First Council of Nicaea

Why this council matters

Nicaea matters whenever Christians ask who Jesus is. The council rejected accounts that made the Son a creature and confessed his full divinity. Its creed belongs to a history of clarification, rather than a moment at which Christianity first began to honor Jesus.

The council also addressed practical matters through twenty canons. Read those regulations in their fourth-century setting rather than assuming every disciplinary provision remains current. The creed recited at Mass has a later conciliar history; it should not simply be identified word for word with the text of 325.

Read and investigate

Read the 325 creed and the council’s canons. These are public-domain source selections already available here.