The Nature of God as Defined by the Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople

The creeds promulgated at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) are not the earliest patristic affirmations concerning the nature, personhood, and salvific work of the Triune God. Nevertheless, they constitute the Church’s first comprehensive and authoritative doctrinal syntheses and thus provide the most suitable point of departure for examining the Church’s faith regarding God and her own divine constitution.

The Nicene Creed—produced through the collaborative effort of the conciliar Fathers—represents the first instance in which the Catholic Church formally articulated the Church’s preexistent and divine origin. This articulation immediately precedes the anathemas issued against Arian propositions:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten as the only‑begotten of the Father, that is, from the essence (ousia) of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father; through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, was made man; who suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit.

But those who say, “There was a time when He was not,” or “He was not before He was made,” or “He was made out of nothing,” or “He is of another substance or essence,” or “The Son of God is created, changeable, or alterable”—the holy catholic and apostolic Church condemns.

The first of these condemnations (“There was a time when He was not”) appears to have been included particularly to counter claims that the Holy Spirit was a created being rather than truly divine. Yet these negations also imply a positive doctrinal affirmation: because the Church proceeds from the eternal life and mission of the Holy Spirit, one may rightly confess that there was never a time when the Church was not.

Although the Council of Chalcedon (451) attributed the Nicene‑Constantinopolitan Creed to the First Council of Constantinople, the text predates the 381 council by at least seven to twenty years. Epiphanius of Salamis reproduces it in full in his Ancoratus (374). This creed preserves the Nicene formulation while expanding its Christological affirmations (“according to the Scriptures,” “and is seated at the right hand of the Father,” “in glory,” “whose kingdom shall have no end”) and offering a more developed pneumatology and ecclesiology:

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. In one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church; we confess one Baptism for the remission of sins, and we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen.

The creed thus presents a tripartite doctrinal structure through which the Church instructs the world concerning the nature, personhood, life, and works of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Regarding the Father, the creed begins with the same truth Israel professed in the Shema: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is One” (Dt 6:4). This foundational confession affirms that God is neither divided nor subordinate; He is one. To call this one God “Father Almighty” expresses both His eternal primacy and His creative power to bring forth all things visible and invisible.

From this unity and personhood—properly described as Eternal Father—His life and works proceed. Out of love, He brings into being all things, the first of whom is His Only‑begotten Son. Begotten from the Father’s own substance, the Son is rightly called “One Lord Jesus Christ.” Nothing in the Son is foreign to the Father: He is eternal (“before all ages”), Light from Light, God from God, truly God and not a creature (“begotten, not made”), and therefore consubstantial with the Father. Yet He is distinct in personhood, for the Son is not the Father, and through Him all things were made.

This second article also reveals why divine love alone flows from the nature of God. From His unity with the Father and His personhood as Son proceeds His salvific mission: He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, became man, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, died, was buried, rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will share in His eternal nature.

The creed’s pattern is now clear. Each article identifies the rightful name of the divine Person (Father Almighty; Lord Jesus Christ), clarifies His origin and personhood (the Father is unbegotten; the Son is Only‑begotten), and describes His life and works (the Father creates; the Son redeems).

It therefore follows that the final article will likewise instruct us concerning the name, origin, personhood, life, and works of the Holy Spirit. The creed does not introduce a fourth entity nor any being unrelated to the one divine nature.

The final article begins: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.” This follows the established pattern by naming the Third Person (Holy Spirit), identifying His origin and personhood (He proceeds from the Father and shares fully in divine glory), and situating Him within the unity of the Godhead.

The remainder of the article describes the Spirit’s life and works: He gathers and unifies the people of God into the one communion through which Christ accomplishes salvation. This gathering is manifest wherever the Spirit spoke through the prophets and reaches its fullness in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Through this covenantal assembly, man cooperates with Christ by receiving one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which prepares him for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

These early creeds are far more than liturgical recitations. They are authoritative conciliar responses to Arian and Neo‑Arian distortions concerning the origin, nature, and mission of the three divine Persons. It is therefore fitting that the Church appears within the creed as an expression of the Spirit’s own life, for “where the Church is, there also is God’s Spirit; where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace.” It is as impossible to speak of the Church without speaking of Christ as it is to speak of Christ without speaking of His Church, for the latter participates in the nature of the former.

Thus, the Nicene‑Constantinopolitan Creed proclaims with clarity that the Church is both divine and human, possessing two natures: one divine, descending to save, and one human, necessarily being saved.

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Footnotes

1. William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, vol. 1 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1970), 281.
2. John Laux, Church History (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 1989), 112.
3. On the Manicheans, Priscillianists, and Montanists, see Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, 398.
4. Epiphanius of Salamis, Ancoratus, in Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, 398.
5. Deuteronomy 6:4–9.
6. For the Latin tradition of the Filioque, see the Latin recension of the Niceno‑Constantinopolitan Creed.
7. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.24.1.