The Council of Nicaea and the Whitewashing of Christian History
Icon of St. Athanasius of Alexandria. (Source: WikiCommons)
On May 29, 2014, it was announced that the Catholic Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, had agreed upon a gathering in Nicaea in 2025 to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first ecumenical council. This announcement was well received even by Protestants, although, not without critique. This meeting was a celebration of the Christian Church, East and West, in an important step towards potentially unifying the two historic branches of the faith. It was later revealed that the World Council of Churches (WCC) would make plans around this historic event. However, what was implied, but not expressly stated is the Orthodox representation would not include many believers in Africa and Asia. Known as Oriental Orthodox Christians, they reject the Council of Chalcedon’s creedal definition of the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ, or so it was thought. The Oriental Christians are not in fellowship with the Orthodox Christians of Eastern Europe. Subsequently, the Coptic Orthodox Church will host the WCC’s Faith and Order Conference in October to mark the Council of Nicaea (Nicaea) anniversary. This article will show the influence that African theologians had on Nicaea, and why the historical and artistic record needs to be corrected.
Saint Athanasius (European). (Source: WikiCommons)
Saint Athanasius (North African). (Source: WikiCommons)
Nicaea established the doctrine that Jesus Christ was of the same substance as God the Father, as argued by Athanasius, the defender of what we now call Orthodoxy. Nicaea pronounced an anathema against the followers of Arius, a presbyter in the Church in Alexandria who argued that the Father and the Son were of two separate natures. The result of Nicaea was the formulation of a creed that Christians recite on Sundays in churches around the world. While this information is taught in Church History I courses in theological schools across America, what has gone unnoticed is the clergy of the Church in Alexandria were not Greeks or Romans who lived in the city, but Egyptians. According to the archaeological evidence of paintings from the Romano-Egyptian period housed in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, or the Africa and Byzantium exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the key theologians in Alexandria (Athanasius and Arius) were most likely indigenous Copts of medium complexion; although Athanasius was called a “black dwarf” by his opponents. There is no substantial evidence to support that these men were European, only conjecture. Additionally, it is documented that many of the Early Coptic Christians wrote in their mother tongue (which is the language of the Pharaohs), in addition to Greek.
Council of Nicaea. (Source: WikiCommons)
Fayum Mummy Portraits (1st – 4th century Egyptians). (Source: WikiCommons)
Painting the Hamites of North Africa, and the Semites of Western Asia as white men, instead of brown or black men is taking artistic license at best, and white supremacy at worst.
So, who really were the major theologians at Nicaea? Tom Oden argues in his book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, that many of the greatest theologians prior to the Arab-Muslim invasion of the seventh century were of Coptic, Berber, and Numidian descent (or African as we understand that term today). In antiquity, Africa was Roman Carthage (modern-day Tunisia), and it was named after the indigenous “Afri” tribe or people group. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, and many of the Desert Fathers were great preachers, teachers, and theologians of Hamitic descent prior to the time of Nicaea. Oden’s research, which also includes the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, led to genealogical work on the abbas and ammas of the early church in North Africa. Additionally, there is also documented research on the spread of Christianity in Axum, which was situated outside of the Roman Empire, during this time period.
Despite the artistic renderings of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the early church fathers, Africans and Asians were contributors to Orthodox Theology, and among those who attended Nicaea were men from Asia Minor and Egypt. Additionally, men from Libya, Jerusalem, Carthage, Antioch, Armenia, and Persia participated in Nicaea. The General History of Africa, produced by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), has chronicled the arrival of Christianity to the earliest period of the faith. Christianity would spread throughout the centuries from Alexandria, Carthage, and Libya (home to the New Testament Gospel writer Mark) to Sub-Saharan Africa before the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or the Scramble for Africa. Evidence of Coptic Christianity existed in the Kingdom of Mali during the reign of Mansa Musa in the 1300s, and in Nigeria as early as 1492. Catholicism became the official religion of the Kingdom of Kongo in 1491, and Nubia was a Christian state before the Arab-Muslim conquest.
But maybe the “Curse of Ham” might be to blame for the whitewashing of Christian history at Nicaea. The biblical interpretation that black people were cursed because of the sin of Ham discovering his father’s nakedness (Genesis 9)was already being taught in Christian churches as early as the fourth century. Christian theologians equated blackness with sin in the early church. So later paintings of those who attended Nicaea may have been influenced by anti-black sentiment. It is interesting to note that there have only been three popes from Roman Africa in the Catholic Church, and only one since Nicaea (and he was elected 1500 years ago).
As African Christians are preparing to attend the WCC’s Faith and Order Conference near Alexandria, Egypt later this year, I implore that the Vatican and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to right the historical and artistic record of Hamites and Semites at Nicaea, and the role that they played in establishing Orthodox Christianity.
Odell Horne, Jr. is a doctoral student studying Contextual Theology. He has a degree in African and African American Studies. He has authored more than 20 published articles for Ministry Matters, Theological Voice of Africa, Firebrand Magazine, United Methodist News Service, United Methodist Insight, and the Journal of Sociology and Christianity.