a tendency in Christianity during the fourth to sixth centuries.
Arianism arose during the late Roman Empire and received its name from its founder, the Alexandrian priest Arius (Greek Áreios; died 336). The Arians did not accept the fundamental dogma of the official Christian Church according to which god the son is consubstantial with god the father. The zealous defenders of this dogma were Alexander, the archbishop of Alexandria, and his successor Athanasius. According to the doctrine of Arius, the divine logos (Christ) was created by god and consequently is not consubstantial with him—that is, in comparison with god the father he is a being of a lower order. Arius was evidently connected with the city and with the city-state intelligentsia and artisans. The attempts of Arius to rationally interpret the nature of divinity contradicted the tendencies of the official Christian Church, which was striving to strengthen the mystical elements in Christian dogma. Arianism, which was destroying the monolithic form of church doctrine, became dangerous for the empire under the conditions in which the Christian Church was being transformed into a predominant institution. These religious and philosophical disputes threatened to turn into political ones. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Arianism was condemned as a heresy. Soon, however, the emperor Constantine (died 337) came to the support of the Arians, and Arianism was officially acknowledged. With the spread of Arianism from the middle of the fourth century among the Germanic tribes (primarily among the Goths), conflicts with the Arians began to find expression in discord between the native population of the empire and the Goths, from among whom troops in the emperor’s service were formed. Arianism was again condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381; after this it survived only among the barbarian states of Western Europe and North Africa.
A. P. KAZHDAN