Christological Controversy Study Area

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The Christological Controversy Study Area

Resources on the exploration of the person of Christ from Nicaea to Chalcedon (325-451)

I. Background: A History of the Controversy

Read first: An introduction to this study area

'Who do you say that I am?' An introduction to patristic Christology - M.C. Steenberg

The Question at Stake: The incarnational becoming and the nature or natures of Christ

Two 'Schools': Alexandria and Antioch

The title Theotokos: the controversy expanded

II. Key Personalities in the Discussion

Apollinarius (c. 310/20s - c. 390)

Bishop of Laodicia and staunch supporter of the Nicene homoousion, who in combatting the Christology of Arius developed the view that Christ had a human body and a human sensitive ('physical') soul, but lacked a rational human mind and instead had only a divine mind (often expressing this more extremely as Christ having no human soul at all); asserting also that Christ possessed an 'heavenly flesh'. From 376 on he openly promoted such views, for which he was condemned at local councils in 377, 381, and then at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381.

Athanasius of Alexandria (299 - 328)

Successor to Alexander as bishop of Alexandria, having attended the council of Nicaea as a deacon. Became known in time as the chief supporter of Nicaea and its homoousion - though initially made little use of either in his Christological discourse. Insistent upon the full divinity of the Logos who is made flesh in the incarnation, who thus redeems and saves by incarnate re-creation.

Diodore of Tarsus (died c. 390)

Teacher of St John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia, in AD 378 bishop of Tarsus; a leading figure at the Council of Constantinople. After his death, his views came under suspicion with the hightening of the controversy surrounding Nestorius, of whose thought Diodore was taken by many to be a precursor. Eventually condemned in AD 499.

Theodore of Mopsuestia (350 - 428)

Biblical exegete and Christological theologian, often considered, with Diodore, a 'founding father' of the Antiochene Christological tradition. A friend of John Chrysostom, by whom he was encouraged to study Christian philosophy and take up the ascetic life; bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia in 392. A combattant of the heresies of his day (esp. Apollianarianism, but also Arianism and others), Theodore is often considered a forerunner of Nestorianism and, less compellingly, an advocate of Pelagianism. Though dying in union with the Church and highly revered, his theology came into question after his death for perceived Nestorian trademarks, and some of his writings, along with his doctrine of the incarnation, were condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople, 533.

Nestorius (c. 381 - c. 451)

Patriarch of Constantinople in AD 428, Nestorius inherited the Christological paradigmes of his predecessors in the Antiochene tradition, Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Convinced of the need to posit a concrete prosopon or 'person' for each of Christ's two natures, Nestorius conceived of the incarnational union as one of 'appearance' or alignment, hence incurring charges of preaching a 'two-Sons Christology'. Became the source of debate when, in 429, he rejected the term Theotokos as implying a false Christology. Condemned at Ephesus in 431. Many today believe that Nestorius the person should be separated or at least distanced from Nestorianism, the heretical over-extension of diphysitism. (Further biographical information)

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376/8 - 444)

Nephew of Theophilus, whom he succeeded to the episcopal throne of Alexandria in 412. On taking up his episcopal office became an avid defender of the faith and active pursuant of heretics in the capital. Cyril is remembered above all for his Christological disputes with Nestorius, in which he came most famously to define the incarnation as an hypostatic union of appropriation. Though he was criticized by Antiochenes and Alexandrians alike on grounds of his 'one nature' (mia physis) formula, both later recognised his orthodoxy and canonised him as the sphragis pateron - 'seal of the fathers'.

John of Antioch (died 441)

Patriarch of Antioch from 428; a friend and fellow student of Nestorius. John was for a time a supporter of Nestorius and stood opposed to the Council of Ephesus in 431, at which he took part in condemning Cyril of Alexandria. The period after Ephesus was filled with the move towards rapprochement between Cyril and John, which eventually came about in 433 and is signified by the so-called 'Formula of Reunion'. Thenceforth he was reconciled to the previous council. (Further biographical information)

Leo the Great of Rome (d. 461)

Pope of Rome from 440, Leo the Great is known most widely for his post-Ephesian interaction with the Christological discourse of the Christian East. Through the influence of his Tome to Flavian, Leo came to be one of the chief theological voices of the council at Chalcedon in 451.