In my last article on Nov 6^th bulletin, we had reached a point in the Church history where emperor of Rome, Constantine had made Christianity as an official religion of Rome.  For Emperor Constantine, to become a Christian was one thing, but to deal as an emperor with Christianity as a corporate body was another matter.  Unlike the pagan religious leaders, Christian priests were not functionaries of the state.  The Church was an independent society with intelligent leaders capable of running their own affairs.  With surprise and some dismay Constantine found that Christians didn’t agree on some important matters of faith.  Some disputes he had to deal with were theologically and philosophically complex.  Though he was pontifex maximus, the highest priest in the empire, the initiatives in religious matters, he had to seek assistance from leading bishops of the Church.  The central Christian affirmation is that God is one.  First Christians were Jews, and they recited the Shema each morning: “Hear O Israel the Lord your God is one God”.  St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians wrote, “For us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things”.  He, however, also wrote to the Romans, that Christ is “Son of God in power according to the Spirit”.  On the one hand Christians were worshipping God the Father and then worship Jesus as Son of God and claim that God is one.  So, do Christians worship one or two gods?  Christian thinkers were struggling to answer this question.  A priest from Alexandria, a very eloquent preacher, came up with a theology that Jesus, Son of God, was less than God the Father and hence not fully divine.  Due to the simplified nature of his answer to the complex question, though some parts of the scriptures were taken out of context, he attracted lot of followers.  Certain cults like Jehovah’s witnesses even today deny the divinity of Christ.  This heresy came to be called Arianism.   We will address that next week.