Nicaea and the Future of Christianity
Nicaea and the Future of Christianity
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Hardback
£64.00
Publisher: Fordham University Press
ISBN: 9781531510169
Number of Pages: 400
Published: 31/07/2025
Width: 17.8 cm
Height: 25.4 cm
Commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, this volume offers an original examination of the enduring impact of the single most famous gathering of Christians since the apostolic age
Despite the longstanding historical and theological study of the Council of Nicaea, several central questions remain. Was Nicaea a theological event or a political one? What does it mean if it was both? Was Constantine's intervention without precedent, or was he simply continuing a long-standing role of a Roman emperor who was responsible for leading a religious cult (albeit now for a different faith tradition)? And what about the actual theological debates of Nicaea and our ability to understand them? Scholars might never exhaust this avenue of inquiry, despite the numerous studies in recent decades.
For many scholars and Christian activists today, the significance of Nicaea centers around the idea of conciliarity and what this has meant, both historically and theologically, for the Christian community. Why and how did Nicaea become foundational for thinking that the church operates in a conciliar manner? How did that work historically in different parts of the Christian world? And how should it work today?
Nicaea and the Future of Christianity offers a fresh, globally-diverse, ecumenically-minded approach to these questions with an impressive collection of both senior and junior scholars, reflecting a diversity of views within the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions. The great benefit of this wide-ranging approach lies precisely in its ability to see the many ways in which Nicaea continues to speak to the future of Christianity.
Introduction
George Demacopoulos and Aristotle Papanikolaou 1
PART I: NICAEAN THEOLOGIES
Under the Shadow of the Samosatene: From Antioch 268 to Nicaea 325 and Beyond 9
John Behr
Christophanic Exegesis in Defense of the Nicaean Faith: Patristic Authors and Scholars of Patristics 22
Bogdan G. Bucur
Nicaea in the Dogmatic Order of Late Antiquity 42
Emanuel Fiano
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, and the Paradox of Nicaea 52
Francesca Aran Murphy
The Theologian, the Historian, and the Holy Spirit: Reflections Around Nicaea 67
Karen Kilby
God with Us: A Contemporary Sophiological Christology 75
Brandon Gallaher
PART II: HISTORICAL MEMORY
The First Council of Nicaea: Golden Standard or Squandered Opportunity? 97
John Chryssavgis
Preaching Nicaea in Verse: The Legacy of the Council in the Writings of Jacob of Serugh 117
Erin Walsh
Civic Religion in the Long Roman Empire 137
Leonora Neville
Nicaea’s Digital Afterlives 155
Caroline T. Schroeder
PART III: CONCILIARITY
The Council of Jerusalem and the Council of Nicaea 177
Leslie Baynes
Nature, Will, and Grace: The Council of Nicaea and the Ontological Presuppositions of Conciliarity 191
Demetrios Bathrellos
Conciliarity Beyond the Greco-Roman Empire:
Thomas Christian Yogams and Lay Participation in Ecclesial Decision Making 208
Jaisy A. Joseph
Nicaea, Negative Theology, Democracy 225
Vincent Lloyd
PART IV: ECUMENICAL IMPLICATIONS
A Symbol of the Whole: The Nicene Creed and Dogmatic Minimalism 239
Alexis Torrance
Nicaea, Pelikan, and the Legitimacy of Doctrinal Development in Orthodoxy 250
A. Edward Siecienski
Newman, Nicaea, and the Prerogatives of the Past 260
Cyril O’Regan
Nicaea and the Legacy of Truth: Bounded Virtue and Ascetical Spirituality 281
Stephen M. Meawad
PART V: THE FUTURE OF NICAEA
Re-Reception of the Faith of Nicaea Then and Now:
Reflections on the Role of Reinterpretation of Theology Through Conciliarity 293
Maxim Vasiljevic
The Future of Nicaea 305
Christophe Chalamet
Nicaea as a Task for the Future 315
Kathryn Tanner
List of Contributors 329
