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"Hear, O Yisrael: YHWH is our Elohim, YHWH alone." Deuteronomy 6:4

"And Yahushua answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; YHWH is our Elohim, YHWH is one."  Mark 12:29

Trinity        Christology        Mithraism       Heresy        Logos        Incarnation

Zoroaster         Magi         Wise men of the East        Stoicism        Neo-Platonism

Docetism        Monarchianism        Monotheism        Apollonarianism

Holy Spirit (Ghost)        Apostles' Creed        Nicene Creed        Arianism

Athanasian Creed        Apostolic Fathers        Fathers of the Church

Tertullian        Councils of Constantinople        Filioque

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TRINITY, in Christian theology, doctrine that God exists as three "Persons"—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who are united in one substance or being. The doctrine is not taught explicitly in the New Testament, where the word God almost invariably refers to the Father; but already Jesus Christ, the Son, is seen as standing in a unique relation to the Father, while the Holy Spirit is also emerging as a distinct divine person.

The term trinitas was first used in the 2d century, by the Latin theologian Tertullian, but the concept was developed in the course of the debates on the nature of Christ (see Christology). In the 4th century, the doctrine was finally formulated; using terminology still employed by Christian theologians, the doctrine taught the coequality of the persons of the Godhead. In the West, the 4th-century theologian St. Augustine's influential work De Trinitate (On the Trinity, 400–16) compared the three-in-oneness of God with analogous structures in the human mind and suggested that the Holy Spirit may be understood as the mutual love between Father and Son (although this second point seems difficult to reconcile with the belief that the Spirit is a distinct, coequal member of the Trinity). The stress on equality, however, was never understood as detracting from a certain primacy of the Father—from whom the other two persons derive, even if they do so eternally. For an adequate understanding of the Trinitarian conception of God, the distinctions among the persons of the Trinity must not become so sharp that there seems to be a plurality of gods, nor may these distinctions be swallowed up in an undifferentiated monism.

The doctrine of the Trinity may be understood on different levels. On one level, it is a means of construing the word God in Christian discourse. God is not a uniquely Christian word, and it needs specific definition in Christian theology. This need for a specifically Christian definition is already apparent in the New Testament, where Paul says, "there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'—yet for us there is one God, the Father . . ., and one Lord, Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 8:5–6). These words constitute the beginning of a process of clarification and definition, of which the end product is the doctrine of the Trinity. At another level, the doctrine may be seen as a transcript of Christian experience: The God of the Hebrew tradition had become known in a new way, first in the person of Christ, and then in the Spirit that moved in the church. On a third, speculative level of understanding, the doctrine reveals the dynamism of the Christian conception of God—involving notions of a source, a coming forth, and a return (primordial, expressive, and unitive Being). In this sense, the Christian doctrine has parallels both in philosophy (the 19th-cent. German philosopher G. W. F. Hengel's Absolute) and in other religions (the Trimurti of Hinduism).

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Christology, branch of Christian theology that deals with the person of Christ. Because Christology seeks to explain the saving work of Christ by explaining WHO the person Jesus was, instead of WHAT PURPOSE he came for. Christology is not the formulation of revealed propositions as much as it is the response to the phenomenon of Jesus.

In the opinion of modern biblical critics, Jesus did not teach explicitly that he was the Christ (the anointed one, or Messiah); rather, he implemented a Christology through his words and works. The German scholar Günther Bornkamm (1905–    ) has postulated that Jesus presented God’s offer of salvation through his teaching and actions, thereby evoking the messianic hopes of his followers and the anger and fear of his opponents. After Jesus’ death on the cross, the hopes of the disciples were vindicated by their experience of Jesus’ resurrection. It was in the 2nd century that the response to what they believed God had accomplished through Jesus by formulating an understanding of who Jesus was.

The Christians expressed their explicit Christology with titles and mythological patterns borrowed from the religious environment of 1st century Palestine, where both Hebraic and Hellenistic Greek conceptions of God, history, and destiny were at work. Especially important in a consideration of New Testament Christology is the pervasive eschatological consciousness of the period; many modern scholars think that Jesus himself shared in this consciousness of living at the end of time.

Four early patterns of christological thinking can be discerned within the New Testament. The earliest of these has two focuses—looking backward to Jesus’ earthly life as that of an eschatological prophet and servant of God and forward to Christ’s coming again as the Messiah, the Son of man (see Acts 3:13, 20–21). In a second two-stage christological formulation the earthly Jesus was also seen as the prophet-servant of the last days, but at the same time he was declared to have become Lord, Christ, and Son of God at his resurrection and exaltation (see Acts 2:22–24, 36).

In the third pattern, these post resurrection titles were applied retrospectively to Jesus in his earthly period in order to articulate the intrinsic connection between Jesus’ earthly ministry and his role as savior. A "sending formula" developed, with God as subject, his Son as object, and a statement of saving purpose, as in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (see also Gal. 4:4). At first the moment of sending was identified with Jesus’ baptism by John: " . . . and a voice came from heaven, ’Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’" (Mark 1:11). In the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke, however, the moment of sending is pushed back to Jesus’ conception or birth. This is not yet a Christology of preexistence and incarnation, nor of metaphysical divinity; it expresses only the role the man Jesus was to play in salvation history and God’s initiative in that role.

In the fourth pattern, expressed in the christological hymns of the Hellenistic-Jewish church, Jesus was identified with the Divine Wisdom, or Logos. Philosophical Hellenistic Judaism had conceived of the Logos as the personified agent of the divine being, the agent of creation, revelation, and redemptive action. The earthly Jesus was now seen as the incarnation of this preexistent wisdom or Logos (see Col. 1:15–20; Heb. 1:1–3, John 1:1–18). Early Christians appropriated this Jewish speculation in order to emphasize that the God they encountered in Jesus was not an unknown God, but was the same God they had previously encountered in creation, in human religious experience, and in Israel’s salvation history. In the Johannine writings Jesus’ Father-Son relationship with God is projected back into eternity, and this equation of the Son with the incarnate Logos results in the use of the predicate "God" for the preexistent Word (see John 1:1), the incarnate Son (see John 1:18), and the risen Christ (see John 20:28). But "God" in this context in a careful shade of difference: The Son is not God-in-himself. Rather, through the Son, God "goes out of himself," communicating himself in the action of creation, revelation, and salvation. Consequently, "Son of God" and "Son of man," which were originally terms expressive of Jesus’ role in salvation history, acquire a metaphysical import and come to denote his divine being.

From Ignatius of Antioch, in the 2nd century, through the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Christian thinkers wrestled with the logical problems presented to the Greek mind by the christological thinking of the New Testament: If the Son is God, yet distinct from the Father, how can God be called "one"? If Jesus is divine, how can he also be human? The 2d-century Docetists (Gr. dokeo, "to seem") maintained that the humanity of Jesus was apparent rather than real, for in Greek thought the deity was held incapable of change or suffering (see Docetism). Against them, Ignatius insisted on the reality of Jesus’ flesh. The outcome was the addition to the creed of the words "born of the Virgin Mary", a mistranslation from the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian "Old Testament" (Isa. 7:14), to safeguard Jesus’ humanity (see Apostles' Creed).

A second controversy raged around the endangered concept of the unity of God. Concerned with preserving this unity, the Modalistic Monarchians (or Sabellians) asserted that the one God had revealed himself in three successive manifestations: Father, Son, and Spirit; the Dynamic (Adoptionist) Monarchians, however, viewed Jesus as a man upon whom the power of God had descended (see Monarchianism). In the 4th century, Arius (256–336) and his followers (see Arianism) contended that the preexistent Son was not identical with God, but was the first of God’s creatures. He was homoiousios (Gr., "of like substance") with God, a kind of demigod. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 Arianism was condemned, and the creed was expanded: The pre-existent Son was declared to be "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being (Gr. homoousios, "of the same substance") with the Father" (see Nicene Creed).

Questions regarding the nature of God’s incarnation in Jesus also proved troublesome. The theologians of Alexandria, Egypt, tended to emphasize the divinity of Jesus at the expense of his humanity, and their frequent opponents, those of the school of Antioch, Syria, emphasized Jesus’ humanity at the expense of his divinity. On the Alexandrian side, Apollinarians (see Apollinarianism) argued that in the human Jesus the Logos had replaced his mind or spirit. This view amounted to a denial of the full humanity of Christ. Apollinarianism was condemned at the First Council of Constantinople in 381. From the Antioch school emerged the 5th-century heresy of Nestorianism. Nestorians held that two separate persons were united in the incarnate Christ, and they rejected the Alexandrian title of Theotokos (God-bearer or mother of God) for Mary. For Nestorius (382?–451), the patriarch of Constantinople, and his followers, Mary had been the mother of the human Jesus but not of the divine-human Son. In response to the challenge of Nestorianism, the councils of Ephesus, in 431, and Chalcedon, in 451, affirmed the title Theotokos. At Chalcedon the incarnation was defined as being of "two natures, one person"—a formula that has remained standard Christian orthodoxy. The Chalcedonian definition itself, however, led to further disagreement; an extremist faction within the Alexandrian school argued that the incarnate Son had but a single, divine nature (monophysitism), and in this view, again, Jesus’ humanity was compromised.

Orthodox Chalcedonian Christology has been assailed on various grounds. Modern theologians have noted its dependence on a pre-critical understanding of the Gospels. The christological pluralism of the New Testament is not recognized by the Chalcedonian formula, which is supported solely by the Gospel of John and the conception of the virgin birth expressed in Matthew and Luke. Another criticism, articulated by the German New Testament scholar and theologian Rudolf Bultmann, hinges on the fact that the Chalcedonian conception of Jesus is based on antiquated mythologies (Jewish messianic and apocalyptic and perhaps Gnosticism) and on an obsolete metaphysics, in which the terms person, nature, and substance are understood in ways that are fundamentally different from the way these terms are understood today. The use of Chalcedonian christological definitions in interpreting the Gospel portraits of Jesus has tended to restrict the access of modern Christians to the man Jesus in his historical actuality. Thus, Bultmann has advocated "demythologizing" the New Testament and reinterpreting the mythological elements that lie behind early christological formulations, in order to make the proclamation (kerygma) and Christ’s saving work meaningful to modern persons. Some theologians advocate using alternative christological models to explain the doctrines of pre-existence and incarnation, preferring the New Testament metaphor of God’s "sending" his Son to the later, entirely intellectualized Christology of the Council of Chalcedon. A few contemporary Roman Catholic theologians, such as Edward Schillebeeckx (1914–    ) and Walter Kasper (1933–    ) have chosen to begin their christological inquiry "from below" rather than "from above"; they start with the fully human Jesus and then go on to discover and confess the saving presence of God in him.

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Mithraism, the religion followed by those who worshipped the sun god Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light and wisdom, originated in Persia about 400 BC, and was to spread its Pagan ideas as far west as the British Isles. In the early centuries of the Christian era, Mithraism was the most wide-spread religion in the Western World, and its remains are to be found in monuments scattered around the countries of Europe, which then comprised the known civilized world. The cult of Mithra,  In the Avesta, the sacred Zoroastrian writings (see Zoroastrianism) of the ancient Persians, Mithra appears as the chief yazata (Avestan, "beneficent one"), or good spirit, and ruler of the world. He was supposed to have slain the divine bull, from whose dying body sprang all plants and animals beneficial to humanity. After the conquest of Assyria in the 7th century BC and of Babylonia in the 6th century BC, Mithra became the god of the sun, which was worshipped in his name (sun worship). The Greeks of Asia Minor, by identifying Mithra with Helios, the Greek god of the sun, helped to spread the cult. It was brought to Rome about 68 BC by Cilician pirates whom the Roman general Pompey the Great had captured, and during the early empire it spread rapidly throughout Italy and the Roman provinces. It was a rival to Christianity in the Roman world.

Mithraism was similar to Christianity in its ideals of humility and brotherly love, baptism, the rite of communion, the use of holy water, the adoration of the shepherds at Mithra’s birth, the adoption of Sundays and of December 25 (Mithra’s birthday) as holy days, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, and the resurrection. Mithraism differed from Christianity in the exclusion of women from its ceremonies and in its tolerance of polytheism. The similarities, however, made conversion of its followers to Christian doctrine easy.

It is surprising that Christianity was to become the international religion, when one considers that the already well-established religion of Mithraism was a natural challenger for that title. Up until the time of the Emperor Constantine, it was the latter religion which was more popular within the framework of the Roman Empire, and Christianity was regarded as being only one sect amongst numerous other sects. It was only when Constantine decreed that Christianity was to be the state religion, that Mithraism, together with a host of other religions and sects, was put into the melting pot, and ideas of that religion, most suited for the Christian purpose, were absorbed into the new state-approved religion.

Mithra was regarded as created by, yet co-equal with, the Supreme Deity. Mithraists were Trinitarian, kept Sunday as their day of worship, and their chief festivals were what we know of as Christmas and Easter. Long before the advent of Jesus, Mithra was said to have been born of a virgin mother, in a cave, at the time of Christmas, and died on a cross at Easter. Baptism was practiced, and the sign of the cross was made on the foreheads of all newly-baptized converts. Mithra was considered to be the saviour of the world, conferring on his followers an eternal life in Heaven, and, similar to the story of Jesus, he died to save all others, provided that they were his followers.

For three centuries both religions ran parallel, Mithraism first becoming known to the Romans in 70 BC, Christianity following a century later, and it wasn’t until AD 377 that Christianity became sufficiently strong to suppress its former rival, although Mithraism was to remain a formidable opponent for some time after that, only slowly being forsaken by the people. It was only the absorption of many Mithraism ideas into Christianity which finally saw its downfall.

The big turning point was brought about by the Congress of Nicaea in AD 325. Constantine, a great supporter of the Christian religion, although not converting to it until the time of his decease, gathered together 2,000 leading figures in the world of theology, the idea being to bring about the advent of Christianity as the official state religion of Rome. It was out of this assembly that Jesus was formally declared to be the Son of God, and Saviour of Mankind, another slain saviour god, bringing up the tally of slain god-men to seventeen, of which Mithra, together with such men as Bel and Osiris, was included.

Just as Nicaea can be regarded as the birthplace of Christianity, so too it can be regarded as the graveyard of what we imagine Jesus taught.  From that time onwards, Christianity was to absorb the superstitions of Mithraism, and many other older religions, and what was believed to have happened to earlier saviour gods, was made to center around the Nazarene. The coming of Christianity under state control was to preserve it as a religion, and was the death knell of all other sects and cults within the Roman Empire.

Had Constantine decided to retain Mithraism as the official state religion, instead of putting Christianity in its place, it would have been the latter that would have been obliterated. To Constantine however, Christianity had one great advantage, it preached that repentant sinners would be forgiven their sins, provided that they were converted Christians at the time of their Passing, and Constantine had much to be forgiven for, He personally did not convert to the new religion until he was on his death bed, the reason being that only sins committed following conversion were accountable, so all sins committed by a convert, prior to conversion, didn’t matter, and he could hardly have sinned too much whilst he was lying on his death bed. Mithraism could not offer the same comfort to a man like Constantine, who was regarded as being one of the worst mass-murderers of his time. For a time, coins and other monuments continued to link Christian doctrines with the worship of the Sun, to which Constantine had been addicted previously. But even when this phase came to an end, Roman paganism continued to exert other, permanent influences, great and small. Like Christianity, Mithraism had its sacraments; but the life of Mithra exercised a less far-reaching appeal than the life of Christ, and Mithra's cult excluded women.

Christianity, unique in its universal charity and unique also in its demand for a noble effort of faith in Jesus' blend of divinity and humanity, was the religion that prevailed in the Roman world. It satisfied the emperor Constantine's impulsive need for divine support, and from AD 312 onward, by a complex and gradual process, it became the official religion of the empire.

The emperors passed on to the popes the title of chief priest, pontifex maximus. The saints, with their distribution of functions, often seemed to perpetuate the many numina of ancient tradition. The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals—notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra. But, most of all, the mainstream of Western Christianity owed ancient Rome the firm discipline that gave it stability and shape.

The Emperor Julian, who followed Constantine, went back to Mithraism, but his short reign of only two years could not change what Constantine had decreed. His defeat, and death, at the hands of the Persians, was used by the Christians as an argument in favor of the new, against the old, being looked upon as an omen that Christianity had divine approval. If Julian had been spared to reign some years longer, the entire history of international religion would almost certainly have been different.

Under Emperor Jovian, who followed Julian, the substitution of Christianity for Mithraism made further progress, and old Pagan beliefs, like the Virgin Birth, Baptism and Holy Trinity, became generally accepted as the basis of the state religion. The early Christian idea of Unitarianism was quickly squashed in favor of Trinitarianism, and those who refused to accept the Holy Trinity were put to the sword, the beginning of mass slaughter in the name of religion, which was to go on for centuries.

For more on the subject:  http://www.britannica.com/search?query=mithraism

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Heresy, any religious doctrine opposed to the dogma of a particular church, especially a doctrine held by a person professing faith in the teachings of that church. The term originally meant a belief that one arrived at by oneself (Gr. hairesis, "choosing for oneself") and is used to denote sectarianism in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of St. Paul. In later Christian writings, the term is used in the opprobrious sense of a belief held in opposition to the teaching of the churches.

With the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire, heresy came to be considered a crime against the state, punishable by civil law. Heresy was also generally outlawed in countries with an established or state-supported church. After that, however, the principles of private interpretation of the Scriptures and denial of ecclesiastical authority in all matters of belief were eventually adopted in Protestant countries, and during the 19th and 20th centuries Roman Catholic countries have also adopted the principle of religious toleration.

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Logos (Gr., "word," "reason," "ratio"), in ancient and especially in medieval philosophy and theology, the divine reason that acts as the ordering principle of the universe.

The 6th-century BC Greek philosopher Heraclitus was the first to use the term in a metaphysical sense. He asserted that the world is governed by a fire like Logos, a divine force that produces the order and pattern discernible in the flux of nature. He believed that this force is similar to human reason and that his own thought partook of the divine Logos.

In Stoicism, as it developed after the 4th century BC, the Logos is conceived as a rational divine power that orders and directs the universe; it is identified with God, nature, and fate. The Logos is "present everywhere" and seems to be understood as both a divine mind and at least a semi physical force, acting through space and time. Within the cosmic order determined by the Logos are individual centers of potentiality, vitality, and growth. These are "seeds" of the Logos (logoi spermatikoi). Through the faculty of reason, all human beings (but not any other animals) share in the divine reason. Stoic ethics stress the rule "Follow where Reason [Logos] leads"; one must therefore resist the influence of the passions—love, hate, fear, pain, and pleasure.

Introduction of Neoplatonic themes (Britannica)

"In the Johannine literature in the Bible there appeared the first traces of the concept of Christ as the Logos, the “word” or “principle” that issues from eternity. Under the influence of subsequent Neoplatonic philosophy, this tradition became central in speculative theology. There was interest in the relationship of the “oneness” of God to the “triplicity” of divine manifestations. This question was answered through the Neo-platonic metaphysics of being. The transcendent God, who is beyond all being, all rationality, and all conceptuality, is divested of divine transcendence. In a first act of becoming self-conscious the Logos recognizes itself as the divine mind (Greek: nous), or divine world reason, which was characterized by the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus (see below) as the “Son” who goes forth from the Father. The next step by which the transcendent God becomes self-conscious consists in the appearance in the divine nous of the divine world, the idea of the world in its individual forms as the content of the divine consciousness. In Neoplatonic philosophy both the nous and the idea of the world are designated the hypostases of the transcendent God. Christian theology took the Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance as well as its doctrine of hypostases as the departure point for interpreting the relationship of the “Father” to the “Son” in terms of the Neoplatonic hypostases doctrine. This process stands in direct relationship with a speculative interpretation of Christology in connection with Neoplatonic Logos speculation."

(Plotinus, born AD 205, , Lyco, or Lycopolis, Egypt?
died 270, Campania; ancient philosopher, the centre of an influential circle of intellectuals and men of letters in 3rd-century Rome, who is regarded by modern scholars as the founder of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy.)

The 1st-century AD Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo Judaeus employed the term in his effort to synthesize Jewish tradition and Platonism. According to Philo, the Logos is a mediating principle between God and the world and can be understood as God’s Word or the Divine Wisdom, which is immanent in the world.

At the beginning of the Gospel of John, Jesus is identified with the Logos made incarnate, the Greek word logos being translated as "word" in the English Bible: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . ." (John 1:1–3, 14). The conception of Jesus was probably influenced by Greek philosophy. Early Christian theologians developed the conception of Christ as the Logos in explicitly Platonic and Neo-platonic terms (see Neo-Platonism). The Logos, for instance, was identified with the will of God, or with the Ideas (or Platonic Forms) that are in the mind of God. Jesus' "incarnation" was accordingly understood as the incarnation of these divine attributes. (see Justin Martyr's "The First Apology of Justin" chapters XXI, XXII and XXIII)

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Incarnation, in religion, the assumption of an earthly form by a god. In early times, priests and kings were often considered divine incarnations. In the ancient Roman and Greek religions, the gods sometimes assumed human form and married mortals. The idea of incarnation is also known in many living religions of the world. In Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha has been adored and worshiped as a divine being who came to earth as a teacher out of compassion for suffering humanity. In Jainism, Vardhamana Jnatiputra or Nataputta Mahavira (c. 599–527 BC), called Jina, the founder of the religion, was regarded by his followers as a supernatural being who descended from heaven. After he was incarnated, he grew up sinless and omniscient. In Zoroastrianism, many texts have developed the theme of Zoroaster’s celestial pre-existence and incarnation. The substance of his body was created in heaven, fell to earth with the rain, and passed to his mother through the milk of heifers. In Hinduism, avatars are incarnations of the gods, especially of Vishnu.

In Christianity, the incarnation, or union of the divine nature with human nature in the person of Jesus, is a central doctrine. Sharing completely in divinity and in humanity (except for sin), Jesus Christ is believed to be the embodiment of God in human form. The doctrine of incarnation is based on writings such as John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

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Zoroaster (c. 630–550 BC), Persian religious prophet, who founded Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster (known in ancient Persian as Zarathustra) was born in the eastern Persian land of Airyana Vaejah, probably during the period preceding that of the Achaemenian kings, although earlier dates have been suggested. When still a fairly young man he began receiving revelations from Ahura Mazda (the "Lord Wisdom"). His conversations with this godhead, and his difficulties while preaching, are recorded in the Gathas, part of the sacred scripture known as the Avesta. Apparently it was after years of struggle with priests of established cults (during which time he had made some converts among his relatives and others) that he found a champion in Vishtaspa, king of Chorasmia (now in Russian Turkestan). Thereafter the religion preached by Zoroaster prospered. Zoroaster’s homeland was mountainous, devoted to the raising of cattle, which were considered sacred animals. Through his religion, he had hoped to unite cattle herders against nomadic marauders and practitioners of certain sacrificial cults. Still, the intellectual depth of his system may well have exerted a profound influence on Western thought; Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers showed a great interest in his doctrines. It is at least likely that Zoroaster’s ideas strongly affected the course of Judeo-Christian demonology, angelology, and eschatology. Influences have been noted in the Manual of Discipline found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Probably the first Persian king to recognize the religion proposed by Zoroaster was Darius I. His inscriptions are full of the praises of Ahura Mazda; he stresses rationality and seems to regard Lie as a world force. His son, Xerxes I, was also a worshiper of Ahura Mazda, but he probably had less of an understanding of the details of Zoroaster’s religion. Most striking is his conception that Arta will be attained in the afterlife, which view reflects the old Arian idea that Rta has a location beyond the earth. Artaxerxes I (r. 465–425 BC) was also a Mazda worshiper, but probably approved of a synthesis, under Magian direction, of Zoroaster’s teachings with the older polytheism; this development is reflected in the syncretism of the Yashts. Artaxerxes II (r. 409–358 BC) venerated Ahura Mazda, Mithra, and Anahita; in his reign the first Persian temples were probably built. Under the rule of the Greek Seleucids (312–64 BC) and Parthian Arsacids (c. 250 BC–AD 266), cults of foreign gods flourished along with Zoroastrianism. The new Persian dynasty of the Sassanids (AD 226–641) established Zoroastrianism as the state religion of Persia. In the Sassanid theology, Ahriman was opposed to Ohrmuzd (Ahura Mazda), not to Spenta Mainyu. This theology had already appeared in the Magian system of the 4th century BC, according to Greek historians. Certain Sassanid theologians taught that Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were the twin sons of Infinite Time (Zervan), but this doctrine was eventually rejected.

Persia was gradually converted to Islam after its conquest by the Arabs in the 7th century. Zoroastrianism survived, however, in small communities of Gabars (a derogatory term coined by the Arabs) in the mountainous regions of Yezd and Kerman. About 18,000 still live in Iran. Zoroastrians, called Parsis (literally, Persians), are numerous and prosperous in India, chiefly in the vicinity of Bombay. They still recite the Avestan liturgy and tend the sacred fires, but today they prepare a non-intoxicant "haoma," and few still follow the Magian doctrine of placing corpses on raised edifices (the so-called towers of silence) to be the prey of vultures. (see Magi)

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Magi, priestly caste in ancient Persia. They are thought to have been followers of Zoroaster, the Persian teacher and prophet. Professing the doctrines of Zoroastrianism, they practiced a ritual that involved pouring libations of milk, oil, and honey over a flame while chanting prayers and hymns. Gradually, the religion of the magi incorporated Babylonian elements, including astrology, demonology, and magic. (The word magic is derived from the word magi.) By the 1st century AD, the magi were identified with wise men and soothsayers. Thus, the biblical magi who came from the East to worship the infant Jesus (see Matt. 2:1–12) were regarded as wise men. (See also Wise Men of the East.)

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Wise Men of the East, also called Magi or Three Kings of the Orient. In the Gospel according to Matthew, noble pilgrims followed a guiding star to Israel to pay homage to the newborn Christ Child, bringing with them gold, frankincense, and myrrh. When the men reached Jerusalem, they asked King Herod the Great for assistance in finding the child. Herod asserted that he did not know where the child could be found, but he asked the men to return to his palace after they had seen the future ruler. Because of a warning in a dream, the men did not return to Herod.

Tradition holds that the pilgrims numbered three. Their names—Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar or Gaspar—first appear in a mosaic in a 6th-century church in Ravenna, Italy. The visit of the Magi, marked on January 6 in the Anglican, Eastern, and Roman Catholic churches, commemorates the first revelation of Jesus to the Gentiles.

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Stoicism, school of philosophy, founded in ancient Greece, opposed to Epicureanism in its views of life and duty. The Stoic philosophy was developed from that of the Cynics, whose Greek founder, Antisthenes, had been a disciple of Socrates.

History

The Stoic school was established at Athens about 300 BC by Zeno of Citium in Cyprus. Zeno, who derived much of his philosophy from Crates of Thebes (365?–285 BC), opened his school in a colonnade known as the Stoa Poikile ("painted porch"). Among his disciples was Cleanthes of Assos in the Troad (area surrounding ancient Troy), whose extant "Hymn to Zeus" sets forth the unity, omnipotence, and moral government of the supreme deity. Cleanthes was followed by Chrysippus (c. 280– 206 BC) of Soli in Cilicia. These three represent the first period (300–200 BC) of Stoic philosophy.

The second period (200–50 BC) embraced the general promulgation of the philosophy and its introduction to the Romans. Chrysippus was succeeded by Zeno of Tarsus (fl. 206 BC) and Diogenes of Babylonia (fl. 155 BC); then followed Antipater of Tarsus (fl. 133 BC), who taught Panaetius of Rhodes (c. 185–109 BC). Panaetius introduced Stoicism to Rome; among Panaetius’s pupils was Posidonius (c. 135–51 BC) of Apamea in Syria, who was the teacher of the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.

The third period of Stoicism was Roman. In this period outstanding Stoics included Cato the Younger and, during the empire, the three Stoic philosophers whose writings are extant, namely, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epictetus, and the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Principles

Stoicism was the most influential philosophy in the Roman Empire during the period preceding the rise of Christianity. The Stoics, like the Epicureans, emphasized ethics as the main field of knowledge, but they also developed theories of logic and natural science to support their ethical doctrines. Their most important contribution to logic was the discovery of the hypothetical syllogism. They held that all reality is material, but that matter proper, which is passive, is to be distinguished from the animating or active principle, Logos, which they conceived as both the divine reason and as simply a finer kind of material entity, an all-pervading breath or fire, such as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus had supposed the cosmic principle to be. According to them the human soul is a manifestation of the Logos. Living according to nature or reason, they held, is living in conformity with the divine order of the universe. This stoic view was fundamental to the theory of natural law that powerfully affected Roman jurisprudence.

The foundation of Stoic ethics is the principle, proclaimed earlier by the Cynics, that good lies not in external objects, but in the state of the soul itself, in the wisdom and restraint by which a person is delivered from the passions and desires that perturb the ordinary life. The four cardinal virtues of the Stoic philosophy are wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance, a classification derived from the teachings of Plato.

A distinctive feature of Stoicism is its cosmopolitanism. All people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should live in brotherly love and readily help one another. They held that differences such as rank and wealth are of no importance in social relationships. Thus, before Christianity, Stoics recognized and advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings.

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Neo-Platonism, collective designation for the philosophical and religious doctrines of a heterogeneous school of speculative thinkers who sought to develop and synthesize the metaphysical ideas of Plato. Such synthesis occurred especially in Alexandria and included Hellenistic Judaism, as exemplified by the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, as well as other outlooks. The doctrine kept its essentially Greek character, however. By extension, the term is applied to similar metaphysical theories expounded in medieval, Renaissance, and modern times.

The Neo-platonic Doctrine

Neo-Platonism is a type of idealistic monism in which the ultimate reality of the universe is held to be an infinite, unknowable, perfect One. From this One emanates nous (pure intelligence), whence in turn is derived the world soul, the creative activity of which engenders the lesser souls of human beings. The world soul is conceived as an image of the nous, even as the nous is an image of the One; both the nous and the world soul, despite their differentiation, are thus consubstantial with the One.

The world soul, however, because it is intermediate between the nous and the material world, has the option either of preserving its integrity and imaged perfection or of becoming altogether sensual and corrupt. The same choice is open to each of the lesser souls. When, through ignorance of its true nature and identity, the human soul experiences a false sense of separateness and independence, it becomes arrogantly self-assertive and falls into sensual and depraved habits. Salvation for such a soul is still possible, the Neo-Platonist maintains, by virtue of the very freedom of will that enabled it to choose its sinful course. The soul must reverse that course, tracing in the opposite direction the successive steps of its degeneration, until it is again united with the fountainhead of its being. The actual reunion is accomplished through a mystical experience in which the soul knows an all-pervading ecstasy.

Doctrinally, Neo-Platonism is characterized by a categorical opposition between the spiritual and the carnal, elaborated from Plato’s dualism of Idea and Matter; by the metaphysical hypothesis of mediating agencies, the nous and the world soul, which transmit the divine power from the One to the many; by an aversion to the world of sense; and by the necessity of liberation from a life of sense through a rigorous ascetic discipline.

History

Neo-Platonism began in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 3d century AD. Its founder and foremost exponent was the Roman philosopher Plotinus, who was born in Egypt, studied at Alexandria with the philosopher Ammonius Saccus (fl. 1st half of 3d cent.), and about 244 carried the Neo-Platonic doctrine to Rome, where he established a school. His major works comprise the Enneads, which contain a comprehensive exposition of Neo-Platonic metaphysics. Other important Neo-Platonic thinkers were the Syrian-Greek scholar and philosopher Porphyry (c. 232– c. 304), the Syrian-Greek philosopher Iamblichus, and the Greek philosopher and mathematician Proclus.

The elements of asceticism and un-worldliness in Neo-Platonism appealed strongly to the Fathers and Doctors of the Christian Church. The early Christian prelate St. Augustine, in his Confessions, acknowledged the contribution of Neo-Platonism to Christianity and indicated the profound influence exerted by its doctrines on his own religious thinking. Although a number of medieval theologians and philosophers, notably the German mystic Meister Eckhart, were deeply influenced by Neo-Platonism, Roman Catholic dogmatists condemned its unorthodox tenets. In the 15th century, however, Neo-Platonism became more generally accepted. The German Roman Catholic speculative philosopher Nicholas of Cusa and other mystics sought to overcome the doubt arising from the limitations of human knowledge by espousing the theory of direct human intuition of God, a theory closely akin to the Neo-Platonic doctrine that the soul in a state of ecstasy has the power to transcend all finite limitations.

The humanists of the Italian Renaissance, in their reaction against the previously dominant rationalistic philosophy of Aristotle, turned to the idealistic metaphysics of Plato, and thence to Neo-Platonism. Notable in this connection was the Italian scholar Marsilio Ficino, who, under the patronage of the wealthy nobleman Cosimo de’ Medici, translated and annotated the works of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus. In England, the 17th-century Cambridge Platonists exhibited marked affinities with Neo-Platonic philosophers. A number of 19th- and 20th-century thinkers and writers have been influenced by Neo-Platonism; among them were several of the most important British romantic poets, including William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

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Docetism, an early Christian heresy affirming that Jesus Christ had only an apparent body. The doctrine took various forms: Some proponents flatly denied any true humanity in Christ; some admitted his incarnation but not his sufferings, suggesting that he persuaded one of his followers—possibly Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene—to take his place on the cross; others ascribed to him a celestial body that was incapable of experiencing human miseries.

This denial of the human reality of Christ stemmed from dualism, a philosophical doctrine that viewed matter as evil. The docetists, acknowledging that doctrine, concluded that God could not be associated with matter. They could not accept a literal interpretation of John 1:14 that the "Word became flesh."

Although docetism is alluded to in the New Testament, it was not fully developed until the 2d and 3d centuries, when it found an ally in Gnosticism. It occasioned vigorous opposition by early Christian writers, beginning with Ignatius of Antioch and Irenaeus early in the 2d century. Docetism was officially condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

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Monarchianism, Christian heretical doctrine of the 2d and 3d centuries opposed to the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity; it strongly maintained the essential unity of the Deity and was intended to reinforce Monotheism in Christianity. Monarchians were divided into two groups, the Adoptionists, or Dynamic Monarchians, and the Patripassians, or Modalistic Monarchians. The Adoptionists taught that Christ, although of miraculous birth, was a mere man until his baptism, when the Holy Spirit made him the Son of God by adoption. This doctrine was taught by Paul of Samosata (fl. 3d cent.), at one time bishop of Antioch. Adoptionism, or adoptianism, was revived in Spain about the end of the 8th century, when it was again condemned as heresy.

The Patripassians believed in the divinity of Christ, but regarded the Trinity as three manifestations, or modes, of a single divine being. They taught that the Father had come to earth and suffered and died under the appearance of the Son; hence their name (Lat. pater; patris, "father"; passus, "to suffer"). This doctrine was taught by the Roman Christian prelate Sabellius (fl. 3d cent.) and is thus sometimes referred to as Sabellianism.

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Monotheism, belief in the unity of the Godhead, or in one God. It is opposed to pantheism and polytheism. Because they believe the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to be incompatible with monotheism, some groups reject Trinitarianism in favor of Unitarianism. Monotheism is a firm tenet of Muslims and Jews.

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Apollinarianism, heretical doctrine taught by Apollinaris the Younger (c. 310–c. 390), bishop of Laodicea in Syria. A controversial theologian, he maintained that the Logos, or divine nature in Christ, took the place of the rational human soul or mind of Christ and that the body of Christ was a spiritualized and glorified form of humanity. This doctrine was condemned as a heresy by Roman councils (377 and 381) and also by the Council of Constantinople (381). In spite of its repeated condemnation, Apollinarianism persisted into the 5th century. At that time its remaining adherents merged with the Monophysites, who held that Christ had a divine will but no human will.

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Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity, the other persons being God the Father and God the Son. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ refers to the Holy Spirit as "the Counselor . . . whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14:26).

A theology of the Holy Spirit developed slowly, largely in response to controversies over the relation of Jesus Christ to God the Father. In 325, the Council of Nicaea condemned as heresy the Arian teaching that the Son was a creature, neither equal to, nor coeternal with, the Father. In 381, the Council of Constantinople condemned the logical extension of that view, that the Holy Spirit was created by the Son. The council stated: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father. Together with the Father and the Son he is adored and glorified." Later pronouncements brought only one important doctrinal change, the 9th-century addition of Filioque to the creed of Constantinople. That addition, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the son, has been a source of discord between Eastern and Western Christianity ever since.

The Holy Spirit is frequently presented in Scripture through symbols: the dove (see Mark 1:10), symbolizing peace and reconciliation; a whirlwind (see Acts 2), symbolizing strength; and as tongues of fire (see Acts 2), symbolizing the ecstasy of believers. The Holy Spirit is considered the sanctifier, who leads and guides the church and its members.

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Apostles' Creed, a brief summary statement of Christian belief traditionally attributed to the 12 apostles. The Apostle's Creed was not written by the Apostle's; it is the culmination of several centuries of reflection on the meaning of the Christian faith. The ancient church used this Creed to identify believers, to instruct new converts, and to provide a unifying confession of faith for worship and liturgy. Like most Christian creeds, it contains three paragraphs, one for each person of the Trinity. The first paragraph begins, "I believe in God the Father Almighty"; the second, "I believe in Jesus Christ"; the third, "I believe in the Holy Spirit." These three assertions correspond to the three questions that were addressed to candidates for baptism in the early church.

Until the 15th century, it was believed that the Apostles’ Creed was written by the apostles, each in turn having contributed a clause. It is now known that the creed was not of apostolic origin, but the title itself suggests that each clause of the creed can be traced to New Testament references and that the creed originated very early.

Today it is widely agreed that the Apostles’ Creed developed as the baptismal confession of faith. A similar, but not identical, confession appears in the baptismal liturgy contained in The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (c. 215). Similar but variant versions are also found in the writings of the early Fathers of the Church, such as Irenaeus and Tertullian, in which they are called "rules of faith." A form identical with what is now called the Apostles’ Creed did not emerge until the early 8th century, in the writings of St. Pirminius.

The Apostles’ Creed continues to be used as the baptismal profession of faith in most Western churches; Orthodox churches prefer to use the later Nicene Creed. In Roman Catholic practice, the Apostles’ Creed is also recited in the Daily Office, before the first and after the last service each day. In most Protestant churches, it is used periodically at Sunday worship. Anglicans and Lutherans use it regularly in Morning and Evening Prayer (Matins and Evensong).

The Apostles’ Creed

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day He rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe a holy catholic Church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

11. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. AMEN.

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Nicene Creed, in Christian theology, confession of faith.

The first creed so named was adopted at the first Council of Nicaea in AD 325 to settle a controversy concerning the persons of the Trinity. It was intended to cover debated questions as to the divinity of Christ, and it introduced the word homoousios (Gr., "of the same substance") to correct the error of the homoiousian ("of like substance") party. To it were added several clauses against Arianism, and also notice that with every newer creed, they get longer.

A later creed that is popularly known as the Nicene Creed is more properly called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan or Constantinopolitan Creed. It is based on a 4th-century creed that was made under the influence of the bishop of Jerusalem, St. Cyril, and edited in a Nicene sense. It is contained in the Ancoratus of St. Epiphanius of Salamis and is traditionally but erroneously attributed to the first Council of Constantinople, which met in 381. Of the 178 words in the original of this second "Nicene Creed," only 33 are positively taken from the creed of AD 325. The second creed is received as ecumenical by the Eastern and Roman communions and by the majority of the Reformed churches. It employs the singular form of the words used for expressing assent, "I believe," "I hope," "I confess." At the Council of Toledo (589), the Western church added the filioque clause and inserted the preposition "in" before the words "one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." In the Book of Common Prayer, the preposition "in" is omitted, and by an accident the word "holy" does not appear; the phrase reads there "I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church."

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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Arianism, a Christian "heresy" (See Heresy) of the 4th century that denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ. It was named for its author, Arius (256–336). A native of Libya, Arius studied at the theological school of Lucian of Antioch (d. 312), where other supporters of the Arian heresy were also trained. After he was ordained a priest in Alexandria, Arius became involved (319) in a controversy with his bishop concerning the divinity of Christ. Arius was finally exiled (325) to Illyria because of his beliefs, but debate over his doctrine soon engulfed the whole church and agitated it for more than half a century. Although his doctrine was eventually outlawed (379) throughout the Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius I, it survived for two centuries longer among the barbarian tribes that had been converted to Christianity by Arian bishops.

Arius taught that God is not begotten and without beginning. The Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, therefore, because he is begotten, cannot be God in the same sense that the Father is. The Son was not generated from the divine substance of the Father; he did not exist from all eternity, but was created out of nothing like all other creatures, and exists by the will of the Father. In other words, the relationship of the Son to the Father is not natural, but adoptive.

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The "filioque" controversy

Rome did not press its claims to Greek dioceses in Italy and Greece under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, and the Roman legates consented to the Byzantine demand to condemn Western additions to the Nicene Creed, without explicit mention of the contentious use of the word "filioque" (Latin: “and the Son”), whereby the Holy Spirit was said by some to proceed from the Father “and the Son.” This interpolation had been introduced into the Nicene Creed in Spain in the 6th century and had spread among the Franks, but it was not yet in use in Rome. Photius' Latin was limited, and on the filioque controversy his information was inadequate, though he showed more understanding of the question in his later work on The Mystagogia of the Holy Spirit, completed in or after his second patriarchate.

Polarization of the Eastern and the Western concepts of the Trinity is at the root of the Filioque dispute. By affirming that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only “from the Father” (as the original creed proclaimed) but also “from the Son,” the Spanish councils intended to condemn Arianism by reaffirming the Son's divinity. Later, however, the addition became an anti-Greek battle cry, especially after Charlemagne (9th century) made his claim to rule the revived Roman Empire. The addition was finally accepted in Rome under German pressure. It found justification in the framework of Western conceptions of the Trinity; the Father and the Son were viewed as one God in the act of “spiration” of the Spirit.

The Byzantine theologians opposed the addition, first on the ground that the Western Church had no right to change the text of an ecumenical creed unilaterally and, second, because the Filioque clause implied the reduction of the divine persons to mere relations (“the Father and the Son are two in relation to each other, but one in relation to the Spirit”). For the Greeks the Father alone is the origin of both the Son and the Spirit. Patriarch Photius (9th century) was the first Orthodox theologian to explicitly spell out the Greek opposition to the Filioque concept, but the debate continued throughout the Middle Ages.

The settlement between Rome and Constantinople was once thought to have been obtained by fraud and repudiated by Pope John VIII, but most likely it was accepted by the Pope. John VIII was murdered in 882, and his successor, whose position was irregular, was probably not recognized at Constantinople. Photius was in communion not only with John but also with Adrian III (884–885) and with Stephen V in 886. In that year he resigned the patriarchate on the accession to the throne of his pupil the emperor Leo VI. The Pope suspected that the resignation of Photius had been forced upon him to make way for another pupil, Prince Stephen, but if he was more than 80 years old it may well have been voluntary. He died on February 6, perhaps 891, but the year is not certain.

The chief sticking point, as always, was the doctrine of the Filioque: Did the Holy Spirit in the Trinity proceed from the Father only, as the East taught, or “from the Father and the Son [ex Patre Filioque],” as the Western addition to the text of the Nicene Creed affirmed? At stake here was not only the dogmatic Trinitarian question itself, over which the disputes between the Latins and the Greeks had been raging since the 9th century, but the authority of one part of the church, viz., the Roman Catholic Church, to make an alteration in the text of an ecumenical creed through unilateral action, that is, without the sanction of a truly ecumenical council representing the entire church. Almost all those present at Florence came to an agreement that the dispute over the Filioque was chiefly one of words, not of content, since it could be amply documented that both versions of the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit had substantial attestation from the teachings of the Church Fathers in both churches. Agreement on the Filioque and on all other points at issue led to the adoption of a document of union, Laetentur Coeli, promulgated on July 6, 1439 (and still commemorated in a plaque on the wall of the Duomo in Florence). But the reunion came too late for both sides. It was repudiated in the East, both at Constantinople and in the other Orthodox churches, notably the Church of Russia; and it was soon evident that in the West the internal problems of the church and the papacy had not been laid to rest by this temporary victory. Once again, as so many times throughout Christian history, the reunion of the Eastern and the Western Churches proved to have been a dead letter and an unattainable goal.

Anselm Of Canterbury, Saint
Anselm attended the Council of Bari (Italy) in 1098 and presented his grievances against the King to Urban II. He took an active part in the sessions, defending the doctrine of the "Filioque" (“and from the Son”) clause in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed against the Greek Church, which had been in schism with the Western Church since 1054. The Filioque clause, added to the Western version of the Creed, indicated that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and Son. The Greek Church rejected the Filioque clause as a later addition.

Ferrara-Florence Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic church (1438–45) in which the Latin and Greek churches tried to reach agreement on their doctrinal differences and end the schism between them. Discussions were held on purgatory and on the phrase Filioque (“and from the Son”) of the Nicene Creed, which sets forth the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. The Greeks held that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only and had refused to accept the Filioque.

On Jan. 10, 1439, the council was moved from Ferrara to Florence when a plague hit Ferrara. After much discussion, the Greeks agreed to accept the Filioque and also the Latin statements on purgatory, the Eucharist, and papal primacy. The decree of union between the two groups (Laetentur Caeli) was signed on July 6, 1439. After their return to Constantinople, many of the Greeks repudiated the reunion. Meanwhile, the Latins completed union agreements with certain other Eastern churches. No extant document records the closing of the council, which moved to Rome in September 1443.

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Athanasian Creed, profession of faith named after the Alexandrian theologian St. Athanasius; sometimes called the Quicumque vult (Lat., "Whoever wishes") from the first words of the Latin form. Erroneously ascribed to Athanasius, the creed may have been the work of a number of authors and may have been compiled from the decrees of several synods. Scholars place its composition in the late 4th century or first half of the 5th century. The creed reflects the state of theological development corresponding to the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451). It was first mentioned as a creed around 542 by the theologian Caesarius of Arles (470?–543).

The creed is a theological exposition of the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, with brief statements of the other doctrines found also in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds concerning the important events in the life of Jesus Christ (see Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed). The beginning and ending of the creed stress the necessity of believing the articles of faith in order to be saved.

During the 13th century, the Athanasian Creed was placed on a par with the Apostles' and Nicene creeds. It remains one of the most widely used professions of faith in Western Christendom and is accepted as authoritative by Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Although it was approved by the leaders of the Reformation, many Protestant churches do not use this creed today, and some of them do not accept it at all. The Athanasian Creed has been part of the Russian Orthodox liturgy since the 17th century, but other Eastern churches do not generally consider it a standard of faith.

Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.
Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the Catholic Faith is this:  That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.

For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Ghost uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.

As also there are not three incomprehensible, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge ever y Person by Himself to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say, there be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father [and of the Son], neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another;
but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ .
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.
God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance of His Mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul in human flesh subsisting; Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching His Manhood.
Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ; One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God; One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.
Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men shall rise with their bodies and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. Amen.

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Apostolic Fathers, name given to any of the Greek Christian writers, several unknown, who were authors of early Christian works dating primarily from the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. Their works are the principal source for information about Christianity during the two or three generations following the Apostles. They were originally called apostolic men (Apostolici). The name Apostolic Fathers was first applied in the 6th century, after the conception of the authority of the Fathers had been developed. The name did not come into common use, however, until the 17th century.

These writers include Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Hermas, Barnabas, Papias, and the anonymous authors of the Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), Letter to Diognetus, Letter of Barnabas, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Not everything written by the Apostolic Fathers is considered to be equally valuable theologically, but taken as a whole their writings are more valuable historically than any other Christian literature outside the New Testament. They provide a bridge between it and the more fully developed Christianity of the late 2nd century.

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Fathers of the Church, name given by the Christian church to the writers who established Christian doctrine before the 8th century. The writings of the Fathers, or patristic literature, synthesized Christian doctrine as found in the Bible, especially the Gospels, the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, ecclesiastical dictums, and decisions of church councils (see Councils of Constantinople). They provided a standardized body of Christian teaching for transmission to the peoples of the Roman Empire. The so-called Doctors of the Church consist of four Western Fathers, including Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Pope Gregory I, and Jerome, and four Eastern Fathers, including Saints Athanasius, Basil, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzus. The earlier Eastern Fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, St. Justin Martyr, and Origen, were strongly influenced by Greek philosophy. The Western Fathers, however, including Tertullian and Saints Gregory I and Jerome, generally avoided the synthesis of pagan and Christian thought.

The church established four qualifications for bestowing the honorary title of church father on an early writer. In addition to belonging to the early period of the church, a Father of the Church must have led a holy life. His writings must be generally free from doctrinal error and must contain an outstanding defense or explanation of Christian doctrine. Finally, his writings must have received the approval of the church.

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Tertullian, full name QUINTUS SEPTIMUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS (160?–220?), the first important Christian ecclesiastical writer in Latin.

Tertullian was born in Carthage, the son of a Roman centurion. He trained for the law and practiced his profession in Rome. Sometime between 190 and 195, while still in Rome, he became a convert to the Christian faith, and it is evident that he visited Greece and possibly Asia Minor. In 197 he returned to Carthage, where he married and became a presbyter of the church. He became (207?) the leader of the Montanists, a sect that encouraged prophesying and taught a rigorous form of asceticism. The Montanists, increasingly in conflict with church authorities, were finally declared heretical.

A zealous champion of Christianity, Tertullian wrote many theological treatises, of which 31 have survived. In his various works he strove either to defend Christianity, to refute heresy, or to argue some practical point of morality or church discipline. His views on ethics and discipline, rigorously ascetic from the first, became progressively more harsh in his later works. After espousing Montanist doctrines, he was a severe critic of orthodox Christians.

Tertullian would rank among the great Fathers of the Church if he had not embraced the Montanist heresy. He profoundly influenced the later church fathers, especially St. Cyprian, and through them all Christian theologians of the West. Many of his works are accepted as orthodox by the Roman Catholic church and are included in the recognized body of patristic literature.

Tertullian's work is remarkable for its vigor, blunt sarcasm, epigrammatic phrasing, aggressive partisan spirit, and skillful, though sometimes specious, reasoning. He reveals a profound knowledge of Greek and Latin literature, both pagan and Christian. He was the first writer in Latin to formulate Christian theological concepts, such as the nature of the Trinity. Having no models to follow, he developed a terminology derived from many sources, chiefly Greek and the legal vocabulary of Rome. His legal turn of mind imprinted on this newly minted theological language of the West, a legalistic character that has never been erased.

The most famous work by Tertullian is Apologeticus (c. 197), an impassioned defense (the meaning of its title) of Christians against pagan charges of immorality, economic worthlessness, and political subversion. Of his doctrinal treatises refuting heresy, the most important is De Praescriptione Hereticorum (On the Claims of Heretics), in which he argues that the church alone has the authority to declare what is and is not orthodox Christianity. In other writings he strongly disapproves of second marriages, exhorts Christians not to attend public shows, and favors simplicity of dress and strict fasts. Like all Montanists, Tertullian held that Christians should welcome persecution, not flee from it. Christian historians value many of his writings, especially De Baptismo (On Baptism) and De Oratione (On Prayer), for the light they throw on contemporary religious practices.

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Councils of Constantinople, eight councils of the Christian church, held at Constantinople. In the Western church, only four of these councils are recognized as ecumenical: the first three and the sixth, which is called the Fourth Council of Constantinople.

First Council of Constantinople

(381). This council was the second ecumenical council of the church. It was convened by Theodosius I, the emperor of the East. The 150 bishops meeting at the council condemned various religious sects as heretical, reaffirmed the resolutions of the first ecumenical council of Nicaea (325), defined the Holy Spirit as consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son in the divine Trinity, and proclaimed the bishop of Constantinople second in precedence to the bishop of Rome.

Second Council of Constantinople

(553). This meeting at Constantinople was the fifth ecumenical council of the church. It was convoked by Justinian I, Byzantine emperor, to consider the writings of the Greek theologians Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus (c. 386–c. 457), and Ebas of Edessa (380?–457?). These writings, known as the Three Chapters, had been approved by the fourth ecumenical council, held at Chalcedon in 451. The council of 553, however, condemned the Three Chapters and anathematized their authors.

(680). The third council held at Constantinople was the sixth ecumenical council. It met at the request of Constantine IV (c. 652–85), Byzantine emperor (r. 668–85), to condemn Monothelitism, a doctrine declaring that Jesus Christ had only one will, even though he had two natures (human and divine).

(691). The fourth meeting held at Constantinople was called by Justinian II (669–711), Byzantine emperor (r. 685–95; 705–11), to enact a legislative code for the church. This code later became part of the canon law of the Orthodox church, but was largely rejected by the church in the West. The council of 691 was regarded in the East as supplementary to the previous ecumenical councils (the fifth and sixth) and is therefore known as the Quinisext Synod (Lat., "fifth-sixth"). This council was also sometimes called the Trullan Synod from its meeting place in the trullum ("dome") of the emperor’s palace.

(754). The fifth council at Constantinople was called by Constantine V (718–75), Byzantine emperor (r. 741–75), to deal with the problem of image worship. The council condemned the worship of images; this position, however, was rejected by the seventh ecumenical council, held at Nicaea in 787, and the council of 754 was not recognized as ecumenical in the West.

(869–70). The sixth meeting at Constantinople is considered the Fourth Council of Constantinople by the Western church and is recognized as the eighth ecumenical council. It was convened by Basil I, Byzantine emperor, to confirm his deposition of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. Photius, who was the principal instigator of the 9th-century schism between the Eastern and Western churches, was formally deposed. The council of 869–70 was not recognized by the Eastern church.

(879). The seventh assembly at Constantinople was recognized in the East as the eighth ecumenical council of the church. It was called by Photius, who had been reinstated as the patriarch of Constantinople in the previous year. This council, which repudiated the council of 869–70, was not recognized by the church in the West.

(1341). The last council held at Constantinople was recognized in the East as the ninth ecumenical council of the church. It was held to deal with the problem of the Hesychasts, a mystical sect of monks living on Mount Áthos. The council condemned the Greek monk Barlaam (c. 1290–c. 1350) as a heretic for his opposition to the sect. See also Heresy.

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