See All Biblical Tours

The doctrine about the Person of Jesus had troubled both the common believer and the theologian from the very beginning of Christianity but had not surfaced until the time of Constantine.

Although the First Council of Nicaea had condemned the Arian belief and reasserted the dogma that the Father and the Son were of the same substance, some theologians believed that the...

Another question which disturbed the Church during the last quarter of the fourth century concerned the interpretation of the relation between the divine and human natures of Christ.

Although Pope Leo I, the Great, asked Theodosius II to summon a council for the definition of the orthodox doctrine once more, to bring an end to the ecclesiastical chaos, his request was refused.

During the following period while some Christian theologians sought new formulas to bring the Monophysite East (Egypt, Syria and Palestine) into the body of the Church, the quarrels and fights between the Chalcedonians and the Monophysites continued.

Heraclius (610-41) took over an empire which had been losing ground against its enemies in the north (the Avars and Slavs) and in the east (the Sassanians who would soon be supplanted by the Saracens).

The Second Council of Nicaea was prompted not by a doctrine about the nature of Jesus but by the iconoclastic controversy.