two natures of Christ

Acacian Schism

• TITLE: Acacian Schism (Christianity)
  ...between orthodox Christians and monophysites. The Henotikon’s theological formula incorporated the decisions of the general Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) and recognized Christ’s divinity, but it omitted any reference to the orthodox distinction of Christ’s human and divine essences, as enunciated by the Council of Chalcedon (451), and in so doing made important...

Adoptionism

• TITLE: Adoptionism (Christian heresy)
  ...as Dynamic Monarchianism (see Monarchianism); the other began in the 8th century in Spain and was concerned with the teaching of Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo. Wishing to distinguish in Christ the operations of each of his natures, human and divine, Elipandus referred to Christ in his humanity as “adopted son” in contradistinction to Christ in his divinity, who is the...

Aphthartodocetism

• TITLE: Aphthartodocetism (Christian heresy)
  (Greek aphthartos, “incorruptible”), a Christian heresy of the 6th century that carried Monophysitism (“Christ had but one nature and that divine”) to a new extreme; it was proclaimed by Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus, who asserted that the body of Christ was divine and therefore naturally incorruptible and impassible; Christ, however, was free to will his...

Arianism

• TITLE: Arianism (Christian heresy)
  a Christian heresy first proposed early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. It affirmed that Christ is not truly divine but a created being. Arius’ basic premise was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot be God. Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated, so the Son cannot be God....

church unity

• TITLE: Christianity
  SECTION: Early controversies
  ...and believed, articulating this faith in the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition, which stated that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, true man, and true God, one person in “two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” Some groups deviated doctrinally from the consensus developed in the councils. The Nestorians taught that...

Docetism

• TITLE: Docetism (religion)
  (from Greek dokein, “to seem”), Christian heresy and one of the earliest Christian sectarian doctrines, affirming that Christ did not have a real or natural body during his life on earth but only an apparent or phantom one. Though its incipient forms are alluded to in the New Testament, such as in the Letters of John (e.g., 1 John 4:1–3; 2 John 7), Docetism...

dyophysites

• TITLE: Armenia
  SECTION: The marzpāns
  ...(451), a decisive step that cut them off from the West as surely as they were already ideologically severed from the East. (According to the dyophysite formula, Christ, the Son of God, consists of two natures, “without confusion, without change, without separation, without division.”)

Incarnation

• TITLE: Incarnation (Jesus Christ)
  ...that God assumed a human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. Christ was truly God and truly man. The doctrine maintains that the divine and human natures of Jesus do not exist beside one another in an unconnected way but rather are joined in him in a personal unity that has traditionally been referred to as the hypostatic...
• TITLE: theism (religion)
  SECTION: Theism and incarnation
  ...ethical teaching and character of saints and prophets, who have a special role to play in transmitting the divine message. In some religions this tendency culminates in doctrines of incarnation, of God manifesting himself expressly in refined or perfected human form. This trend is peculiarly marked in the Christian religion, in which the claim is usually made that a unique and “once for...

Melchites

• TITLE: Melchite (Christian sect)
  any of the Christians of Syria and Egypt who accepted the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon (451) affirming the two natures—divine and human—of Christ. Because they shared the theological position of the Byzantine emperor, they were derisively termed Melchites—that is, Royalists or Emperor’s Men (from Syriac malkā: “king”)—by those who rejected...

monophysites

• TITLE: monophysite (Christianity)
  in Christianity, one who believed that Jesus Christ’s nature remains altogether divine and not human even though he has taken on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death.

patristic literature

• TITLE: patristic literature (Christianity)
  SECTION: The post-Nicene period
  ...doctrine of the Trinity. In the 5th century the Christological question moved to the fore, and the Council of Chalcedon (451), completing that of Ephesus (431), defined Christ as one person in two natures. The Christological controversies of the 5th century were extremely complex, involving not only theological issues but also issues of national concerns—especially in the...
• TITLE: patristic literature (Christianity)
  SECTION: The Chalcedonian Fathers
  ...approach, according to which the Word had united himself to a complete man; this position ran the risk, unless carefully handled, of so separating the divinity and the humanity as to imperil Christ’s personal unity.

Severinus

• TITLE: Severinus (pope)
  ...Severinus to conform to imperial demands. Severinus was steadfast, and his legates eventually secured Heraclius’s confirmation. Consecrated on May 28, 640, he promptly declared the orthodoxy of Christ’s two natures and two wills. The condemnation of Monothelitism, carried on by his immediate successors as well, caused strained relations between Rome and Constantinople for several decades.

Cyril of Alexandria

• TITLE: Saint Cyril of Alexandria (Christian theologian)
  ...leader. The conflict concerned not only doctrinal matters; it also reflected the Egyptians’ fear that Constantinople might come to dominate them. The religious argument involved the relation of the divine and human within Jesus Christ. Cyril emphasized the unity of the two in one Person, while Nestorius so emphasized their distinctness that he seemed to be splitting Christ into two Persons...

Nestorius

• TITLE: Nestorius (bishop of Constantinople)
  early bishop of Constantinople whose views on the nature and person of Christ led to the calling of the Council of Ephesus in 431 and to Nestorianism, one of the major Christian heresies. A few small Nestorian churches still exist. (See also Nestorian.)

Theodore of Mopsuestia

• TITLE: Theodore Of Mopsuestia (Syrian theologian)
  Theologically, Theodore insisted that Christ’s person has two natures: divine and human. Basing this Christological issue on a psychological analysis of personality, he believed that the human and divine natures were some kind of union, as between body and soul. His Christology opposed that of the Alexandrians and curbed speculation at large through his appreciation of the human nature in...

Theodore of Rhaithu

• TITLE: Theodore Of Rhaithu (Chalcedonian theologian)
  theologian-monk of a monastery at Rhaithu, a port on the Sinai Peninsula, considered the last of the Neo-Chalcedonian authors. His writings sought an orthodox formulation of doctrine on the nature of Christ. He thereby proposed to integrate the authoritative expression of Christ’s coexisting human and divine essences as decreed by the Council of Chalcedon (451) with the widespread mystical...

Theodoret of Cyrrhus

• TITLE: Theodoret Of Cyrrhus (Syrian theologian)
  ...the historical method of the 4th-century Antiochenes St. John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret took issue with the allegorical trend in Alexandrian (Egypt) theology that stressed the divine-mystical element in Christ, addressing him exclusively in terms of God (monophysitism). Adapting with greater precision the analytical approach of his colleague Nestorius, Theodoret in his...