This episode is a live Q&A session from the first ever UCA Conference in New Zealand, held in a beautiful lakeside conference center in Cambridge. The venue was a 15-minute walk from where I stayed. The view from there was this!

Topics discussed include: unitarians throughout church history, Eusebius of Caesarea and his Church History, Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon, Paul of Samosata, Photinus of Sirmium, the biblical canon in the early church, Athanasius, Arius and the so-called “Arian” controversy, the 325 council at Nicea, alternate readings of Matthew 28:19 in the works of Eusebius, Origen’s doctrine of God’s eternal generation of the Logos, Novatian of Rome, the influences of Platonic thought on early theology, pre-Nicene subordinationism, Plato’s Timaeus and his idea of the Demiurge (Craftsman), the idea of creation through one or more intermediaries, gnostic ideas about creation, Irenaeus and his Against Heresies, whether the idea of the Trinity comes from Greek philosophy, pagan and early Christian triadological speculations, changing meanings of the word “Trinity” (Greek: trias, Latin: trinitas) and when the term became popular, ancient subordinationists as unitarian Christians, the trinitarian idea that they were sort of trying to express belief in the Trinity, American congregationalist unitarians, William Ellery Channing, the idea of dividing unitarian Christians into “Socinians” and “Arians,” the historical events leading up to the Nicene Creed, the new controversial word homoousios (same essense or substance), the decree of Theodosius I and the 381 council which ended the Nicene controversy, the 381 “Nicene Creed” as the first implicitly trinitarian creed, the mainstream theological scene in the 100s and 200s, the idea that purely Hebraic apostolic thought was superseded by Greek thought, divine impassibility, timelessness, and simplicity, Numenius, first and second century crises in Israel, Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho, Epiphanius of Salamis, ancient Jewish Christians, and the idea of Restorationism.

The opinions expressed here are only those of the presenters, and do not represent official positions of the UCA. For those, see this.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

restitutio.org

Living Hope International Ministries – LHIM

Williams, The Radical Reformation, 3rd edition

Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology? (video)

podcast 176 – Photinus of Sirmium – Trinities

McDonald, The Biblical Canon

Text and Canon Institute

Eusebius, The Church History, Ecclesiastical Theology, Oration in Praise of Constantine

Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament

podcast 347 – Novatian’s On the Trinity – Part 1 – Almost Pope

podcast 348 – Novatian’s On the Trinity – Part 2 – Two Thieves and Three Arguments

Origen, On First Principles

Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity

podcast 167 – Lamson’s History of The Unitarian Congregationalists

podcast 308 – Channing’s “Unitarian Christianity” – Part 1

podcast 309 – Channing’s “Unitarian Christianity” – Part 2

podcast 30 – The Council of Nicea

Tuggy, What is the Trinity?

Tuggy, “When and How in the History of Theology Did the Triune God Replace the Father as the Only True God?“

Dale’s 2024 presentation at the UK International Conference: podcast 381 – Mainstream Christian Theologies in the year 240: What Trinitarian Apologists Don’t Know

History of the Early Christadelphians

This week’s thinking music is “for the glory of” by Dirk Dehler.