.) His doctrine on
the divinity of Christ and his rela tion to the Father has given him a
notoriety far outstripping his talents and learning. Nean der (Ch. H., IV., 685) ascribes to him an acute but contracted intellect without the
intuitive faculty.
"ARIUS," Philip Schaff, ed., A Religious
Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical
Theology, 3rd edn., Vol. 1. Toronto, New York & London: Funk &
Wagnalls Company, 1894. p.139.
 |
Athanasius, Deposition
of Arius. |
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Athanasius, Discources
Against the Arians, 1.1.3; 1.37; 2.17. |
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Athanasius, On the
Councils, 2.15-16. |
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Athanasius, To the
Bishops of Egypt, 2.12.19. |
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Athanasius, Defence of
the Nicene Tradition, 4.16. |
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Athanasius, Letter 54. |
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St
Augustine, Arianism and Other Heresies. New City Press, 1996. Hbk. ISBN:
1565480384. |
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Epiphanius, Panarion 68-69. |
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Socrates, Church
History 1.5-38. |
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Sozomes, Church
History 1.15-21; 2.27-30. |
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Theodoret, Church
History 1.1-6, 13. |
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Arius
of Alexandria and his Heretical Christology |
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L.W. Barnard, "The Antecedents of
Arius," Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 24 (1970): 172-188. |
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L.W. Barnard, "What was Arius'
Philosophy?" Theologische Zeitschrift 28 (1972): 110-17. |
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Michel
Rene Barnes & Daniel H. Williams, editors. Arianism After Arius.
Continuum International Publishing Group - T & T Clark, 1193. Hbk. ISBN:
0567096416. pp.280. |
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M.J. Edwards, "The Arian Heresy and the
Oration to the Saints," Vigiliae Christianae 49.4 (1995): 379-387. |
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Thomas G. Elliott, "Constantine and
`the Arian Reaction after Nicaea'," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 43.2 (1992): 169-194. |
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Robert C. Gregg, ed. Arianism: Historical
and Theological Reassessments. Cambridge, MA: Philadelphia Patristic
Foundation, 1985. |
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Robert C. Gregg, & Dennis E. Groh, "The centrality of soteriology in Early Arianism," Anglican Theological Review 59.3 (1977): 260-278. pdf [Reproduced by permission of the current copyright holder] |
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Robert C. Gregg & Dennis E. Groh, Early
Arianism: A View of Salvation. Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1981. |
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H.M. Gwatkin, "Arianism and Modern Thought," Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 42 (1910): 145-154. pdf [This material is in the Public Domain and can be freely distributed and copied] |
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H.M. Gwatkin, The Arian Controversy. London: Longman's Green & Co., 1908. Hbk. pp.176. [This material is in the Public Domain] |
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Christopher Haas, "The Arians of
Alexandria," Vigiliae Christianae 47.3 (1993): 234-245. |
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 R.P.C. Hanson, The Search for the
Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy 318-381. Edinburgh: T
& T Clark, 1988. ISBN: 0567094855. pp.954. |
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Larry R.
Helyer, "Arius revisited: the firstborn over all creation (Col 1:15)," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 31.1 (March 1988):
59-67. pdf |
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J. Angus B. Holland," Athanasius Versus
Arius: What Now?" Reformed Theological Review 28.1 (1969):
16-28. |
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J. Angus B. Holland, "Athanasius and
Arius II: Why the Impulse to Reduce?" Reformed Theological Review 30.2
(1971): 33-47. |
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Charles Kannengeiser, Holy Scripture
and Hellenistic Hermeneutics in Alexandrian Christology: The Arian Crisis.
Berkeley: Centre for Hermeneutical Studies, 1982. |
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Charles Kannengeiser, "Arius and the
Arians," Theological Studies, 44.3 (1983): 456-475. |
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Charles Kannengeiser, Arius and
Athanasius: Two Alexandrian Theologians. London: Variorum, 1991. pp. xiv +
330. |
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 Thomas A Kopecek, History of
Neo-Arianism. North American Patristic Society, 1979. Pbk .ISBN:
0915646072. pp.553. |
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Samuel Laeuchli, "The Case of
Athanasius Against Arius," Concordia Theological Monthly 30 (1959):
403-420. |
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Colm Luibheid, "Finding Arius," Irish Theological Quarterly 45.2 (1978): 81-100. |
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Rebecca Lyman, "Arians and Manichees on
Christ," Journal of Theological Studies 40.2 (1989):
493-503. |
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H.
Dermot McDonald, "Development and Christology," Vox Evangelica 9 (1975):
5-27. pdf |
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Anthony McRoy, “The Theology of Arius,” Foundations 59 (May 2008): 17-28. pdf |
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Donald
Macleod, "God or god? Arianism, Ancient and Modern," The Evangelical
Quarterly 68.2 (Apr.-June 1996): 121-138. pdf [Reproduced by kind permission of the copyright holder] |
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 John Henry Newman, The
Arians of the Fourth Century, 1833. Reprinted: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock
Publishers; ISBN: 0965351726. pp.254. |
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Oyvind Norderval, "The Emperor
Constantine and Arius: Unity in the Church and Unity in the Empire," Studia
Theologica 42.2 (1988): 113-150. |
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Alvyn Pettersen, "Truth in a Heresy? 2.
Arianism," Expository Times 112.5 (2001): 150-154. |
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T.E. Pollard, "The Origin of Arianism
(Antiochete doctrinal and exegetical influence on Arius)," Journal of
Theological Studies 9 (1958): 103-11. |
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The Exegesis of Scripture and the Arian
Controversy," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 41 (1959):
414-429. |
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![Robert Rainy [1826-1906], The Ancient Catholic Church from the Accession of Trajan to the Fourth General Council [A.D. 98-451]](images/books3/ancient-catholic-church_rainy-tb.jpg) Robert
Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church from the Accession of Trajan to the Fourth General Council [A.D. 98-451]. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1902.
Hbk. pp.539. pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
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Philip
Schaff, "ARIANISM," Philip Schaff, ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or
Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd
edn., Vol. 1. Toronto, New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company,
1894. pp.134-137. |
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G.C. Stead, "The Platonism of Arius," Journal of Theological Studies 15 (1964): 16-31. |
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G.C.
Stead, Divine Substance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. Hbk.
ISBN: 0198266308. pp.328. |
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G.C. Stead, "The Thalia of Arius and
the Testimony of Athanasius," Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 29.1
(1978): 20-52. |
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Christopher Stead, "Arius in Modern
Research," Journal of Theological Studies 45.1 (1994):
24-36. |
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Maurice Wiles, "In Defence of Arius," Journal of Theological Studies 13 (1962): 339-347. |
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 Maurice Wiles, Archetypal Heresy: Arianism
Through the Centuries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Hbk. ISBN:
0198269277. pp.214. |
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Rowan Williams, "The Logic of
Arianism," Journal of Theological Studies 34 (1983): 56-81. |
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 Rowan Williams, Arius: Heresy and
Tradition. 2001. Pbk. ISBN: 0334028507. {CBD} |
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