- Location: Cromwell Presbyterian Church, 10 Elspeth Street, Cromwell
- Start Date: Wednesday 16th Jul, 2025.
- End Date: Wednesday 16th Jul, 2025.
- Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm.
- 1 Weeks.
- 2 hours per week.
U3A Cromwell - Politics, Theology and the Early Church
Speaker: Douglas Pratt
Douglas is a retired professor of Religious Studies (University of Waikato) and currently Honorary Professor in Theological and Religious Studies, University of Auckland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK, and a Research Associate of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics (University of St Andrews, Scotland).
Douglas resides in Cromwell. An Anglican priest, he is a member of St Andrew’s Church where he recently presented a four-session course on the early history of Christianity, focusing on the Council of Nicaea. 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the first great Christian council, held in the town of Nicaea. This was an assembly of leaders (bishops) representing all of the Christian world at the time.
The Council featured a particular controversy and laid the ground for the distinctive Christian concept of God as Trinity. Things got heated. Bishop – later Saint – Nicholas lost his cool and in frustration slapped a leading priest on the opposing side. St Nick was censured for this outburst.
A pivotal moment in the development of Christian faith and an important chapter in the story of Christianity, the meeting was convened by the Roman emperor, Constantine, not by church authorities. Why was this? What was the interest of the State in matters of religion? What sort of precedents did this set? What was in it for the Church?
It has been said the Council of Nicaea comprised something of a new beginning for the Christian movement, some three centuries after Christ. But what sort of “beginning” was it? What were the political factors at play? What have been the long-term effects? What were the religious outcomes and consequences? You may be surprised to discover just how this event impacted subsequent history, down to today.
