arian
n. countablen. a person who follows a specific set of beliefs about Jesus that were popular in the early church. These beliefs were later seen as different from the main Christian teachings.
n. a follower of the theological doctrine of Arius, which holds that the Son of God is a created being and therefore subordinate to the Father. Historically significant in the context of the First Council of Nicaea.
The Arian movement caused a lot of debate in the early church.
Scholars study the Arian controversy to understand how early Christian theology developed and eventually reached a consensus.
The spread of Arianism across the Germanic tribes during the fifth century significantly influenced the religious landscape of the emerging medieval kingdoms in Western Europe.