The Legacy of Nicaea
8 comments
·December 13, 2025schoen
ofconsequence
> difficult-to-understand and difficult-to-believe doctrines tend to have a unifying force for religious communities because
I would also venture that this leads to many members having different interpretations and assuming everyone shares their own. Of the Wittgenstein ilk.
But, this theory may conflict with your Edit addendum.
CGMthrowaway
It would be nice to have a new Council, an ecumenical one, coming to agreement to unite Catholic, Orthodox, and as many mainline protestant churches as possible. It may require the Catholic church to make some sort of concession, which is probably the biggest obstacle
dvt
Extremely unlikely, as there are a lot of theological dealbreakers: the Catholic veneration of Mary & the saints, Protestant sola scriptura & sola fide, Catholic papal infallibility, among many others.
shtzvhdx
Venerate:
1 to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference
2 to honor (an icon, a relic)
Merriam-Webster.
What's the problem with venerating Mary?
The Apostolic Church, East and Rome can over come their differences, there's little substantive difference.
CGMthrowaway
"Dealbreakers" are the reason councils exist. I'm not saying it would be easy. Far from it. But the longer we wait to try, the harder it will be.
krapp
Why?
Every religion in existence has multiple and often contradictory interpretations of doctrine and what is and isn't "canon." Why should Christianity be any different?
At least Catholics recognize Protestants and Orthodox as fellow Christians and aren't burning them at the stake for heresy anymore. That's probably the best we can hope for.
tekla
It directly lead to Magnus to fall and commit heresy
I forgot who formulated the idea that difficult-to-understand and difficult-to-believe doctrines tend to have a unifying force for religious communities because they tend to require members of those communities to be more serious about their commitments, or a way for them to show how seriously they take them, by asserting to doctrines that are difficult.
This article says that Nicene Christianity is more difficult to believe and more illogical than some of the heresies. If so, that difficulty may have been a challenge for orthodox Christian believers that allowed them to feel, or demonstrate, more unity with their fellow believers! It may have created a firmer distinction between Christians and non-Christians or near-Christians, for one thing.
Edit: one search found the theory of Laurence R. Iannaccone (which is about different churches within Christianity) who argued that churches that impose more or stronger doctrinal requirements tend to receive more loyalty and commitment from their members. I'm not sure if that was the version that I was originally thinking of, but it seems closely related.