PROTESTANTISM AND THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

Abstract

The acceptance of the doctrinal definitions of the first four Ecumenical Councils within Protestantism is exclusively linked to the fact that their doctrinal conclusions were deemed consistent with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. In the confessional texts of the Lutheran Church, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is recognized as binding, and its denial entails condemnation. During the period of Protestant Orthodoxy, Lutheran theologians fully embraced the Trinitarian doctrine of the ancient Church and defended it against anti-Trinitarian heretical systems.
However, from the mid-18th century to the present, the vast majority of Lutheran academic theology has revised its stance, largely
questioning traditional Trinitarian doctrine, with only a few exceptions. Similarly, the Reformed tradition developed theological confessional texts under the undeniable influence of John Calvin’s thought. Although they did not differ from the Lutherans in accepting the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and ecclesiastical Trinitarian doctrine, this branch, like the Lutherans, accepted the doctrinal error of the Filioque. The defense of Patristic Trinitarian theology and the teachings of the First Ecumenical Council was also expressed by Reformed theologians of Protestant Orthodoxy, particularly in the context of their polemics against the anti-Trinitarian movements of their time.