Arianism was a belief that was unbelievably divisive with regards to Christians during the earliest times of Christianity’s existence. Arianism is a belief system which questions the divinity of Jesus as well as some of his divine origins. Those who believed in what early Christians referred to by using a term that they liked to use called ‘Arianism’ thought that Jesus wasn’t a God or equal to God. Airans saw Jesus as a person whose life, like the lives of all people who lived in ancient Roman times as well as modern times, had a beginning as well as an end. To those who believed in Arianism during ancient times, Jesus was a person who wasn’t exactly like other people, but was not the equal of God, either. A large amount of what the Arians who were alive during ancient times after the crucifixion of Jesus believed that is available today is information that was written by people who lived at the time who were opposed to Arianism, so determining precisely what ancient Arians believed is not something that is a simple task to accomplish. Those who believed in Arianism during times of antiquity, like many who considered themselves Christian during those times, often disagreed with each other. Arianism was one of the biggest, most divisive dissensions within the Christianity of older ages, and Arians had disagreemants amongst themselves. Exactly how far from being a divine creature Jesus was inspired serious, consequential, expressive disputes amongst Arians.
Because of the fact that all of the whole conglomeration of concepts concerning Arianism came from a priest named Arius who lived during the antiquated ages of early Christianity and taught his beliefs to others while he existed, early Christians dubbed many forms of thought that followed that appeared to follow that line of thinking ‘Arianism’ after the Arius who, during the time that he was alive, taught that Jesus was not divine in nature in a manner equivalent to God. Arius was excommunicated more than once while he was alive, but he had a significant amount of followers remained loyal to his ideas and helped to spread his beliefs even after he died. Arianism caused a lot of conflict and controversy within the early Christian church during those times. Arius was someone who had a strong influence within educational institutions that members of the public attended during that time in history, and he used his influence to spread his ideas amongst the populace. The result was that the beliefs and ideas that Arius advocated ended up spreading fast and becoming popular quickly. Arianism became an idea that went from being relatively obscure to being something that questioned and challenged more orthodox Christian ideas in a short amount of time. Modern practitioners of the religion of Christianity will recognize remnants of the beliefs of Arianism in forms of faith which exist today such as Unitarianism as well as the type of spirituality practiced by those who consider themselves to be Jehovah Witnesses.