podcast 172 – The Creed of the Long Lines (344)

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In 344 a meeting of Eastern bishops assembled at Antioch, and they decided to send a delegation to the west with a statement explaining their theology. What they sent was a rerun of a creed from 342, but with additions from 343, and their own lengthy explanations added to the end. These are most revealing. This creed is call “the Macrostich” or the Long-lined Creed or the Creed of the Long Lines. In this episode we find out why these bishops say that:

• Christ is “God” but not “true God”
• the Son is generated by God’s choice or will, “apart from time”
• that Father, Son, and Spirit are a triad of three realities
• the Son to be (ontologically and functionally) subordinate to the Father
• it is OK to describe the Son as (uniquely) “created“
• that the Father and the Son are not two gods

Avoiding as much controversial, non-biblical language as they thought they could, they hoped this creed would be acceptable all around, even to partisans of the 325 creed at Nicea. In this episode, you’ll hear a detailed analysis of their theology, and you’ll find out whether their hopes for unity were realized or dashed.[spp-tweet tweet=”A non-Arian statement of subordinationist theology, c. 344?”]

Links for this episode:

• podcast 115 – the aborted council at Serdica in 343
• podcast 114 – the recycled creed (342-359)
• podcast 113 – the council at Antioch in 341
• podcast 73 – Is Proverbs 8 about Jesus? Part 3
• podcast 72 – Is Proverbs 8 about Jesus? Part 2
• podcast 71 – Is Proverbs 8 about Jesus? Part 1
• podcast 11 – Tertullian the unitarian
• Athanasius, De Synodis
• R.P.C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God
•  Proverbs 8; John 1; Philippians 2; John 20:28; John 17:1-3; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6; Acts 2:36.
• This week’s thinking music is “A Perceptible Shift” by Andy G. Cohen.