Nicaea and the Future of Christianity

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.

George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is also a Co-founding Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He serves as a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and as President of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. He is the author of five monographs and dozens of scholarly articles of the history of Christianity in the premodern period.Papanikolaou Aristotle :

Aristotle Papanikolaou is professor of theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and a Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scholarly articles on Orthodox theology, as well as co-editor of ten volumes.Demacopoulos George E. :

George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is also a Co-founding Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He serves as a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and as President of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. He is the author of five monographs and dozens of scholarly articles of the history of Christianity in the premodern period.Papanikolaou Aristotle :

Aristotle Papanikolaou is professor of theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and a Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scholarly articles on Orthodox theology, as well as co-editor of ten volumes.Behr John :

John Behr is the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen, previously having been at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, New York, where he also served as dean. His recent publications include an edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles and a study of the Gospel of John.Gallaher Brandon :

Brandon Gallaher is senior lecturer of systematic and comparative theology at the University of Exeter. He is also a deacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and served at the Eastern Orthodox Holy and Great Council as a Theological Subject Expert in the Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office (Crete, 2016).Chryssavgis John :

The Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis is Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Throne and a clergyman of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, where he serves as theological advisor in the office of Inter Orthodox and ecumenical relations. He is also theological advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on environmental affairs. He studied in Athens and Oxford, as well as taught in Sydney and Boston. The author of numerous books and articles on Orthodox theology, spirituality, and ecology, he has edited three volumes containing the selected writings of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Fordham University Press, 2010–12) and co-edited the signature anthology on Orthodoxy and the environment, Toward an Ecology of Transfiguration: Orthodox Christian Perspectives on Environment, Nature, and Creation (Fordham). He lives in Harpswell, Maine.Schroeder Caroline :

Caroline T. Schroeder is Professor of Religious Studies at The University of the Pacific. She is the author of Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), co-editor of Melania: Early Christianity through the Life of One Family (University of California Press, 2016), and co- director of Coptic SCRIPTORIUM, an interdisciplinary platform for digital and computational research in Coptic literature and language.Lloyd Vincent W. :

Vincent Lloyd is associate professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University. He is the author of The Problem with Grace: Reconfiguring Political Theology (Stanford University Press, 2011), Black Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 2016), Religion of the Field Negro: On Black Secularism and Black Theology (Fordham fUniversity Press, 2017), and In Defense of Charisma (Columbia University Press, 2018).George E. Demacopoulos (Edited By)
George E. Demacopoulos is Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is also a Co-founding Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He serves as a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and as President of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. He is the author of five monographs and dozens of scholarly articles of the history of Christianity in the premodern period.

Aristotle Papanikolaou (Edited By)
Aristotle Papanikolaou is professor of theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and a Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scholarly articles on Orthodox theology, as well as co-editor of ten volumes.

This volume is a must read. The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 is fundamental for the history of Christianity and the church, yet almost everything around it is controversial, including the so-called Nicene Creed, the proceedings of the Council and the part played by the Emperor Constantine. In the 1700th year after 325 a variety of leading scholars offer important new assessments of Nicaea’s significance today and for the future.---Dame Averil Cameron, author of Transitions: A Historian's Memoir

An illuminating work that from a number of different perspectives stimulates readers of all levels to follow up exciting new lines of thought, Nicaea and the Future of Christianity is a landmark publication. It will no longer be possible to view councils simply as institutions for closing debates and producing definitions. The way in which councils from Nicaea onwards need constantly to be re-received is here brilliantly expounded by a star cast of authors.---Norman Russell, Honorary Research Fellow, St Stephen's House, University of Oxford

If you wish to understand the contemporary significance of Nicaea, this is one of the top three books you need to read. You will find a wealth of insight on such issues as the development of doctrine, the authority of the creeds, and the importance of the synodal process for decision-making. Highly recommended!---Paul Gavrilyuk, Founding President of the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA)

In this timely volume, the editors have assembled a stellar cast of scholars from a range of perspectives and ecclesial commitments. Adopting historical, systematic, and cultural approaches to the first ecumenical council of 325, the authors explore not only the theology of Nicaea, but its ongoing reception and its meaning for the church in our world. The learned chapters challenge standard assumptions about the history and legacy of the council in hopes of providing a new vision of God’s action in the decrees, disputes, and dialogue that inform so much of Christian thought.---Brian Dunkle, Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry

The Council of Nicaea is a grain of mustard seed from Jesus's parable. It started as a modest gathering to address a local theological issue that emerged in northeastern Africa and it grew to one of the most comprehensive frames for global Christianity. The volume explores this plant from its roots up to the crown, as well as the phases of its growth.---Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles