The
following is from Blasphemy: Verbal
Offense against the Sacred from Moses to Salman Rushdie by Leonard W. Levy,
page 32:
Until at least 325 CE, when the Council
of Nicaea formulated the first creed (at least for the Eastern division of the
Roman Empire), there were Christian churches but not a Christian church, not
one that was catholic, or universal. Nor did Nicaea settle anything.
The dissident parties, who were
condemned as blasphemers and heretics by the emperor and council, soon became
dominant, won the support of the state, and controlled most of the churches.
That reversed the definition of orthodoxy until another emperor made possible a
reaffirmation of the Nicene Creed at the Council of Constantinople in the year
381.
The Trinitarian victory was not secure
until confirmed by the council of Chalcedon in 451. Not until the fifth century
did the Roman Catholic Church have the power to enforce its theology as
orthodoxy.
The
Council
of Nicaea in 325 laid the memetic foundation upon which modern
Christianity is built. Memes from the Nicene Creed are found in Belief
Statements of churches and Belief Systems of Christians around
the world today. It is also the place where the Power of the Emperor of the Roman
Emperor and the Authority of the Roman Pope found
common ground. The history of that relationship should be a good reminder of
the importance of the separation of church and state.
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