The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (241 page)

Ari
(acronym)
:

see
LURIA, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON
.

 
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Arianism
.

The Christian
heresy
according to which the Son of God was a creature and not truly God. In the Arian system the Son could be called ‘God’, but only as a courtesy title; he was created (not begotten) by the Father, and he achieved his divine status by his perfect obedience to him. As a creature, it must be said of Christ
n pote hote ouk
n
(a famous slogan), ‘there was once when he was not’. The chief proponent of the doctrine was the Alexandrian priest
Arius
(
c.
250–
c.
336).

 
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Aridity
.

A state of emptiness or listlessness in which it is difficult to pray. Its cause may be physical illness or sinfulness. But much W. (as opposed to E.) Christian spirituality teaches that such aridity may mark the beginning of the
dark night of the soul
(cf.
JOHN OF THE CROSS
).

 
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Aristeas, Letter of
.

An anonymous Jewish composition written probably in the late 2nd cent. BCE. It is supposedly composed by Aristeas, a Greek at the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE) and describes the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. It seems to be designed to enhance the status of a Gk. translation.

 
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(384–322 BCE).
Greek philosopher whose influence on W. theology and philosophy has been prodigious—though it was not so much by a strict exegesis of his ideas as by an eclectic adaptation combined particularly with
Neoplatonism
. But the influence and adaptation are not surprising. In his own thought, a theology or science of God is the primary form of knowledge, partly because God is the source (
arche
) of all things, and partly because God alone possesses knowledge in the highest degree. The human desire to know is thus the highest truth of our being, and is potentially a sharing in God's knowledge of himself. This aspiration may in the past have been handed down in
myth
, but through
nous
(intellect or intelligence which is the essence of God's nature) humans attain to God. The insistence on the rationality of God and of the human possibility of entering into union with God through
nous
laid foundations for a theological and rational spirituality which flourished especially in Islam—albeit by then in a form which was Platonic. The real influence of Aristotle on W. Christian theology came in the 13th cent., mediated by Jews and Muslims, becoming a source of controversy (Aristotelianism was condemned in Paris in 1277), but providing nevertheless the philosophical basis for
scholasticism
, especially in St Thomas
Aquinas
.

 
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