The first Christians among the Goths were Romans captured by Gothic invaders in the middle of the 3rd century. Their gothizised descendants in Gotthia, the country of the Gothic Terwingi north of the lower Danube, were considered orthodox by Roman observers as late as the 370s. Gothic Arianism on the other hand developed within the Roman empire in a small Christian Gothic community established in the Balkan region and led by the Gothic bishop Ulfila. He had originally been ordained bishop of the Christians in Gotthia in 336, but was exiled together with a number of correligionists by antichristian persecution during the 340s. The distinguishing features of Gothic Arianism are: 1) adherence to the "homoean" creed as expressed in the formula of Nike (359), and 2) the ecclesiastical use of the Gothic language including a Gothic bible translated from Greek by Ulfila. In Gotthia this kind of Christianity gained a foothold soon after 369 as a result of the conversion of the chieftain Fritigern, who ruled over apart of the Terwingi. In 376 most of the Terwingi took refuge from the Huns in the East Roman empire. There they formed the new Gothic nation of the Visigoths and followed Fritigern in adopting Gothic Arianism at a time when the eastern empire favoured the homoean doctrine as official creed. Since 379, however, it was banned by Theodosius. Nevertheless the Goths continued adhering to it. Early in the 5th century the transition of the Visigoths into the western empire transplanted it to the West. There it spread to Vandals, Burgundians, and Suevi. After the collapse of Hunic power in 455 Arian Goths still remaining in the Balkan region transmitted their Arian Christianity to Ostrogoths and Gepids. The Lombard ruling classes adopted it some years before the Lombard invasion of Icaly (568). Gothic arianism was not a way of "germanization of Christianity". This idea derived from an unfounded romantic concept of nation. But for Germanic invaders amidst an overwhelming Roman population it meant an expression of ethnic identity. Steady acculturation to the Roman majority, however, and an increasing identification of the Roman part of the population with the barbarian kingdoms weakened its position. It was abandoned by the Burgundians, Suevi, and Visigoths in the 6th, and by the Lombards in the 7th century. Vandal, Ostrogothic, and Gepidic arianism vanished after these nations were dissolved by the Byzantine reconquest of Northern Africa and Italy, and the subjugation of the Gepids to the Avars.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 2004/Nr.6 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2004)

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Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Schäferdiek, Knut

Schlagwörter: Christentum Kirchengeschichte Goten