Sixteen learned essays offer a nearly panoramic view of the Council of Nicaea, its background, its aftermath down to the 380s, and (more thinly) its reception to the present-day. After the editor's introductory chapter come five parts addressing, in turn: first, the imperial-political and theological contexts for the council (Raymond Van Dam and Rebecca Lyman); second, the council itself, including the physical location (Ine Jacobs), the proceedings (David M. Gwynn), and Constantine's role (H. A. Drake); third, three theological products of the council (creed: Mark J. Edwards, canons: Andreas Weckwerth, Easter dating: Daniel P. Mc Carthy) and Eusebius's conciliar narrative (Aaron P. Johnson); fourth, key topics in the fourth-century reception of the council (a narrative of developments to 360: Sara Parvis, Neo-Nicenism in the East: Mark DelCogliano, Apollinarius: Kelley McCarthy Spoerl, and Western Homoianism and Neo-Nicenism: D. H. Williams); fifth, the later reception of the council, treated in a pair of essays by Paul L. Gavrilyuk and Geoffrey D. Dunn. A list of signatories—prepared by Ian Mladjov—and a translation of the conciliar letter to the Egyptians concludes the volume (unfortunately without description of the letter's provenance).

Such a rich selection allows for an invigorating diversity of angles on one of the most impactful events in the history of the post-apostolic church. Some articles have special luster. Parvis's narrative balances imperial politics, theological diversity, and personal and party differences in a compelling account of the vicissitudes of the council's reception down to 360. Similarly impressive is Gwynn's attempt to reconstruct the council's dynamics. The palpable sense of the gathering as a historical event is deepened by Jacobs's description of the material context. This, as the only archeological study, is a crucial element in the volume as a whole; I did, therefore, wish for a map of the eastern Mediterranean (shown, too small, in appendix I), to accompany the map of Nicaea itself.

The central three parts—on the council, its products, and the theological aftermath—work quite well as a collection. Cross-references among articles are common, though even more might have been made. More than just a series of narratives of overlapping topics, the fourth section also illustrates a range of opinions on how the controversy developed; direct recognition of methodological differences—which might have led DelCogliano to pare down his first section, as it is a less detailed counterpart to Parvis's narrative—would have made the volume into a tighter whole. Still, it does much better than many other multiauthor volumes at producing a coherent overview of its topic.

The other parts are shorter and (perhaps inevitably) a little less satisfying. For example, Lyman's concise overview of scholarship on Arius's theological aims is impressive, but her concluding reflections on social and apologetic context needed more room—the lack of a chapter surveying Alexandrian Christianity is felt. To have the perspective of Roman as well as church historians adds much value to the volume and could have guarded other contributors against assuming that Theodosius was able, as early as 380, to establish Nicene Christianity over an empire of which he had only partial rulership (nigh the only area where the volume's judiciously selected bibliography ran thin). There is, nonetheless, a blurring of theological complexities, when Van Dam suggests that the Tetrarchs’ self-presentation as clients of Jupiter and Hercules was analogous to Trinitarian concerns (35) and Drake “that the agendas of the bishops and emperor were similar (homoiousios), rather than identical (homoousios)” (119). As a volume such as this is sure to attract lay and student readers, it would have been best to leave such thoughts out.

My one general qualm is, in fact, unclarity about the intended audience. Kim, who frames the volume with the conciliar scene in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (now a bit dated, he acknowledges [3]) and an illustration of the council's ongoing theological relevance, expresses the “hope that there is something for everyone interested in the Council of Nicaea” (11). That admirable goal is certainly attained, but is each article as accessible to every reader as it could be? A few small measures would have helped the nonspecialist: consistent translation of footnoted quotations (modeled by Mc Carthy) and addition of full source information to citations of Opitz's Urkunden (modeled by Johnson [202n1]). Some pieces, especially in the third part, are inevitably technical; that said, they are not without profit for the diligent generalist. Weckwerth offers a useful window into problems of church discipline in the 300s and Edwards a trenchant demonstration of the instability of the creed's text which will interest theologians as much as historians. Mc Carthy's article opens with a dense discussion of Dionysius Exiguus's Paschal cycle; many readers will wish to begin a few pages in with the Passover, then step backwards.

Comprehensiveness is impossible, as Kim rightly observes (11), and to complain about omissions—e.g., of focused studies of Athanasius and of the continuation of Western Homoianism beyond the beginnings charted by Williams—would be unfair. Granted the volume's disciplinary breadth, however, there did seem to be one missed opportunity. We receive two précis—each efficiently linked back to the earlier studies—of reception of Nicaea in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Where, however, are Protestant appropriations of Nicaea (foregrounded, in fact, in Kim's introduction)? To consider why “not all Christian communions in the West take the Nicene faith as a valid expression of the apostolic teaching” (Gavrilyuk 327) would have offered not just a better-rounded discussion of the council's ongoing impact but suggestive analogies with the fourth-century debate.

That is as much as to say that The Companion to the Council of Nicaea provokes further thought about its subject as well as interest in the facets on offer here; and that, I hope, will be a sign that it has achieved its purpose.