The Arian Heresy can be a difficult thing to understand if you haven’t been raised reciting the Nicene Creed, or in a Christian-based religion. Among other things it demonstrates the long battles, discourse or wrangling that has surrounded the attempt to discern the nature of Christ. The debate, and expression of the Arian Heresy came to a head during the Council of Nicea in the 4th century.

Founders of the early Christian church, with the aid of Constantine, who was at the time not a practicing Christian, thought it essential that the nature of God, and the belief in God be clarified. Most important was identifying and defining the Holy Trinity. While many believed that Jesus was son of God and shared his essence, a concept called homoousion, some felt that giving Jesus equal standing with God was not monotheistic.

Principal among these demurrers were Arius and Eusubius. Arius, whose followers were called Arians, felt that God created Christ, not of his own matter. This meant, in his opinion, that Christ was not God and was not divine. Worshipping Christ would be tantamount to worshipping another God, and this specifically went against God’s teaching that he alone should be worshipped.

Arius’ teachings were called the Arian Heresy, because most of the members of the Council of Nicea wanted to specifically promote the divinity of Christ and the concept of Jesus. Since Arius refused to back down, he was labeled a heretic, and his work became the Arian Heresy, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Diminishing Christ’s divinity was thought an evil, and Arius’ promotion of the Arian Heresy quickly resulted in his exile.

Yet, the exile did not completely cement doctrine of the Roman Church and end the debate. The Council of Nicea did adopt the Nicene Creed, a statement of beliefs that expressly supports the idea of homoousion, that Christ is “one in being with the Father,” and “begotten not made.” Still some small sects of Christianity continued to support the Arian Heresy, and would later become the non-Trinitarians.

It is interesting that Muhammad’s argument against Christ’s divinity follows the same lines as the Arian Heresy. Jesus, in Islam, is a very important prophet, but he is not divine. Prayers are to the one God alone and not to the trinity. Islam refutes that Christ is the son of God or of his essence. He should therefore not be prayed to, although his teachings are extremely important.

Today the Arian Heresy is considered only heretical by Trinitarians. There are many churches that refute the divinity of Christ and do not believe in the combined Trinity. The term heresy has come to have much less weight in mainstream Catholic thought. Considerable effort by Catholics, and by other Trinitarian faiths has been made to be more accepting of the different schools of thought and world religions that exist. It would therefore be uncommon for a Catholic to tell a Unitarian he was heretical. This was not always the case.

At the height of Catholic dominance and power, being considered a heretic could result in excommunication, torture and execution. Yet as religions see the necessity of living in brotherhood with other religions, any difference in beliefs like the Arian Heresy can be argued about, but also tend to be ignored so that all can benefit from a fraternal sense of caring deeply about God, even when such caring expresses itself in different ways, means and theories.