History of the First Council of Nice: A World's Christian Convention A.D. 325 With a Life of Constantine [Paperback]

Dean Dudley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2001

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Great dissensions had arisen in the church of Egypt about the nature of Christ, and the time to celebrate Easter, by which Constantine was much troubled. He therefore ordered a convention to be held at Nicea in Bithynia, to which bishops were invited from all parts of the world, hoping that harmony might result from the decision of such a Universal Assembly of the chief Christians of the world. --from the Life of Constantine.

About the Author

New York lawyer and mathematician DAVID EUGENE SMITH (1860-1944) authored a number of books while a professor of mathematics at Columbia University, including The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics (1900), A History of Japanese Mathematics (1914), and History of Modern Mathematics (1896).

Product Details

• Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: EWorld Inc. (January 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881316033
• ISBN-13: 978-1881316039
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit dissapointing, November 23, 1999

By 

O. B. Makhubela (South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History of the First Council of Nice: A World's Christian Convention A.D. 325 With a Life of Constantine (Paperback)

The book goes into good and interesting details on the life of Constantine and to a greater extant on the history of the council of nice which made christianity a formal institution. I was VERY dissapointed when the book FAILED to deal in detail with the books/canons that were LEFT OUT (LOST) of the conventional bible. The book only lists those books/canons that were included, BUT fails to inform the reader as to those canons/books that were omitted (lost) or excluded from the conventional books adopted at the council. To be honest I baught the book for this (excluded/lost canons) part! Yet the book does well to inform the reader as to the main issue that was brought to the council, viz. the divinity of Jesus the Messiah (Christ). It also informs the reader of some of the agreements reached by the council regarding the church and its formalized religion: especially that Sunday was decided solely by Constatine to be our Sabbath, while the proper rest day is supposed to be Suturday..

25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a bit unbalanced, October 13, 2000

By 

matt - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of the First Council of Nice: A World's Christian Convention A.D. 325 With a Life of Constantine (Paperback)

Dudley takes his place along with the other historians (some very capable) who seem to criticise the Church for what took place at Nicea as the usurpation of power by Constantine. Obviously there is an element of this at Nicea, but to claim, among other things, that Christians were not already and from the beginning worship and celebrating the Eucharist on Sunday and that it took the emperor to settle it is a stretch. Argue if you want, but at least read a few other books that are not so biased. If you think that the Church became something radically different after Nicea, you have some learning to do. The Orthodox tradition only makes sense, however, if you believe that some theological opinions are more faithful to the apostolic tradition than others. In other words, "rainbow theology" is not how the early Church functioned. If she did, then the Lord's apostles were in extreme delusion, for they too discerned light from darkness in aspects that were not strictly moral (i.e. gnostic trends, although many false teachings lead to immorality).

I recommend Davis' "The First Seven Ecumenical Councils" and Allison's "The Cruelity of Heresy" to start with (and no, they are not "let's dump on the heretics" sort of books). Others include "God For Us" by LaCugna, "Jesus as God" by Harris, "Christology" and "THe Tripersonal God" by O'Collins.

If you're interested in the cannon of scripture, check out Metzger's "The Canon of the New Testament: It's Origin, Development, and Significance".

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing your sources, January 4, 2007

By 

Michael Carr "My-Key" (ATL - GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: History of the First Council of Nice: A World's Christian Convention A.D. 325 With a Life of Constantine (Paperback)

I picked this up when I had an argument with someone about who decided what books of the bibles should be in there. The Concil of Nicea under thew leadership of Constantine made the decision on what stayed and what would be taken out. Sadly the people who disagreed were banished or killed. Christianity.