The Authority of the Council of Nicaea according to Athanasius of Alexandria
The Authority of the Council of Nicaea according to Athanasius of Alexandria

Summary/Abstract: In the middle of the fourth century, and despite its condemnation by the Council of Nicaea (325), Arianism was spreading throughout the empire, to lay people, clerics and even emperors. To counteract this, probably around the year 350 and between his second and third exile, Athanasius writes his De Decretis in which he defends the council of Nicaea against the Arian accusation that the assembled Fathers used unscriptural phrases. In this treatise, we witness the reason and the argumentation of the council through Athanasius’ writing. At the same time we gradually realize the authority he implicitly builds for the council. For him, this authority is almost equal to that of the Scripture and the Church. The council defines the orthodoxy and whoever abides by its decrees is considered a Christian, while whoever rejects it is a heretic and therefore should be expelled from the Church. But for a council to have this authority, specific conditions should be met, such as the faithfulness to the Scriptures and the former Patristic tradition, the ecumenicity of the council and the agreement reached by all the assembled Fathers. Only then can the council be considered as representative and expressive of the holy Catholic Church and only then it can define the true doctrine and condemn the heresy. When examining how Athanasius argues for the authority of the council of Nicaea, we are actually witnessing the building up of the authority of the first of the Ecumenical Councils that would follow.

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