While the Council of Nicaea is best known for its watermark creed and political context, this paper will examine the pastoral theology of the Canons of Nicaea. Often neglected in the study of Nicaea, the Canons give a snapshot of the shared convictions about ministry and illuminate the pastoral concerns of the leaders behind the Nicene Creed.
Major titles on Nicaea emphasize its theological context, exegesis, and conflicts (Ayres’ Nicaea and Its Legacy, Behr’s The Way to Nicaea and The Nicene Faith) or how its political context impacted it (Hendrickson and Kirpatrick’s Constantine and the Council of Nicaea). The Canons, while receiving generally less attention, have recent overviews (Weckworth in The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea) and classic studies. However, few treatments study the pastoral theology of the Canons of Nicaea, and through them, of the leaders gathered at Nicaea.
The Canons of Nicaea articulate three pastoral convictions: a virtuous ministry, a unified ministry, and an effective ministry. Ten of the twenty Canons deal with the virtue of church leaders (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18), indicating some problems among church leaders but also giving a particular vision for balanced virtue in ministry. For example, Canon 1 forbids the willfully castrated from entering or continuing in ministry, while Canon 3 forbids unmarried leaders from living with a woman of the opposite sex. These indicate a balanced view of sexual virtue: leaders must be sexually above reproach, but not presume to take such a radical action as castration to prove their commitment to purity. The canons give similarly balanced directives concerning the maturity, self-control, and financial temperance of leaders (2, 9, 17).
Five canons show a concern for a united ministry, providing measures for working out conflict and delineating clear relationships between various offices (5, 6, ,7, 8, 18). These canons demonstrate that the leaders at Nicaea believed the church best served by leaders who are unified and have provisions for dealing with sin among themselves. Most revealing of this conviction are the Canons that prescribe general rules but make exceptions if there are leaders acting from contentious spirits (5, 6).
Finally, several of the Canons show a concern for an effective ministry. The church is to deal mercifully but intentionally with the lapsed, providing an open but intensive process for restoration (11, 12). Moreover, particular provisions are made for those who return from schismatic groups, and clergy are forbidden from moving from place to place (8, 16, 17). These Canons show concern for consistent pastoral care for the whole church and reveal pastoral wisdom for the most divisive ecclesiological issues in the Nicene church.
After expositing the pastoral vision of the Canons, I will conclude by tracing some continuities between them and other eras and make a few suggestions about the Canons’ relevance for modern ministry.