Nicaea 2025: From the New Testament to Nicaea

As we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, we face the old questions: did the Creeds get it right? Is the ‘Trinity’ really found in the New Testament? Is the Bible simply random raw material from which the ‘real thing’ – Christian dogma – can be mined? Why, despite the four gospels, do the Creeds skip over everything between Jesus’ birth and his crucifixion – particularly his launching of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven? Does it matter that the New Testament was written by a small group, often under threat from the authorities, while the Creeds were written with imperial encouragement? These questions, and the striking answers which can be given to them, possess urgent contemporary relevance as well as historic significance.