Creeds
Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D.
Act V
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all
with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and
complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also
of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios)
with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time
of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in
all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten
of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood
begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the
Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ,
Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without
confusion, without change, without division, without
separation; the distinction of natures being in no way
annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each
nature being preserved and coming together to form one person
and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons,
but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord
Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke
of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the
creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.
Nestorianism
1.
The theology of the church is not precise, but there are
traits of ancient Nestorianism, which holds that there were
two separate persons in Christ?one divine, the other human.
Its members venerate Nestorius as a saint, deny the Virgin the
title Mother of God while otherwise honoring her highly, and
reject the ecumenical councils after the second.
2. The Nestorian Church (also known as the East Syrian or
Assyrian Church) takes its name form Nestorius, bishop of
Constantinople (d.c.451). Nestorius is believed to have
asserted that Christ was composed of two persons, God the Son
and the man Jesus and that it was only the man Jesus who was
born of the Virgin Mary and who died on the cross.
Accordingly, Nestorius claimed that it was wrong to describe
the Virgin Mary as theotokos (mother of God); instead she
should be referred to as christotokos (mother of Christ). This
contradicted the orthodox understanding of Christ as one
Person who embodied two natures, divine and human.
3.
4.
Eastern Christianity on the Eve of Islam, by Dr. George Khoury
Monophysitism
1.
Monophysitism produced the greatest schism that the Eastern
Church had suffered. Strictly speaking, the Monophysites were
those who did not accept the doctrine of the two natures
(divine and human) in the one person of Jesus as it was
formulated by the council of Chalcedon (451). They took for
their watchword "the one nature of the incarnate Word of God",
because the Monophysites believed that this terminology was
the most natural and proper way to guard against Nestorian
formulations. The question of the terminology is of vital
importance in this matter, because there was no clearly
defined theological language and terminology at the time.
Thus, it seems that the dispute between monophysites and
Chalcedonian orthodoxy was mainly one of the terms: to
Monophysites, terms "nature" and "person" synonymous, and to
those maintained the two natures of Christ, the terms "nature"
and "essence."
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