The book makes available to the Czech reader the theological sources on the beginnings of the Arian controversy before the Council of Nicaea (325), i.e. the texts of the "heresiarch" Arius of Alexandria, his opponent Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius' supporters, especially Bishops Eusebius of Nicomedia and Eusebius of Cæsarea. The Arian controversy, which concerned the definition of the relationship of the origin of the divine hypostases of the Father and the Son and the manner of expressing the full divinity of Christ, the Son of God, originated as a theological controversy within the Church in Alexandria, Egypt, but soon grew into a controversy that occupied many prominent figures in the universal Church, especially in the eastern regions of the Roman Empire, and eventually became an important impetus for the convening of the first general council in Nicaea. The book reveals not only the disunity in terminology and the considerable differences in views on this fundamental theological issue among the various leaders of the Church of the time, but also, against the background of the surviving sources, provides insight into the setting of priest-bishop relations in the diocese of Alexandria in the early fourth century and into the nature of the relationships between bishops in the Eastern Roman dioceses.
Czech edition