325 CE: (The African Architects of the Nicene Creed — The Egyptian Patriarch of Alexandria St.

325 CE: (The African Architects of the Nicene Creed — The Egyptian Patriarch of Alexandria St. Alexander and His Protégé Athanasius Being Leading Proponents at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE in the Debates That Established the Christian Belief in the Trinity and Produced the Nicene Creed, Perhaps the Most Influential Figure of All in Western Catholic Christianity Being Still Another African of Amazigh Descent — St. Augustine Born in the Fourth Century CE in Hippo in What Is Today Algeria): The Egyptian patriarch of Alexandria, St. Alexander, and his protégé Athanasius were leading proponents at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE in the debates that established the Christian belief in the Trinity and produced the overall statement of Christian beliefs known as the Nicene Creed. Perhaps the most influential figure of all, in the development of Western Catholic Christianity in particular, was still another African of Amazigh descent — St. Augustine, born in the fourth century CE in Hippo in what is today Algeria. The Nicene Creed — the doctrinal foundation on which every subsequent century of Christian theology would be built — was shaped decisively by Africans. Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria fought the battle against Arianism that defined Christian orthodoxy for all time, and they won. The doctrine of the Trinity — the central mystery of the Christian faith, the theological proposition that distinguishes Christianity from every other monotheistic religion — was articulated and defended by an Egyptian patriarch and his Egyptian protégé against opponents who would have reduced Christ to a created being. Without Africa, Christianity would be a different religion. And then there is Augustine. The Amazigh from Hippo who became the single most influential theologian in the history of Western Christianity — the man whose ideas about original sin, grace, predestination, and the relationship between church and state would shape Catholic doctrine for sixteen centuries and provide the intellectual foundations for the Protestant Reformation as well. Augustine is not merely a church father. He is the architect of the Western Christian mind, and he was African — born on African soil, raised in an African city, educated in an African intellectual tradition that had already produced Tertullian and Cyprian. The Western church is an African construction, built by African minds on African foundations, and the silence about this fact in the standard narrative of Christian history is one of the great intellectual frauds of the Western academy.