1700 years after the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325-2025)

THE CONFESSION
OF THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
History and Theology - Part 2

Aula Magna, University of Münster Castle
Thursday 27 February - Saturday 1 March 2025
 

The year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the celebration in Nicaea of the first ecumenical council in history. Convened by the Emperor Constantine to settle disputes in the Christian Church that had finally gained official recognition, the Council of Nicaea was a pivotal event in history, politics and theology. "Even today this Council is an invitation to all Churches and Ecclesial Communities to move forward on the path towards visible unity," recalls Fr. Mark Lewis S.J., Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

It is to commemorate this anniversary that the Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Münster, through the Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics', have organized an international conference entitled The Confession of the Council of Nicaea: History and Theology. The aim of the conference is to promote dialogue between the historical research on the Council and the theological-systematic questions concerning the current meaning of the Nicene Creed. The conference was therefore divided into two parts. The first part, held in Rome from February 27 to March 1, 2025, featured eminent Nicaean scholars from the fields of theology, philosophy, philology, and history. The second part of the conference will be held in Münster from October 15 to 17, 2025, and will focus on the significance of the Council for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and between Christianity and Islam.

• The program of the second part of the conference (Münster)
• The poster for the second part of the conference (Münster)

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The words of the organisers

"The first ecumenical council in history formulated a creed that is still fundamental for almost all churches today. It unites Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians," says Michael Seewald, Professor of Dogmatics and History of Dogma at the University of Münster. "From today's perspective, the Council of Nicaea turned conventional images of God upside down: God himself became man in Jesus. This is the main message of the Nicene Creed. Figuratively speaking, God is not only at the top, but also at the bottom, as a crucified man, a failed existence - and precisely in his failure he proves to be God. This fundamental idea of Nicaea has left theology with intellectually challenging questions'.

"What makes the difference between before and after Nicaea is what has remained since: the truth of the faith has been brought into a common form," adds Jesuit Philipp G. Renczes, Professor of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. "With Nicea, the personal confession 'I believe' is coagulated and sustained in content and form in the common confession 'We believe'. Just as the faith of the individual is a gift of God's grace that escapes the origin of the believer's will, so the profession of faith in the community is experienced not as the result of rational deduction, but as an 'inspiration'... the Church did not invent the Creed, it found it already made, it was also given to the Church as a whole. It was given not only to individuals, but to the whole Church".