October 20, 2006

'Voting About God in Early Church Councils'

By NINA C. AYOUB

Among the Christians of late antiquity, rowdiness was next to godliness in credal disputes. It wasn't just scholars who confronted Arian- and other heretical "isms." There were monks marching in the streets, archdeacons manhandling their bishops, even laypeople skirmishing over doctrine.

Prime sites for dispute were bishops' assemblies, most notably a handful of overarching ecumenical councils, such as Nicaea I (325), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451). Offering a new look at such

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