Arianism was the focus of the first Church council, the
Council of Nicea . Its founder was Arius, who had developed an explanation for the Christian godhead. He did not believe in the
Trinity , but instead held that God the
Father was the only god and that
Jesus and the
Holy Spirit were created. Jesus was seen as the Prince of Angels who had come to earth and made himself into a human. (For the purposes of this course, we will ignore the issue of the Holy Spirit.) This explanation allowed Arius to maintain two important Christian ideas, namely, the oneness of God (monotheism) and the idea that Jesus was a historical figure who actually did the things he appeared to do--such as die (how can a god die?). The problem with it was that Arius' explanation also made Jesus into a created being, a "creature," rather than part of God.
