ABSTRACT
Orthodoxy has less to do with recapturing a pristine past than envisioning the future. The question of Nicene Orthodoxy is especially important today. Through the controversies of the fourth century the Council of Nicaea became the standard reference point, and remained so thereafter. The world of Nicene Christianity embraces not only matters pertaining to dogmatic theology, but also spirituality (liturgy, prayer, piety), and also includes both a history and a geography – all the things which make up a 'world'. The result of all this scholarship is that the whole question of Nicene orthodoxy is now much more complex than it was thirty or forty years ago. It is no longer possible to refer to the debates that resulted in the settlement of 'Nicene Orthodoxy' as the 'Arian controversy'. The characteristic emphases of those opposed to Nicaea are best understood as a reaction against Paul of Samosata, following the lead of the Council of Antioch in 268.
