Nicaea 2025

Event, Context, Reception

2-5 April 2025, Rome

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 Organising Committee

Lewis Ayres, John Behr, Alberto Camplani, Samuel Fernández,

Uta Heil, Johan Leemans, Christoph Markschies,
Sébastien Morlet, Emanuela Prinzivalli

Benvenuti a Roma. Nel 2025, in tutto il mondo cristiano, si

susseguono numerose conferenze per celebrare il 1700 anniversario
del Concilio di Nicea. Gli organizzatori nutrono la speranza che i
numerosi argomenti trattati in questo convegno all'Angelicum
possano stimolare le vostre ricerche, e al contempo contribuire ad
un sempre più intenso apprezzamento scientifico di un evento
chiave per lo sviluppo del pensiero cristiano.

I nostri più sentiti ringraziamenti vanno prima di tutto alle due

istituzioni ospitanti, il Pontificio Istituto Patristico “Augustinianum”
e la Pontificia Università San Tommaso (Angelicum), che sono state
straordinariamente generose. Allo stesso tempo, numerosi altri enti
hanno fornito un significativo sostegno finanziario. In particolare,
l'incontro non sarebbe stato possibile senza il contributo della
Fondazione McDonald Agape.

Fra le istituzioni che hanno contribuito generosamente al progetto,

vorrei menzionare il Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian
Studies del collegio San Michele di Toronto in Canada, l'Australian
Catholic University, la Domus Australia e la A.G. Leventis
Foundation. Siamo felici di poter celebrare il loro sostegno al dialogo
e alla ricerca scientifica.

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Welcome to Rome. In 2025 all over the Christian world there are
conferences celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Council of
Nicaea. The organizers of this meeting hope that the many subjects
discussed here will stimulate your own research, and contribute
towards the scholarly celebration of an event foundational in the
development of Christian thought.

There are many who must be thanked for their generosity towards
this meeting. The two host institutions, the Pontifical Patristic
Institute “Augustinianum,” and the Pontifical University of St
Thomas (Angelicum) have been exceptionally generous. A number
of foundations and institutions have provided significant financial
support. In particular, the meeting could not have happened
without the work of the McDonald Agape Foundation.

The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian

Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, the
Australian Catholic University, the Domus Australia, and the A.G.
Leventis Foundation have all also made generous contributions to
the project and it is a delight to be able to celebrate their
commitment to scholarly conversation and research.

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 April 2nd

The Conference Meets at the Augustinianum

8.45am Welcome to the Augustinianum

Fr Juan Antonio Cabrera Montero, OSA, Preside

9-10am OPENING LECTURE (Aula magna)

Restoring the Image: Theological Anthropology and the Creed of

Nicaea
Rowan Williams

COFFEE BREAK

PLENARY LECTURES

10.20-10.50

German Protestant (Mis-)Understandings of the First Council and its

Creed. 200 Years History of Research and what one can learn of it.
Christoph Markschies

10.50-11.20

«Qui c’è perfetta teologia, annuncio della venuta di Cristo attraverso

la carne» (Bas., hom. in ps. 1, 2). Quale impatto di Nicea sulla
predicazione? La fede trinitaria e cristologica nelle omelie basiliane.
Angelo Segneri

COFFEE BREAK

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11.45-12.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 1 (Aula magna)

La logosteologia di Clemente Alessandrino nei riflessi delle dispute
cristologiche alla soglia del primo concilio ecumenico
Miklós Gyurkovics

Identité de substance et théologie dans la polémique d’Irénée (AH II,

13-18)
Agnès Bastit

Session 2 (Aula minor)

Is the Trinitarian grammar of the Nicene Creed of apostolic origin?
Sylvain Detoc

The 1800th (not 1700th) Anniversary of the Homoousion: Revisiting

Tertullian’s Influence on Nicaea 325
David Wilhite

Session 3 (Aula 2)
Ecclesiology in the Making: The Council of Nicaea in Contemporary
Letters
Joona Salminen

Who Came to Nicaea and Why?

Glen L. Thompson

Session 4 (Aula 3)
Constantine and the Politics of Nicaea: Church and Empire in the
Fourth Century
Richard J. Dougherty

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Silent Dispute: The Absence of the Donatist Controversy at the
Council of Nicaea
Matthew Gaumer

Session 5 (Aula 5)
Phoebadius’s Use of Tertullian
Joseph Hamilton

Augustine’s interpretation of homoousios and its use in the anti-

Arian polemic
Giovanni Hermanin de Reichenfeld

12.35-2.30 Lunch

14.30 - 15.45 SHORT PAPERS

Session 6 (Aula magna)

Use of the term οὐσία and verb γεννάω in the Writings of the Greek
Apologists of the Second Century as a predecessors of Nicene Creed
Leszek Misiarczyk

Nicaea and Tertullian, or ὁμοούσιος and una substantia

Krisztián Fenyves

A simple God who is entirely his powers and simultaneously acts:

Irenaeus in Novatian
Jonatán Simons

Session 7 (Aula 1)
The Use of Legal Arguments in the Trinitarian Debates
Emanuel Fiano

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The Grammar of Divinity and the Grammar of Deification: an
Overlooked Aspect of Nicaea’s Legacy in 4th-Century Theology.
Brendan Harris

Augustinian Soteriology in the Backdrop of the First Ecumenical

Council: A Historical Soteriological Examination
Andrew Roushdy

Session 8 (Aula 2)
Le point de vue des perdants : les débats de Nicée, signe avant-
coureur de la fin des temps dans l’Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum
Lous-Jean Tissot

De Nicée I à Nicée II et au-delà : édition des deux recensions d'un

"catéchisme" byzantin des sept conciles (CPG 3082)
Guillaume Bady

When were the decisions of the Council of Nicaea overturned?

Xavier Morales

Session 9 (Aula 3)
La liturgia bizantina canta i Padri Niceni
Podut Cristian

Tra Nicaea e Calcedonia: aspetti di ermeneutica conciliare in Severo

di Antiochia
René Roux

Εὐδοκία-αὐτουργία-συνεργία in Maximus the Confessor: The Neo-

Chalcedonian Development of Pro-Nicene Trinitarian Theology
Andrew Summerson

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 Session 10 (Aula 5)
Jerónimo y el arrianismo. Ingemuit totus orbis, et arianum se esse
miratus est (C. Lucif. 19) y la Wirkungsgeschichte
Hernán Giudice

Gregorio Magno y el arrianismo

Amadeo José Tonello

Reception of the Council of Nicaea (325) in Suevic Gallaecia: St.

Martin of Braga’s Capitula Martini
Alberto Ferreiro

COFFEE BREAK

16.20-17.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 11 (Aula magna)

The Nicaean Doctrine of the Triune God by Gennadius Scholarius
within the Context of Dār al-Tawhīd: Contribution to Islamic-
Christian Dialogue
Filotheos-Fotios Maroudas

Homoousios in Contemporary Theological Discourse: Thomas

Torrance's Onto-Relational Interpretation and Its Practical
Significance
Hakbong Kim

Nicene Soteriology
Carl Mosser

Session 12 (Aula 1)
Il concilio di Nicea e il paradigma "teologico economico"
Angelo Michele Mazza

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Il Concilio di Nicea e il dialogo ebraico-cristiano
Cristiana Dobner

Nicea y el lenguage "positivo" sobre Dios

José Carlos Caamaño

Session 13 (Aula 2)
Augustine’s Reception of Nicaea”. Consubstantialis in the Preached
Theology of Augustine
Enrique A. Eguiarte

Alius est autem ille sol non factus sed genitus (en. Ps. 120,12): la fede
nicena in un sermone agostiniano sui Salmi Ascensionali
Graziano Malgeri

La risposta agostiniana alla teologia anti-nicena nei sui In Johannis

evangelium tractatus. Una lettura di Io. eu. tr. 20
Kolawole Chabi

Session 14 (Aula 3)
Towards a New Critical Edition of the Syriac Texts of Nicaea 325
Ephrem Aboud Ishac

Trinitarian Theology in Mission “After” Nicaea: Bede’s Trinitarian

Missions in the Wake of Nicaea’s theology and Easter Dating
Scott Harrower

The reception of Nicaea's legacy in the Middle Ages: William of St.

Thierry's Trinitarian Thought
Luis Javier García-Lomas Gago

END OF DAY

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 April 3rd 2025

The Conference meets at the Augustinianum

PLENARY LECTURES (Aula magna)

9-9.30

Chrêseis at Nicaea: the drama of orthopraxy and orthodoxy

Giulio Maspero

9.30-10

Nicaea as a Conflict in the Media: The Role of Letters in the Arian

Crisis
Alfons Fürst

COFFEE BREAK

PLENARY LECTURES (Aula magna)

10.20-10.50

“Does Chronology Matter? Where History and Theology Meet in the

Course of the Trinitarian Controversy Before and After Nicaea”
Uta Heil

10.50-11.20

The contours of Early Nicene Christology

Mark DelCogliano

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COFFEE BREAK

11.45-12.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 15 (Aula magna)

Nicaea in the Light of the Correspondence Between Arius and
Alexander: A Gnoseological Clash?
Ilaria Vigorelli

Nicaea as the Sibyl saw it? From κρίσις to κριτήριον in Constantine’s

letter to Arius and his followers (Dok. 27 = Urk. 34)
Ingo Schaaf

Session 16 (Aula minor)

Nicea prima di Nicea: alleanze teologiche e politiche all’origine degli
schieramenti conciliari
Roberto Della Rocca

Nicea dal punto di vista degli estranei: Letture pagane ed ebraiche

del dogma del Primo Concilio di Nicea
László Odrobina

Session 17 (Aula 3)
La ricezione della consustanzialità nicena nella teologia trinitaria di
sant’Agostino
Sylwester Jaśkiewicz

“Essere monofisiti significa essere ariani”. La ricezione di Nicea in

Vigilio di Tapso e nella letteratura latina post calcedonese.
Gianmarco Falcone

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 Session 18 (Aula 4)

Il ricordo delle cose avvenute nel concilio (Ath., decr. 32,4).

Memoria ed ermeneutica del Concilio di Nicea: continuità o
discontinuità?
Giuseppe Germinario

Fortunatianus of Aquileia Between the Arian Heresy and the Nicene

Creed
Jan Dominik Bogataj

12.35-2.30 Lunch

14.30 - 15.45 SHORT PAPERS

Session 19 (Aula magna)

Per la storia di un gesto: l’ultimo canone del Concilio Niceno
Giovanni Ribuoli

Il ritratto di Costantino a Nicea negli storici ecclesiastici Socrate,

Sozomeno e Teodoreto
Giovanna Martino Piccolino

Il Concilio di Nicea nei manoscritti della Biblioteca Capitolare di

Verona: un’auctoritas tra diritto canonico e pratica penitenziale
Donatella Tronca

Session 20 (aula minor)

The Council of Nicaea (325) in the “Vita Constantini” by Eusebius of
Caesarea. A panegyric-apologetic view
Notker Baumann

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Christology and Trinitarian Theology between the Two councils: the
Case of Marcellus of Ancyra
Vadim Dudkin

The Small Words: Prepositions and Their Phrases in the Nicene

Disputes
Richard A. Brumback III

Session 21 (aula 1)
The Elephant Not in The Room: The Bishop of Rome and the Nicene
Faith in the Fourth Century
Luca Colacino

Eusebius and the Two-Stage Logos Theology

Gabriel Santander Hidalgo

Athanasius among the Nicenes: The Question of Theophanies

Bogdan Bucur

Session 22 (Aula 2)
The Nicene Creed and the Filioque: implications on interreligious
dialogue
Cory Gloeckner

Grounding the Filioque

Joshua Sijuwade

Incarnate “for Us Humans and for Our Salvation”: the Nicene Creed
and the Cosmic Vision of Salvation in the Theology of John Zizioulas
Boram Cha

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 Session 22 (Aula 3)
Quasi ignotum: The term homoousion as explained by Rufinus in the
Historia Ecclesiastica
Marcela Caressa

Nicaea in the light of Neoplatonic solar theology: the Apostate’s

point of view
Gábor Buzási

The Homoiousian understanding of ὁμοούσιον

Marta Przyszychowska

COFFEE BREAK

16.20-17.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 23 (Aula magna)

The Appeals to the Faith of Nicaea in the Nestorian Controversy
Paul L. Gavrilyuk

The Nicene creed in the controversy between Cyril of Alexandria

and Nestorius
Marie-Odile Boulnois

Toward a Nicene-Chalcedonian Creed: Rethinking Fourth-Century

Orthodoxy through Fifth-Century Polity and Liturgy
Paul G. Monson

Session 24 (Aula 1)
The Glorification of Christ: How Christ Sits at the Right Hand of the
Father
Filip Veber

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Nicaea and Lonergan's Realms of Meaning: An Enduring
Hermeneutic
Christopher McMahon

The interpretation of the term “Hypostasis” in contemporary

theological thought and the legacy of Nicaea
Petros Toulis

Session 25 (Aula 2)
The Nicaean Norm and the dating of Pascha: A new approach to an
old problem.
Anthony Kotlar

Omousia and Beauty: Nicaea for the Digital Age.

Gabriele Scardocci

Matter over Mind: The Insufficiency of Unity of Will Theologies

Thomas S. Drobena

Session 26 (Aula minor)

Manlio Simonetti e la storiografia su Nicea: contesto, evento,
recezione

Manlio Simonetti e la storiografia su Nicea: il contesto del Concilio

Andrea Cavallini

Manlio Simonetti e la storiografia su Nicea: l’evento del Concilio

Emmanuel Albano

Manlio Simonetti e la storiografia su Nicea: la recezione del Concilio

Chiara Curzel
END OF DAY

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 April 4th 2025

The Conference meets at the Angelicum

8.45 Welcome to the Angelicum

Fr Thomas Joseph-White, OP, Rector Magnificus

PLENARY LECTURES (Aula magna)

9-9.30
The expression of alterity in the Bible at the heart of the debates on
Nicene homoousios (350-380)
Hélène Grelier-Deneux

9.30-10
Anathemas as a Means of Enforcing Dogmatic Conformity in the
Early Church
Wolfram Kinzig

COFFEE BREAK

10.20-10.50
Distinguishing 'Heresy' and 'Schism': The Reception of the Nicene
Canons in the Canonical Epistles of Basil of Caesarea
David Hunter

10.50-11.20
Intimations of Divine Life in Nicene Theology:
The example of Athanasius
Lewis Ayres

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COFFEE BREAK

11.45-12.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 27 (Aula 11)

Ilario di Poitiers e il suo De Synodis: una feconda testimonianza di
ricezione del Simbolo niceno
Jean-Paul Lieggi

L’unità della sostanza divina secondo Niceta di Remesiana

Ivan Bodrožic

Session 28 (Aula 13)

Ripartire da Nicea. Il concilio che inventò un linguaggio per Dio
Stefano Fenaroli [Editrice Queriniana] PANEL DISCUSSION

Session 29 (Aula minor)

The Legacy of Nicaea (AD 325) Through the Poetic lens of Three
Church Doctors (Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis)
Bradley Bowman

Nicaea in the Desert: The Nicene Christ and the Ascetic Experience
of Deification in Early Monasticism
Daniel Lemeni

Session 30 (Aula magna)

Retrieving Retrieval for Reformation: Post-Nicene Reception of
Nicaea and Its Implications for Contemporary Protestant Retrieval
Projects
Matthew Emerson & Brandon D. Smith

The Triune God In The Economy According To The Nicene Creed

Shin Kai Clarence Tong

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12.35-2.30 Lunch

14.30 - 15.45 SHORT PAPERS

Session 31 (Aula magna)

Nicaea as Development of Doctrine: Approaches from the Patristic
Era to Today in Gregory of Nyssa, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry
Newman, and David Bentley Hart

Synodal Authority as Reactive Clarification in Gregory of Nyssa

Matthew Newell

Reading the Fathers ‘Reverently’: Does Thomas’s Reading of the

Greek Ante-Nicene Fathers in Contra errores Graecorum allow for
the Development of Doctrine?”
Mary DeBroeck

Hart and Newman on Understanding Nicene Orthodoxy as an

Authentic Development of Doctrine in the Christian Tradition
Adam J. Urrutia

Session 32 (Aula minor)

The Council of Nicaea in the Paintings of the Trinity Church of the
Kyiv Cave Lavra
Lidiya Lozova

The Iconography for the Sunday of the Fathers of the First

Ecumenical Council: a curious case from Ukrainian iconostases of
the 17th-19th centuries
Solomiia Tymo

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Legacy of the Council of Nicaea in Catholic and Orthodox
Iconography
Aleksander Stenko and Viktor Barashkov

Session 33 (Aula 3)
"Almighty” Father, Subjected Son? The Conceptual Ambiguity of
Pantocrator in the Nicene Creed (325)
Grant M. Sutherland

A Vision of the Priest as an Icon of Christ the Bridegroom in Canon

15 of Nicaea
Dominic Wolters

Tra Oriente e Occidente: Colossesi 1,15-16 in Marcello di Ancira e in

Ilario di Poitiers
Roberta Franchi

Session 34 (Aula 11)

Dio senza essenza? La dialettica “comune”-“proprio” nella
pneumatologia di Agostino
Mattia Antonio

Agostino e l'arianesimo
Juliano de Almeida Oliveira

Hagiographica Nicenae. Considerazioni per uno studio

dell'agiografia del Concilio dei 318 “santi” padri.
Diego Arfuch

COFFEE BREAK

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16.20-17.35 SHORT PAPERS

[Please note the slightly different time for Session 39]

Session 35 (Aula 3)
Le rôle de la foi trinitaire dans la sotériologie de Grégoire de
Nazianze. Une analyse du Discours sur la Pâques (or. 45)
Louis Desclèves

The Cappadocian Fathers and the ‘Three Hypostases’

Ekene Chinweuba

«La dolce e bella fonte dell’antica fede»: rappresentazioni del

Concilio di Nicea in Gregorio Nazianzeno
Antonio Stefano Sembiante

Session 36 (Aula minor)

Patristic Humility: Gregory of Nyssa and Analytic Metaphysics of
Powers
Pawel Rojek

From shared action to the unity of God: analytical readings of

Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian argumentation
Agnieszka Czepielik

Trinitarian Faith and Scriptural Hermeneutics: Basil of Caesarea’s

Exegesis in Against Eunomius
Andrij Hlabse

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 Session 37 (Aula 11)
Troubling Transformation? Nicene and pre-Nicene elements in
Philokalic spirituality
Thomas Cattoi

Between Enthusiasts and Rationalists: Defensio Fidei Nicaenae and

Christological Debates in Enlightenment England
Paul C.H. Lim

Contemporary African Christologies in the Light of Nicaea 325:

Theological and Philosophical Reflections
Okelloh Ogera

Session 38 (Aula magna)

Cyril of Alexandria’s Analogical Transformation of Divine Simplicity
Nathan Porter

An Examination of the Fragments of a Macedonian Dialogue in

Didymus (?), De Trinitate
Matthew Crawford

Augustine’s De Trinitate & Cyril’s Dialogues on the Trinity as Literary

Gymnasiums for a Pro-Nicene Ascesis of the Mind
John Kegley

Session 39 (Aula 14)

Please note that Session 39 will begin at 4.30, not 4.15

Le rôle de Constantin le Grand au Concile de Nicée - un modèle pour

les empereurs byzantins des IVe-VIIe siècles
Manuela Dobre

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ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων (from things that are visible): Role of εἰκών and
παραδείγμα in the Nicaean trinitarian doctrine
John Jebaseelan

The Immutability of God’s Beauty in Gregory of Nyssa’s Theology of

Incarnation
Ibuki Yamane

END OF DAY

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 April 5th 2025

The Conference meets at the Angelicum

9-10am PLENARY LECTURE (Aula magna)

Eusebius of Caesarea and the Council of Nicaea: A New

Comprehensive Reconstruction.
Samuel Fernández

COFFEE BREAK

PLENARY LECTURES (Aula magna)

10.20-10.50
A model council? Images of Nicaea
Thomas Graumann

10.50-11.20
The Easter Date: Old and New Evidence
Peter Van Nuffelen

COFFEE BREAK

11.45-12.35 SHORT PAPERS

Session 40 (Aula minor)

The Reception of the Nicene Council by the Church of the East
Roby Vadana

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A Council of Martyrs and Heresiarchs. The Council of Nicaea in East
Syriac Historiography
Jonathan Stutz

Session 41 (Aula 13)

Visualizing Church and State: Constantine at the Council of Nicaea
Ishmael Adibuah

“The Great Council” (ἡ μεγάλη σύνοδος): Nicaea and the other

Councils of the Ancient Church
Alberto Nigra

Session 42 (Aula magna)

Gregory of Nazianzen's use of Mystical Imagery and Vocabulary in
Trinitarian Discourse
Taras Tymo

The Nicene Truth, as a ‘theology of theology’: The experience of “the

same truth” precedes the linguistic formulation
Nichifor Tănase

Session 43 (Aula 14)

Revisiting Nicaea: Significance for Indian Christian Response to
Hindutva
Ashish John Archer

The 318 Fathers Proclaimed True: The Nicene Creed in Early

Christian Dialogue with Islam
Anthony Baldwin

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 Session 44 (Aula 15)
Herman Bavinck, James Orr, and the Reception of Nicaea: A Neo-
Calvinist Perspective
Davide Ibrahim

Necessary but not Enough? Questions Around the Ecumenical Use

of Nicaea
Leonardo de Chirico

12.35-2.30 Lunch

14.30 - 15.45 SHORT PAPERS

Session 45 (Aula minor)

Apophaticism in Hilary of Poitiers
Miren A. Aroztegi Esnaola

The unnoticed allusion to Eusebius of Caesarea's creed in Eustathius

of Antioch's fragment 79:angelo ὡς δὲ ἐζητεῖτο τῆς πίστεως ὁ τρόπος
Unai Buil Zamorano

From "epéiká des ousías" to the Trinity of an incarnate God. From

Elea to Nicaea
Paolo Gamberini
Session 46 (Aula 3)
A Unique Articulation of Nicene Theology: Examining Eustathius of
Antioch’s Contra Ariomanitas et de Anima
Adam Renberg

Eustathius of Antioch’s 'Soulless' Christ: The Framing of the Concept

as an Ariomanite Doctrine in Contra Ariomanitas et de Anima
Katya Kirkwood

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A x-from-x formula in Eustathius of Antioch
Elia Scapini

Session 47 (Aula magna)

Augustine's 'Trinity of the Mind' and the Pro-Nicene/Anti-Homoian
Structure of De Trinitate
Samuel Korb

Augustine’s reception of the Creed of Nicaea from 325

Mădălina-Gabriela Pantea

A Pro-Nicene Psychological Analogy: Inseparable Operations and

Inseparable Faculties in Augustine's De trinitate
Christopher Howard

Session 48 (Aula 14)

Customs and Canons at Nicaea and Beyond: Reception and
Reformation
Elisabeth Rain Kincaid

Nicene Law’s Enduring Legacy: An Embarrassing Hindrance to

Credibility and Dialogue?
Nicolas Steeves

The digamoi of Canon 8 of Nicaea: Status Quaestionis

Aaron Pidel

Session 49 (Aula 15)

Pre-Nicene heresies in retrospect. Gregory of Nyssa’s analysis of early
heterodox teaching in his homilies
Jonathan Farrugia

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A debate that followed the Council of Nicaea about the physical
images in the Holy Trinity between Saint Athanasius and Saint Basil
Achilleas Dellopoulos

Deification Gone Wrong: When Adoption Becomes Adoptionism:

Thomas Aquinas
on Photinus
Joseph Hudson

COFFEE BREAK

16.20-17.35 PANEL DISCUSSION

(Aula magna)

The Future of Nicene Studies

END OF CONFERENCE

Following the end of the conference there will be a reception

between 7pm and 10pm generously provided by the Domus
Australia on the Via Cernaia to which all are welcome.

https://www.domusaustralia.org/en/location/

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