A new way of looking to the Fathers, a chef d'oeuvre in Patristic thought and analysis and, above all, an insight in early Christianity from an Orthodox scholar: The Way to Nicaea and The Nicene Faith are the two books by John Behr recreating the environment surrounding the 3rd century Arian controversy.

John Behr is associate professor at St Vladimir's Seminary. His impressive works (titles available here) do what is more needed in the patristic research field, mainly, they try to answer a key question: is our understanding of the Fathers corresponding with their time and their intention in formulating the faith? This question is answered in what can be characterized as an ambitious project: "The Formation of Christian Theology"; this project consists in a series of books already published or to be published at SVS Press. It tries to rediscover the first centuries in the history of the Church, when the major doctrines related to God, Trinity, the Incarnation, asceticism and anthropology. During these centuries, the problems raised from the new emerging doctrines, such as Arianism, Macedonianism etc., which were approached and answered by the greatest names of the time: Alexander of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Capadocia, and Eusebius of Caesarea.

In the two volume work, "The Way to Niceea" (Crestwood: SVS Press, 2001). 261 pp) and "The Nicene Faith" (The Nicene Faith, vol. 2 of The Formation of Christian Theology (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2004, 2 vol), John Behr manifests a high degree of erudition and develops a theology starting from the historical background of the third and fourth centuries. The legacies of Origen, Paul of Samosata and others are called into question in relation with the first and the most powerful of all controversies: Arianism. What can be surprising in these works is the attitude of the author towards Arianism, he avoids calling this teaching directly a heresy, because the Fathers contemporary to Arius were not so eager to characterize it in this manner. Also, it investigates the name itself, called upon the teaching after Arius, one of the independent presbyters existing in the fourth century Alexandria. It is interesting to see in "The Nicene Faith" that Alexander and other defenders of the Nicene creed named their opponents "eusebians".

The way to Nicaea is sometimes difficult to define. Different conceptions and influences from several belief and philosophical systems left their mark on the first Christian writings, thus John Behr is left but to challenge with good reasons the "official" history of dogmas, where we are told Arianism was opposed by a strong resistance coming from the entire ecclesial "block". Moreover, "The Way to Niceea" debates on the origins of the mentality favoring the emergence of Arianism. It was a entire process that "moved the waters" in such a way that Arius would become the number one character of the new controversy. But, in spite of this status, he was to be forgotten very quickly after his death.

The star of the controversy was without any doubt Anthanasius of Alexandria. His continuing and relentless struggle towards reaching a common form of Orthodoxy made him sometimes abuse his powers and influence over the strong political figures of the time. With great effort, beautiful language, caring for details and nuances, Fr. Behr reveals all the aspects behind the personality of a saint that can be categorized as one of the athletes of Christianity. Only that in his case the term can be understood literally. Athanasius went back and forth, hiding, coming back, traveling a lot in order to meet people and to settle disagreements between several parties inside the Church.

The main purpose of the book is the process of dealing with a new teaching related to Christ. And this purpose is fully reached by analyzing absolutely all the aspects involved in a controversy that took almost 200 years to settle definitively. A sisiphic work done in the spirit of rediscovering the process and methods of dealing with what is different.

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