Council of Nicaea 1700 years ago: ‘Images of God turned upside down’
Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics"
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Michael Seewald, Professor of Dogmatics and the History of Dogma at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Münster, and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’
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Organised by the Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Münster, an international conference will take place in Rome next week that focuses on the Council of Nicaea 1700 years ago and its significance today. ‘The first ecumenical council in history formulated a creed that is still fundamental for almost all churches today. It unites Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians’, says Michael Seewald, Professor of Dogmatics and the History of Dogma from Münster, who is organising the interdisciplinary conference with his colleague Philipp G. Renczes SJ from the Gregorian University. ‘From today’s perspective, the Council turned conventional images of God upside down: God himself became human in Jesus. That is the main message of the Nicene Creed. Figuratively speaking, God is not only at the very top, but also at the very bottom. As a crucified human, a failed existence – and precisely in his failure does he prove himself to be God. This basic idea from Nicaea left theology intellectually challenging questions’. Because the 1700-year-old Creed is still significant today, the conference will bring together new historical research on the Council as a political event, as well as new research from systematic theology on the dispute over the relationship between God and Jesus. The dispute divided the fledgling Christian church in the Roman empire, which is why Emperor Constantine convened the largest assembly of bishops to date in Nicaea, today Iznik in Turkey, in 325.
The two-part conference is entitled ‘The Confession of the Council of Nicaea: History and Theology’. Leading scholars on Nicaea from the fields of theology, philosophy, philology and history will speak in the first part, from 27 February to 1 March in Rome. The focus of the second part, from 15 to 17 October 2025 in Münster, will be on the question of what the Council means for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and Christianity and Islam. ‘Nicaea further separated Jews and Christians. And the idea that Jesus is God is unacceptable from an Islamic point of view. The two parts of the conference in Rome and Münster will contextualise the council as a political event of its time, but also reflect on the controversial matters that were discussed in Nicaea’, explains Seewald.
‘Restrengthening German-Italian theological exchange’
Commenting on the cooperation between the Gregorian University, which is run by the Society of Jesus, and the Faculty of Theology at the University of Münster, Seewald says: ‘It is gratifying that this tandem is reviving the exchange between German-speaking and Italian theology. The fact that the Pope has invited the conference participants to a personal meeting and discussion speaks to the importance that he attaches to the anniversary of the Council, but also to the conference with the high quality of its participants. We hope very much of course that the Pope will regain his health soon’. Seewald highlights the fact that both university institutions have a long tradition in the history of theology, while also dealing with contemporary issues of the Christian faith in different regional, linguistic and cultural contexts. ‘Both look beyond their own confessional and national borders’. The Gregorian is world-renowned for Catholic theology, while the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Münster is the largest theological faculty at a state university in the world.
‘What today’s church members actually believe is another matter’
The Council of Nicaea in 325 sought to establish a binding creed to settle the dispute that had escalated in the Roman empire over the relationship between God and Jesus, and to bring about unity. As Michael Seewald explains, the assembly finally decided that ‘Jesus Christ is of the same substance as God the Father, that is, in the full sense God – not just originating diffusely from the sphere of the divine’. Referred to as the ‘ecumenical’ council, it thus concerned ‘the entire inhabited world’. However, most of the participants were bishops from the Greek-speaking East. ‘Theologically, that is where the action was in the 4th century’.
As for the significance of the Council for people today, Seewald says: ‘The major Christian churches all recognise the Nicene Creed, with some later additions. What the members of these churches actually believe is another matter. Most believers today probably cannot be mapped onto the theological landscape of the 4th century’. While the conflicting groups at the time agreed that Jesus Christ ‘was not simply a human being’, many Christians today probably think that ‘Jesus was a remarkable man who was deified in perhaps an exaggerated way only retrospectively’. This only took hold in Christian theology in the 18th century. ‘By contrast, the theology of the ancient church cultivated a highly developed speculative Christology’. The Council could be of interest for non-Christians today for another reason: ‘The varied reception of Nicaea and the role of Emperor Constantine at the Council are a prime example of the interconnection between religion and politics, of the interweaving of religious claims to truth and political interests’.
Responsible for organising the multilingual, simultaneously interpreted conference at the University of Münster is the Chair of Dogmatics and the History of Dogma and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’. The two organisers will be speaking in the first part in Rome, alongside the philosopher Anna Marmodoro from Missouri, a world-renowned expert in ancient metaphysics, the philologist Young Richard Kim from Chicago, a specialist in Greek studies and editor of the Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea, and the Italian historian Emanuela Prinzivalli. (vvm/tec)
Poster of the conference 'The Confession of the Council of Nicaea: History and Theology' (IMAGE)
conference 'The Confession of the Council of Nicaea: History and Theology'
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Pontificia Università Gregoriana/ Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics'
Programme for the two-part international conference ‘The Confession of the Council of Nicaea: History and Theology’
Part I 27 February to 1 March 2025 in Rome, Part II 15 to 17 October 2025 in Münster
Registration: Journalists interested in attending are kindly requested to register at: religionundpolitik@uni-muenster.de
