Course · 6 lectures · 229 min
Creeds and Councils of the Early Church
Six lectures on the seven ecumenical councils and the creeds that emerged from them — Nicaea to Nicaea II.
Taught by Ashby Neterer
First Council of Nicaea, Michael Damaskinos, 1591 — Collection of Ecclesiastical Art, Heraklion
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Between the fourth and eighth centuries the Christian church gathered seven times to settle the deepest questions about who God is and who Christ is. This course tells that story.
You will meet Athanasius and Arius arguing about the eternity of the Son; the Cappadocian Fathers refining the language of the Trinity; Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius locking horns over the person of Christ; and the long afterlife of these debates in the Latin West and the Greek East.
The course assumes no prior theological training. We move slowly, define every term, and read short passages from the councils' own texts.
Ashby Neterer is Tutor of Theology at Oriel College, Oxford, where he is completing his DPhil under Mark Edwards. His research examines how the Greek Christian poem Christus Patiens uses classical mythology to contrast Christian and Greek theology. He teaches Greek mythology, Church history, and music theory.