Roma Imparatorlugunída Kilise Konsillerinin SiyasallasmasË: Iznik ornegi*

Abstract

The Christian opinions regarding the nature of the early church councils differed whether they were an instrument of the Christian propaganda or they were the platforms for political conflicts. This paper, having taken the council of Nicaea as a case study, seeks to redress the balance between these two entirely different perceptions. The approach here is an attempt to understand the degree of the politicization of a church meeting from the aspects of convocation, the way the Church Fathers handled the business, the imperial attitudes and expectations. I have four main concerns here; the reasons behind the re-location of council from Ankyra to Nikaia, the contribution of the imperial bureau to politicization and controversies on the creeds and canons. My answers to the above problems are mainly these. The change of the site of the council was completely a political enterprise of Eusebius of Nicomedia, as he discerned the disaster the Arians would have come across. The imperial authority did not directly get involved the religious controversies, the emperor only wanted to unite the church. The early church fathers tried every method to produce a text which would test or excommunicate their rivals. However the church councils were not that bad at all, as they were also concerned the moral and religious problems of their congregations and it was through the church councils that the identity of catholic or orthodox emerged out of shadow.The Fourth-Century Church Politics, the Council of Nicaea, the Arian Controversy.