On Behalf of the Societas Oecumenica ed. by Heta Hurskainen and Johannes Oeldemann: Receiving the First Council of Nicaea Today (Leseprobe)

Beihefte
zur Ökumenischen Rundschau 147
Heta Hurskainen | Johannes Oeldemann (Eds.)
Receiving the First
Council of Nicaea Today
Ecumenical Learning from Synodal Discernment
in the Early Church
Proceedings of the 22nd Academic Consultation
of the Societas Oecumenica

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Heta Hurskainen & Johannes Oeldemann
Nicaea in the Ecumenical Discourse: The Significance of Councils
and Creeds for Common Christian Witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Johannes Oeldemann
EXPLORING NICAEA:
RECENT PATRISTIC RESEARCH ON THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
The Formation of Neo-Nicenism: How the Nicene Creed Changed
from a Problem to the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Peter Gemeinhardt
Wrestling with the Legacy of Nicaea: Contemporary Reflections
on Historical Reception Processes of the First Ecumenical Council . . . 63
Angela Berlis
Is there a Connection between the Nicene Creed, Eusebius
and Anti-Judaism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Margriet Gosker
Morality in the Thinking of a Nicene Father, St Anthony the Great. . . 92
Mihai Iordache
Praying the Nicene Way: Did the Council Fathers Pray During
the Council at Nicaea?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Aleksei Volchkov
5

APPEALING TO NICAEA: HERMENEUTICAL REFLECTIONS
Hermeneutical Reflections – A Lutheran Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Jennifer Wasmuth
The Inspiration of Nicaea: Ecclesial Communion as an Experience
of Koinonia on the Way to full Unity – Response to
Jennifer Wasmuth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Andrés Valencia Pérez
Hermeneutical Reflections from a Baptist Perspective –
Response to Jennifer Wasmuth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Uwe Swarat
Παντοκράτωρ and universale concretum: The Iconicity of Christ
under Pluralist and Poststructuralist Circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Lukas Metz
Retrieving Hope in Another Land: The Council of Nicaea and
its Reception in Liberation Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Tim Noble
Believing in the Church as a Resource for Ecumenical
Rapprochement: A Prefigurative Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Peter-Ben Smit
RETRIEVING NICAEA:
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NICENE CREED IN THE LIFE
OF THE CHURCHES
The Significance of the Nicene Creed in the Life of the
Churches: A Roman Catholic Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Przemysław Kantyka
Anglicanism and the Nicene Creed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Jeremy Morris
The Significance of the Nicene Creed in the Life of the
Lutheran Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Miriam Haar
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The Significance of the Nicene Creed in the Life of the
Armenian Apostolic Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Harutyun G. Harutyunyan
The Significance of the Nicene Creed in the Life of the
Baptist Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Joshua T. Searle
The Significance of the Nicene Creed in the Theological
Perspective and the Life of Pentecostal Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Wojciech Gajewski
The Nicene Creed as Common and Trustworthy:
Theological and Critical Anthropological Readings
in a Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Ivana Noble
Anglicans and the ‘Nicene Faith’: Which Meaning for Nicaea’s
Creed in the Ecumenical Work of the Anglican Churches Today? . . . 301
Natacha Tinteroff
RESOURCING NICAEA: THE CANONICAL LEGACY OF THE COUNCIL
Canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea and Orthodox-Catholic Unity . . . . 325
Dimitrios Keramidas
Not Two Bishops in One City? A Reformed Response to Dimitrios
Keramidas’ Paper about Canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea. . . . . . . . 351
Leon van den Broeke
Celebrating Easter Together? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Dagmar Heller
One Easter – but with whom? A Finnish Orthodox Perspective. . . . 381
Maria Takala-Roszczenko
7

INHERITING NICAEA:
THE CHARISM OF SYNODAL DISCERNMENT AND
ECUMENICAL REFLECTIONS
The Ideal of Synodality in the Early Church and its Realization. . . . . 399
Andrzej Kuzma
Structures and Processes of Synodality Today. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Sr Nathalie Becquart
The Roman Catholic Synod on Synodality and the Way to the
Habit of Discernment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Petr Jandejsek
Discerning Ecumenical Challenges in the Light of the Synodal
Process of the Roman Catholic Church: A Czech Perspective. . . . . . 441
Robert Svatoň
The Groupe des Dombes and its Recent Book on the Catholicity
of the Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Nicolas Cochand
From Nicene Faith to Christian Love: The Contribution of
Dumitru Staniloae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Jonas Eklund
Nicaea – Moscow – Vatican: Through Conciliar Movement
to Christian Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Denis Melkov
Biographical Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
8

Introduction
Heta Hurskainen & Johannes Oeldemann
Members and friends of the Societas Oecumenica, the European Society
for Ecumenical Research, convened at the Missionary Animation Center
of the Pallottine Order in Konstancin-Jeziorna, near Warsaw, in September
2024 to reflect on the ecumenical significance of the Council of Nicaea.
“Receiving the First Council of Nicaea Today: Ecumenical Learning from
Synodal Discernment in the Early Church” was the topic of the 22 nd Academic
Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica. Its goal was to provide a
platform to discuss the significance of the 1700 th anniversary of the Council
of Nicaea within academia and among church representatives. The consultation
offered an opportunity to share reflections on what can be learned
from the Nicaean tradition and its multiple receptions and interpretations.
After outlining the conference program in the first part of this introduction,
the second part introduces the papers that are included in this
volume. This division is due to the fact that not all speakers in the main
program of the conference were for various reasons able to make their
contributions available for publication in this volume, but we have included
in the proceedings some of the excellent papers that were not presented
in plenary but in smaller workshop sessions.
The Conference in Warsaw
The 22 nd Academic Consultation was opened by the president of the Societas
Oecumenica, Johannes Oeldemann (Director of the Johann-Adam-
Moehler Institute for Ecumenism in Paderborn, Germany). In his lecture,
entitled Nicaea in the Ecumenical Discourse: The Significance of Councils
and Creeds for Common Christian Witness, he introduced the central
theme of the consultation and the various sub-themes of the consultation.
9

The next day, the first plenary session of the consultation focused on
Exploring Nicaea: Recent Patristic Research on the Council of Nicaea.
Harri Huovinen (University of Eastern Finland) highlighted the way to
Nicaea, while Peter Gemeinhardt (University of Göttingen) focused on the
development after the Council and the formation of what is called ‘Neo-
Nicenism’. Andrej Jeftić (Director of the Commission on Faith and Order,
Geneva) spoke about the imperial context of the Council and its ecumenical
implications, whereas Angela Berlis (University of Bern) pointed out
that it was the emperor and his successors who played an eminent role in
the reception of the decisions of the Council.
In the afternoon of September 6, the second plenary session, entitled
Appealing to Nicaea: Hermeneutical Reflections, offered various hermeneutical
approaches to the decisions of the Council of Nicaea. Jennifer Wasmuth
(University of Göttingen) traced important stages in the history of the reception
of the Council in the Lutheran tradition and clarified the motives
that have led to the Council of Nicaea still being valid in the Lutheran
tradition today. Two responses to the main lecture were given by Andrés
Valencia Pérez (Theological Faculty in Valencia, Spain) from a Roman
Catholic point of view, and by Uwe Swarat (Theological Seminary in Elstal,
Germany) from a Baptist perspective.
The evening program on September 6 included an ecumenical encounter
with the Polish Ecumenical Council and the Roman Catholic archbishop
of Warsaw at the consultation venue. The participants listened to
the greetings of the representatives of the Polish Ecumenical Council and
the Roman Catholic archbishop. In addition, Piotr Kopiec (Catholic University
of Lublin) gave a presentation on Ecumenism in Contemporary
Poland: A Structured Overview of Ecumenical and Interdenominational
Relationships to make the local ecumenical landscape known.
On Saturday, September 7, the third plenary session of the consultation,
entitled Retrieving Nicaea: The Significance of the Nicene Creed in
the Life of the Churches, offered space for six different approaches to discuss
the role of the Nicene Creed in various Christian denominations.
Przemysław Kantyka (Roman Catholic), Jeremy Morris (Anglican), Miriam
Haar (Lutheran), Harutyun Harutyunyan (Oriental Orthodox), Joshua Searle
(Baptist), and Wojciech Gajewski (Pentecostal) outlined the role of the
Nicene Creed in their respective denominations and emphasised its ecumenical
significance as a central statement of Christian belief.
When preparing the program of the conference, the members of the
Standing Committee of the Societas Oecumenica were aware that the consultation
was taking place at a time when people are dying every day in
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Poland’s neighbouring country because of an ideologically-motivated war
against Ukraine. In Israel and Palestine, people are suffering from the consequences
of the war triggered by the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7,
2023. And in Armenia, people are suffering from the impact of the
expulsion of the Armenian population from Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
We felt that we could not hold a purely academic consultation, but that we
also needed to address these challenges. Therefore, we are very grateful
that people from the countries mentioned were willing to share with us
their experiences in the midst of violence and war. In the fourth plenary
session on Saturday afternoon, entitled Confessing the Christian Faith
in Times of War, Natalia Shlikhta (Ukraine), John Paul (Jerusalem) and
Harutyun Harutyunyan (Armenia) gave testimony about the role of churches
in inhuman living conditions and armed conflicts. After the presentations,
each situation was discussed in smaller groups.
On Sunday morning, September 8, the 78 participants of the consultation
participated in Sunday services according to different church traditions
(Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic) in various
churches in Warsaw. In the afternoon, some of the group travelled by bus
to Płock to visit the centre of the Mariavites, while the others visited the
POLIN museum, a museum on the history of the Polish Jews, and took
part in a guided tour through Warsaw city centre.
Back at the venue, the fifth plenary session on Monday morning,
September 9, focused on the canonical legacy of the Council. Entitled
Resourcing Nicaea: The Canonical Legacy of the Council, the plenary was
divided into two sub-sessions: In the first, Dimitros Keramidas (Pontifical
University St Thomas Aquinas, Rome) and Leon van den Broeke (Theological
University Utrecht) presented their reflections on the ecumenical significance
of canon 8, which states that there may not be two bishops in
one city. In the second sub-session, Dagmar Heller (Institute for Ecumenical
Studies and Research, Bensheim) and Maria Takala-Roszczenko (University
of Eastern Finland) discussed the question of the date of Easter and how
to find a way to celebrate it together.
The sixth plenary session on Tuesday, September 10, entitled Inheriting
Nicaea: The Charism of Synodal Discernment and Its Challenges, offered
different viewpoints on the understanding and practice of synodality.
Andrzej Kuzma (Christian Theological Academy, Warsaw) focused on the
Early Church’s ideal of synodality and its reception in the official international
theological dialogue between Orthodox and Catholic churches.
Nathalie Becquart (General Secretariat of the Synod, Vatican) spoke about
the ‘Synod on Synodality’ in the Roman Catholic Church and underlined
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the importance of this unprecedented three years’ process for strengthening
synodality within the Catholic Church and creating new structures of
participation. In a concluding panel discussion, Sara Gehlin, Ingeborg-
Marie Kvam, and Denis Melkov offered their reflections on Synodal Discernment
and Its Challenges. In addition, the participants were invited to
reflect on what they had heard during the Academic Consultation and to
share their own views from their differing contexts.
The Proceedings
In the first thematic paper of the Proceedings, Johannes Oeldemann (Director
of the Johann-Adam-Möhler Institute Paderborn, Germany). introduces
the central theme of the consultation and the various sub-themes of
the consultation by referring to the multiple ecumenical dialogues held
over the decades where the themes of the Council of Nicaea were discussed.
Oeldemann concludes with three points essential to learning from
Nicaea: the importance of hermeneutics, the significance of reception,
and the revitalisation of the Council of Nicaea.
The volume is divided into five thematic parts. The goal of the first
part, Exploring Nicaea: Recent Patristic Research on the Council of Nicaea,
is to shed light on the historical background and on the political context
by presenting and discussing the latest research results on the developments
in the history of dogma. Peter Gemeinhardt focuses on the reception
of the Nicene Creed immediately after the council and suggests that Nicaea
was not a place to fix the creed but a place to start a lively and fruitful discussion.
Angela Berlis’ chapter highlights the theme of power, pointing
out that it was the emperor and his successors who played an eminent
role in the reception of the decisions of the Council. In her essay, Margriet
Gosker deals with the connections of the formulations of the First Council
of Nicaea with anti-Judaism and asks whether some of the Nicaean decisions
could be regarded as antisemitic. Mihai Iordache focuses on St. Anthony
the Great’s (251–256) thinking regarding moral life, which includes
cleansing a person from sin and the unceasing cultivation of virtues. Aleksei
Volchkov emphasizes the fact that we do not know much about Nicaean
liturgical practices. He focuses on the question of forms of prayer during
the Council.
The second part is entitled Appealing to Nicaea: Hermeneutical
Reflections, presenting a historiographical and hermeneutical approach
on what it means to retrieve the past: the dimensions, such as unity and
12

diversity, that were highlighted or downplayed; the definitions of the early
church that were used temporally or institutionally; and the role that
appealing to this definition played in the self-understanding and style of
theologising a tradition and how other traditions respond to this
theologisation. Jennifer Wasmuth traces important stages in the history of
the reception of the Council in the Lutheran tradition. She emphasises
adherence to the unbroken doctrinal decision on the trinitarian faith and
Lutheran tradition of associating with the Council of Nicaea and clarified
the motives that have led to the Council of Nicaea still being valid in the
Lutheran tradition today. Andrés Valencia Pérez’s response from a Catholic
perspective emphasises the aspects of synodality and the Trinitarian aspects
of the Nicene Creed and stresses the need to learn together more deeply
about several aspects, including full unity in diversity, revelation, authority,
and ministry. From a Baptist perspective, Uwe Swarat clarifies that they
“encourage their adherents to study the Bible in place of the early church’s
creeds and confessions”. Swarat emphasises that creeds should be read
while keeping in mind the primacy of the Scripture and not out of a stance
that Scripture excludes other sources of knowledge. Lukas Metz explores
the question of Christ’s role in pluralist and poststructuralist circumstances
and whether the concept of ‘Pantocrator’ could be used to approach the
question. Tim Noble studies the modern reception of the Council of Nicaea
in the context of Latin American liberation theologies, showing that historical
texts are not only theologically useful but also potentially dangerous.
Peter-Ben Smit presents a prefigurative way to study the Church as expressed
in the Nicene-Constantino politan Creed, its patristic roots and its
contemporary ecumenical re ception.
In the third part, entitled Retrieving Nicaea: The Significance of the
Nicene Creed in the Life of the Churches, different denominational approaches
to the role of the Nicene Creed are presented. Przemysław Kantyka
(Roman Catholic) highlights the significance of the Nicene Creed in
the Roman Catholic Church and lists many examples of how this has influenced
art and music. Jeremy Morris (Anglican) concludes that the Anglican
tradition has continued to emphasise the central role of the Nicene
Creed as a statement of Christian belief, whereas Miriam Haar (Lutheran)
highlights the re-discovery of the Nicene Creed in Lutheran services. Harutyun
Harutyunyan (Oriental Orthodox) focuses on the role of the Nicene-
Constantinople Creed in the liturgy and celebration of the sacraments and
draws attention to the various translation versions used in the church life
of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Joshua Searle (Baptist) emphasises that
“[w]hile not all Baptists formally recite the Nicene Creed during their ser-
13

vices, many appreciate its ecumenical significance and its role in fostering
understanding and unity within the broader Christian community”. Wojciech
Gajewski (Pentecostal) states that most Pentecostals recognise the
value of the first four councils, even though the creed is not recited in
their services. Ivana Noble’s paper focuses on the interaction between
contextuality and the inspiration of positive collective religious identity
narratives, such as the Nicene Creed. It also reflects “on the nature of
commonality and of trust, and on the problem of instrumentalization of
orthodoxy for the sake of strategic communication.” Natacha Tinteroff
asks whether the Nicene Creed constitutes a sufficient statement of Christian
faith for Anglicans and outlines its role in various ecumenical dialogues
of the Anglican Communion.
The fourth part is entitled Resourcing Nicaea: The Canonical Legacy
of the Council. It focuses on canon 8, which states that there may not be
two bishops in one city, and on the Council’s decision concerning the date
of Easter. Dimitrios Keramidas delves into Orthodox-Catholic relations on
the question of authority and the local bishop’s role, concluding that “it
seems that the Catholic Church is available to consider the possibility of
giving greater authority to regional ecclesiastical structures”, while the
Orthodox Church, addressing the issue of diaspora, “has recognized that
it is possible to accept a transitional stage that could help the synodal convergence
of communities while keeping distinct jurisdictions”. In his response,
Leon van den Broeke focuses on the Reformed view on the question.
He highlights that the orthodox Reformed believe that the local
church is ecclesia completa, whereas other Reformed think that this might
be the case but that the local church is not the ecclesia completa. As
Keramidas’ presentation showed, canon 8 was difficult for episcopal
churches. It would be hard to apply for Reformed churches, too. In the
case of Reformed churches, if they had bishops, there would have been
probably not only one but many of them.
The question of the date of Easter and how it has been determined in
church political debates is discussed as well. Dagmar Heller focuses on
the problem between the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the modern
ecumenical discussions on the date of Easter, with a wish to set a fixed
date for Easter. Maria Takala-Roszczenko in her response to Heller presents
the Finnish Orthodox perspective and how the Orthodox Church of Finland
came to the conclusion that the date of Easter is a practical, noncanonical
matter. The church celebrates Easter with Finnish society and
thus with Western Christianity. However, in the globalising world, the
decision is challenged from the inside.
14

The fifth part, entitled Inheriting Nicaea: The Charism of Synodal Discernment
and Its Challenges, presents different viewpoints on the historical
and current practice of synodality. Andrzej Kuzma focuses on the reception
of the concept of synodality in the official theological international dialogue
between Orthodox and Catholic churches. Kuzma stresses that, according
to the documents of this dialogue, synodality, along with primacy, is an essential
church element at all levels of church life (local, regional and universal).
He recalls the importance of Eucharistic synodality according to
the Orthodox tradition. Nathalie Becquart introduces the ‘Synod on
Synodality’ in the Roman Catholic Church. She describes it as an unprecedented
three-year journey together as “an invitation to strengthen the collegial
bodies and communion that already exist in the Church and possibly
create new structures of participation to exercise co-responsibility for the
fruitfulness of the Church’s mission in the world”. Petr Jandejsek describes
the time after the Council of Nicaea as a period of newly-acquired freedom
for the Church and asks if this time could also serve as an example for the
synodal approach to discernment in the life of Roman Catholic Christians.
Robert Svatoň focuses on the Roman Catholic Church’s synodal process in
the Czech Republic and the synodal process’s connections with ecumenism.
Nicolas Cochand presents the Groupe des Dombes’ publication on the
catholicity of the Church and how it has a place in re-reading the legacy
of the First Council of Nicaea. He also discusses challenges in today’s ecumenical
ecclesiological work. Jonas Eklund highlights Dumitru Staniloae’s
understanding of personhood and love as the key elements to comprehend
the communal aspects of ecclesiological life and how personhood is related
to it. Denis Melkov goes deeper into the conciliar character of the First
Council of Nicaea and how it is reflected in the early twentieth-century
Moscow Patriarchate’s synods and in the Second Vatican Council, especially
with regard to their provisions on monastic life.
The contributions in this volume emphasize the diverse aspects that
are relevant for academic research on the first Council of Nicaea. They
open up new approaches to the history of the impact of the first Ecumenical
Council in the history of Christianity and underline its significance for ecumenical
dialogue. With the publication of the conference proceedings
the Societas Oecumenica hopes to contribute to an ecumenically sustainable
celebration of the Council’s 1700 th anniversary.
We would like to thank all those who took part in the conference with
a presentation and those contributing to this volume. Special thanks for
making the conference happen and the proceedings available are due to
the members of the Standing Committee of the Societas from 2022 to
15

2024, whose commitment contributed significantly to the success of the
conference: Viorel Coman, Piotr Kopiec, Peter-Ben Smit, Jennifer Wasmuth,
and Agnes Slunitschek (treasurer). Finally, we would like to thank the
Evangelische Verlagsanstalt in Leipzig for including this volume in the series
of Beihefte zur Ökumenischen Rundschau.
Heta Hurskainen (secretary)
Johannes Oeldemann (president)
16

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