This has nothing whatsoever to do with the Nazi idea of Aryanism, by the way. Arianism was a Christian notion dating from the very beginning of the faith, and was widely accepted in the Gothic (eastern European) parts of the world.

The core of Arianism belief was that Jesus was definitely a deity but was separate and below God in the hierarchy of heaven. That meant that they didn't accept the concept of the Trinity, or that Jesus was actually a part of God himself. They didn't direct their worship to Jesus but rather solely to God.

The Arians based their belief on several statements by Jesus in the Gospels where he says that God is greater than himself and that only God is worthy of worship. Even though that notion was strongly suppressed by the early church, it's still a topic that gets debated by some religious scholars.

Arianism was declared a heresy by the first council of Nicaea in 325 and its followers were treated very brutally. There were actually major armed conflicts between the mainstream church and followers of Arianism in the early years of the first milleneum before many of them were killed and they were defeated.

Although I personally question whether Jesus was a deity, my beliefs are closer to those of the Arians than the traditional church. So what do you think? Does anyone want to discuss whether the Arians had a valid point or whether the mainstream church was correct in suppressing them?
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