SOURCE: Hägglund, Bengt. “Arianism: The Council of Nicaea” and “Athanasius: The Formation of the Trinitarian Doctrine.” In History of Theology, translated by Gene J. Lund, pp. 75–88. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1968.

In the following excerpts, originally published in Swedish in 1966, Hägglund summarizes Athanasius's arguments against Arianism and examines their influence on the development of Nicene thought.

The challenge of Monarchianism returned in a more acute form in the violent ecclesiastical controversies of the fourth century. It was then that the threat of Arianism was combated and that the church's Trinitarian formula was established at the ecumenical councils held in Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

There is also a purely historical connection between Arius, the fourth century's most embattled heretic, and Dynamic Monarchianism. Arius, who was a presbyter in Alexandria ca. 310, was a disciple of Lucian of Antioch, who, in turn, was a follower of Paul of Samosata.

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