A brief historical account of the Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed that Christians refer to today is formally known as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed to differentiate it from the original Nicene Creed. The former, composed at the Second Council of Nicea in 381 AD, was a reworking of the latter which was composed at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The goal of each Creed is to profess the essential Christian faith in the Holy Trinity, i.e., that each person of the Trinity is fully God. The impetus for writing the Creed was the controversy over the teachings of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, who affirmed that the Word was not coeternal with the Father. Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, held that the Word was indeed coeternal with the Father, and thus condemned the teachings of Arius. Both sides appealed to authorities outside of Alexandria for support of their respective doctrinal positions, and soon the whole of Eastern Christendom became enveloped in a controversy that threatened to tear it apart.

At this time, the Roman Emperor Constantine had recently solidified his control over both halves of the Empire. Not wishing to see his newly acquired kingdom divided over a theological issue, he eventually called together bishops from across the Empire to a great assembly to sort out their differences and come to agreement. The place where the council convened was the city of Nicea, and the council eventually came to be known as the First Ecumenical Council.

Although there were many issues in need of resolution at Nicea, the main issue at hand was the teachings of Arius. At the council were three camps: a small number of Arians, a small number of Alexandrians, and a large number of bishops who simply wanted to see the issue resolved. Since Arius himself was not a bishop, he was not able to attend the council, but his position was represented by Eusebius of Nicomedia. Alexander of Alexandria himself led the opposition to the Arians.

When Eusebius of Nicomedia presented the Arian case, the vast majority of the bishops present at the council who were previously undecided on the issue quickly condemned the teachings of Arius as denying the Lordship of the Son and thus the whole idea behind the Incarnation. The goal of the council quickly shifted from seeking compromise to condemning Arianism on no uncertain terms. Since it was difficult to do this on Scriptural terms alone, the bishops decided to formulate a creed that specifically excluded Arianism from the scope of Christian belief.

Later, at the Second Ecumenical Council, minor revisions were made to the Nicene Creed. The section about anathema was removed, replaced by the section about the Holy Spirit and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.