•  
  •  
 

Proche-Orient Chrétien

The Arian crisis viewed through the Antiochian councils

Abstract

Never, during her history, has the Church faced such a decisive and crucial challenge as in the fourth century’s “Arian crisis”. This study analyses it through the various confessions of faith issued by several local councils held in Antioch during that time, for they express its complexity and the theological problems which were at stake. Its conclusions tend to qualify some of the usual sharp statements concerning this topic. First of all, it appears that the Church herself had never been Arian; a doctrine which concerned only a few members of the elite, though they could be influential. On the other hand, it would be wrong to qualify the christological doctrine of the large majority of eastern bishops as being “Semi-Arian”, for it was, instead, proceeding from and old subordinatianist trend. Their obsession toward any kind of monotheistic modalism may be explained by the great schism which occurred, precisely at that time, between Christianity and Judaism. Finally, the conciliar endeavor of the fourth century saw the triumph of a soteriological and scriptural type of theology, alongside an audacious shaping of a new Greek-speaking conceptualization, elaborated through a sometimes painstaking and confuse process.


La crise arienne au prisme des conciles antiochiens

Résumé
Peu de périodes, dans l’histoire de l’Église, ont été aussi agitées et cruciales que celle de la crise arienne du IVe siècle. Sortie glorieuse mais exsangue de la grande persécution, la jeune religion fraîchement légalisée se voit invitée avec déférence, par l’empereur Constantin, à formuler de manière homogène sa foi comme sa discipline, ce qui donnera lieu au premier concile œcuménique de Nicée, en 325. C’est peu dire que beaucoup de ses cadres n’y étaient pas préparés. Certains parmi les plus éminents faisaient défaut, ayant ceint la couronne du martyre. Beaucoup étaient quelque peu étourdis par le retournement historique inouï qui venait de se produire et s’en trouvaient désorientés. La plupart ne mesuraient pas vraiment les enjeux théologiques abordés.
[...]

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS