Eusebius of Caesarea’s Christology and The Nicene Confession

Abstract

This work explores Eusebius of Caesarea’s Christological teaching, situating him in the complex web of interlocking religious and political issues that characterized the fourth-century Trinitarian discourse. It argues that the traditional groupings of bishops into different ecclesiastical alliances around this period did not entail that the personalities grouped therein necessarily held the same doctrinal confession. Such is demonstrated in the case of Eusebius of Caesarea who allied himself with the assembly of the Eusebian bishops—the group that sustained the claim of Arius leading to the 325 Council of Nicea and persecuted the defenders of the Nicene theology, most notably Athanasius, the years following the great council. It expostulates that, notwithstanding his association with the Eusebian party, the theology of the bishop of Caesarea, as specified in his works, both pre- and post-Nicene, is consistent with the view that the Son is fully divine, thus is reconcilable with the theology of Nicea.