Was the council of Nicea, that was headed by Constantine, the worst thing to happen to the world?

Question

it seems to me that men of great stature at that time made some conglomerate religion and forced it upon the masses. And try to hide or destroy any knowledge of old.

Answer 1

different people have their own perspective on what is the worst thing that ever happen to the world. For the event you are talking about, it has always reoccured in the course of history. The Egyptians has done it, and so did other ethnicities.

Answer 2

Hello,

Perhaps not. It depends in what part of the world and what culture you come from. There have always been great political or social upheavels on all parts of the world, even where Christianity, Catholicism (thanks to Constantine) and Islam made no in roads.

That said, many speculate that AIDS, still being played out and not climaxed yet is and shall be the worst thing to happen to the world. Check the reasons below.

Just for speculation, I suppose a big meteor collision in the future would certainly eclipse everything. For the dinosaurs who may have evolved into higher intelligent beings, the mass extinction probably by a meteor was the worst thing that happened to the world if you leave out the human element.

Michael

Answer 3

One could certainly argue that the Nicean Creed was a great work or a horrible occurrence.

In one sense, the Creed encapsulates primitive Christianity for all to see. It freezes in time the Christian faith at its most vital.

Where things went horribly wrong was when Constantine co-opted Christianity as a means to revitalize the Roman Empire. Paganism had pretty much died as a driving force for the Empire, so something else had to replace it. The Christians, so glad to finally avoid persecutions, were overjoyed to have their second-class citizen status removed.

In other words, the Council and the Creed that came out of it were pretty good things. It was the aftermath that sent everything wrong.

Answer 4

How Nice the World would Have been without the Nicean Council - - - quite agree with one other answerer - - - leave the Pagans and other Religions Alone.... Nicea was a 'declaration of war,' US versus them // anyone who does not agree that these texts are the Sacred Word of God shuld be hunted down and destroyed ESPECIALLY those claiming to be Christians.

Here is a modern side note for you. Why were a lot of people initially indifferent to Darfur? Because the persecuted people were dark black and practice a more primitive Animistic form of Christianity. Even the Evangelical Christians prefer a Moslem who worships Allah over a people 'worshiping' a tree or a stream or a place.

Enough blathering - - - if only someone had slipped Constantive a few jabs of Opium and turned him on to Thomas Wolfe novels or John Irving tales...

Pax--------------

Answer 5

There are many regrettable and even evil things people have done in the name of Christ and the church. But the Council of Nicaea has little if anything to do with them.

The negative views some have of this event are largely based on major historical mistakes about what was actually HAPPENING there.

So, let's try to correct a few things folks typically charge (some already mentioned, some not). #2 deals with the point you mention

1) Constantine did NOT "run the show" for the Council -- he asked the church to call it in order to resolve a problem, and let THEM resolve it

2) The Council had NOTHING to do with coming up with something to force on the pagans (an amalgamated religion or whatever). It was specifically a CHURCH council, to try to help different parts of the church itself resolve/come to agreement on one or two major issues that were dividing them.

3) The Council did NOT "remove books from the Bible". In fact, it did not even DISCUSS this issue of "canon"! (contra Dan Brown.)

But in fact by 325 there was very widespread agreement about which books were biblical anyway. IIn fact, the so-called "gnostic gospels" had NEVER had widespread acceptance.

(By the way, if you knew what typical Gnostic teaching was like you'd probably not like it very much! It involved a 'spiritual elite' that had special knowledge normal people supposedly could not have, and held a view the the body and the whole PHYSICAL world as evil... that's why they ended up not believing in either the resurrection or the incarnation).

4) It did NOT "invent" the idea of the deity of Christ (which WAS discussed and was THE central issue) and foist in on a bunch of Christians who had not believed it. In fact, the church had long agreed that Christ was/is divine. The issue was how best to UNDERSTAND the nature of his deity, esp. his relationship to God the Father. (again contra Brown's explanation)

The other main item, by the way, was the debate about WHEN to celebrate the Resurrection - at the time of the Jewish Passover or as a separate feast always to be held on a Sunday. (This is sometimes called the "Quartodeciman [=14th] Controversy", because the Jewish Passover is on the 14th of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar.) The latter was the majority practice and was adopted.

5) There was no "close vote" whether on the canon (not even discussed!) or other key items. The statement they came up with ("Nicaean Creed") to confess their understanding of the faith, esp. the nature of Jesus Christ, was subscribed to by all but a tiny handful of about 300 delegates.

And, note, NO ONE was punished, much less executed at/after the Council!

I have some concerns about OTHER things Constantine did with regards to "institutionalizing" the Church -- but not about this Council (IN which he didn't play much of a role anyway), or about their Christian TEACHING (which is what they were mainly concerned with, and something Constantine did not meddle with) . Indeed, having church leaders come together to resolve differences and understand each other.... and come up with the best unified statement they can about what they believe... how could THAT be a bad thing? On the contrary, I think it was very good. (And that's as a Protestant! We still believe that stuff.)

Answer 6

I wouldn't say it was the worst thing to happen to the world, but I think you are right about forcing a particular dogma upon others. Weren't the dissenting bishops at Nicea murdered?
And it seems odd that we know so little about religious and cultural traditions of so many people before they were converted to Christianity. We also don't know a lot about early Christians, especially those later accused of heresy.