Talk:Arianism

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"Christological doctrine" vs "Heresy"[edit]

Arianism is widely regarded as a heresy, and is listed as such by Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/summary/Arianism#:~:text=Arianism%2C%20Christian%20heresy%20that%20declared,a%20creature%20with%20a%20beginning.

I would argue that the term "Christological doctrine" used on this page is not satisfactory; it does not indicate the fact that this doctrine is deemed heresy by the vast majority of Christians.

Perhaps a term combining both of these aspects of the doctrine would be more suitable, such as "Heretical Christological doctrine", or similar. 85.166.156.145 (talk) 11:15, 19 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Heresy is a recurring topic of this Wikipedia article on Arianism, so I agree that the first sentence should reflect this better. In the current version heresy is not mentioned before the third paragraph, an the wording "Christological doctrine" could make a casual reader expect Arianism to be a core belief for many Christians, which is clearly not the case when all mainstream branches of Christianity consider Arianism to be heresy. When prompting ChatGPT to summarize Arianism based on the first part of the Wikipedia article, the contrast to mainstream Christianity (https://chat.openai.com/share/cd974aac-f43c-431a-ae71-50d06f511a7b). It should also be noted that the Wikipedia article on Christianity do not bother to include nontrinitarians when graphically presenting the major branches of Christianity (https://www.qudswiki.org/?query=Christianity#Churches_and_denominations). 2001:700:302:10:0:0:0:24 (talk) 16:51, 20 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Arianism used to be a core belief for many Christians in the High Middle Ages. In particular, bishop Ulfilas, apostle to the Goths and author of the Gothic thanslation of the Bible, was of that tendency. Arianism was, however, fought against by Christians holding opposite beliefs, who pejoratively labeled it heresy in order better to destroy it, and the result is that with the passing of time it has all but disappeared. From a Catholic, Orthodox, or even (I think) Protestant point of view Arianism is still considered heresy, but let us not forget that any Christian system of belief not in agreement with the doctrines of Rome (including, to mention the two most controversial tenets, Mary's immaculate conception and the Pope's infallibility) is also held as heresy by the Roman church regardless of the number of its practitioners. IMHO labeling Arianism as heresy all the way from top to bottom of the article would be against WP:NPOV. — Tonymec (talk) 21:30, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I endorse "heresy", so long as we explain that heretics and not wrong by default, and the orthodox are not right by default. Besides, many Christian denominations call many other Christian denominations "heretics", so it's not like Wikipedia is taking sides. That is, for every Christian, it is quite normal that they are considered heretics by dozens of Christian denominations. tgeorgescu (talk) 07:53, 8 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can the summary be made clearer? This is seems cryptic. An example would be..[edit]

Arianism was a theological belief named after Arius, a Christian priest in the 4th century. At its core, Arianism challenged the traditional understanding of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ.

In Arianism, Jesus was seen as distinct from God the Father, and not of the same essence or substance as Him. Arius taught that Jesus, while divine, was a created being, the first and greatest of all God's creations. Therefore, according to this view, there was a time when Jesus did not exist, and he was not eternal in the same way as God the Father.

This perspective caused a significant controversy within the early Christian church because it challenged the orthodox understanding of the Trinity, which asserts that God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit are co-eternal and of the same substance or essence.

The First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD was convened largely to address the Arian controversy. At this council, the orthodox position, which affirmed the full divinity and eternal nature of Jesus Christ, was articulated in the Nicene Creed. This creed established the belief in the Trinity as an essential doctrine of Christianity and rejected Arianism as heretical.

Despite being condemned as heretical by the Council of Nicaea, Arianism continued to have followers for several centuries, and its theological debates shaped the early development of Christian doctrine and orthodoxy. Countdredd (talk) 08:18, 7 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are two elements which distinguish Arianism from vanilla Trinitarianism:
  1. Jesus either subordinate or equal to the Father;
  2. Jesus either of a similar substance with the Father or from the same substance; the word "substance" is itself tricky in Greek philosophy.
For the rest, they both agree that Jesus is God, albeit in different ways. tgeorgescu (talk) 09:49, 7 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]