Heresy

It is early in the fourth century AD, and Christianity has become a religion in search of a theology. Roman persecution has ended, but doctrinal debates threaten to tear the church apart as the early church fathers strive to solve a mystery inherited from their apostolic tradition: how both Father and Son might be thought of as God, and yet as distinct, without doing violence to the tenet that God is One. Enter Arius, a Libyan priest who comes to Alexandria to preach an answer: that the Son of God is a created being of a different substance than the Father, and not fully divine. When the Archbishop condemns his teachings and banishes him from the city, Arius’ local apostacy expands into a worldwide schism as bishops and clergy throughout the Mediterranean world take sides. Desperate to use the religion as a force for political unity, the Christian emperor Constantine calls a convention of bishops at Nicaea to resolve the dispute. As debate begins, a consensus answer seems out of reach--until a young Alexandrian deacon presses a solution that will forever shape orthodoxy in a different direction.

Frank Spinella is a trial attorney by vocation, and a writer by avocation. He is a graduate of Cornell University, receiving a BA in Philosophy in 1976 and a law degree in 1979. He has practiced at law firms in Washington, DC, and New Haven, CT, as in-house counsel to a major trade association headquartered in New York City, and since 1987 at his own firm in Concord, NH. Spinella is listed in Best Lawyers in America in several fields, including commercial litigation. He has authored a number of law journal articles and two novels.