Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 3.4
What you will learn
- Name the churches that did not accept Chalcedon and the two different groups they form.
- Explain the Oriental Orthodox position on one nature of the Word incarnate in their own terms.
- Explain the position of the Church of the East in relation to Ephesus and Nestorius.
- Describe the modern agreements that treat the dispute as largely about language.
The big idea
Not all Christians accepted Chalcedon. The Oriental Orthodox churches, including the Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Indian Orthodox churches, follow Cyril’s language of one incarnate nature of the Word and reject the Definition’s two natures. The Church of the East, based in Persia, had stopped at Ephesus and honored the Antiochene tradition. For fifteen centuries these churches were separated from the Catholic and Orthodox churches. In the late twentieth century joint declarations stated that, in the view of the signers, the faith was shared and the dispute largely concerned the meaning of words.
Key terms
- Oriental Orthodox
- A family of ancient churches that did not accept Chalcedon: Coptic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Eritrean Orthodox and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India. Not the same as Eastern Orthodox.
- Eastern Orthodox
- The family of churches, such as the Greek, Russian and Serbian, that accept Chalcedon and the later councils and are in communion with Constantinople.
- Miaphysite
- From Greek for one nature. The Oriental Orthodox self-description: Christ has one united nature, divine and human together, as Cyril taught. They distinguish it from Eutyches’s view.
- Monophysite
- A label used by opponents for those who say Christ has one nature, often taken to mean Eutyches’s view. Oriental Orthodox churches generally reject it as inaccurate.
- Dyophysite
- A person or church that holds to two natures in Christ, as Chalcedon does. The Church of the East is also dyophysite, in its own way.
- Church of the East
- The ancient church of the Persian empire and beyond, with its own councils and liturgy in Syriac. Its modern descendants include the Assyrian Church of the East.
- Henotikon
- A Greek word meaning unifying. The name of a statement of 482 by the emperor Zeno that tried to bridge the gap by avoiding Chalcedon.
Background
Chalcedon was accepted by the Roman emperors in Constantinople, but it was not accepted everywhere. In Egypt, Syria and Armenia, many saw the Definition as leaning toward Nestorius. Imperial attempts to enforce it caused riots, exile and long division, and some churches formed their own hierarchies. In Persia, outside Roman control, the church had developed separately and took a different path.
These are two separate stories, though they are often mentioned together. The Oriental Orthodox churches rejected Chalcedon because they thought it said too much about two. The Church of the East stood by the Antiochene tradition and rejected Ephesus’s treatment of Nestorius. Neither group accepts the labels others use for them.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The Oriental Orthodox objection
These churches follow Cyril of Alexandria. His formula, one nature of the Word incarnate, seemed to them the faithful summary of the tradition from Athanasius. They feared that saying in two natures after the union would allow the sort of division that Nestorius had been accused of. Dioscorus of Alexandria had been deposed at Chalcedon, which many Egyptians treated as an act of injustice.
They insisted that they did not teach Eutyches’s view. Severus of Antioch, their great theologian of the sixth century, wrote that Christ’s humanity is complete and distinct, and that the union does not confuse the natures. Their language holds that the one nature is composite, formed from divinity and humanity, as a human being is one nature formed from soul and body.
Step 2: A long separation
Emperors alternated between enforcing Chalcedon and compromising. The Henotikon of 482 tried to avoid the question, and a division between Rome and Constantinople followed. Justinian in the sixth century sought reconciliation but also used force, and by the end of his reign the Oriental Orthodox churches had their own bishops, notably the Syriac line associated with Jacob Baradaeus.
After the Arab conquests in the seventh century, the Oriental Orthodox lived under Muslim rule and were no longer under pressure from Constantinople. Their distinct identities and liturgies continued. The Ethiopian church, the Armenian church and the church of southern India developed their own rich traditions.
Step 3: The Church of the East
The Church of the East flourished under the Persian emperors and later spread along the trade routes across Central Asia to China and to India. It honored Theodore of Mopsuestia and used the Antiochene tradition. It spoke of two natures and two qnome (a Syriac word whose meaning is debated) united in one person of Christ. It did not receive the condemnation of Nestorius, in part because it lived beyond the Roman empire and in part because it saw Cyril’s language as dangerous.
A stone monument at Xi’an in China, set up in 781, records the arrival of a mission from the Church of the East in the seventh century. The church later suffered heavily from persecution and war, especially in the fourteenth century, and survives today in smaller numbers in the Middle East and in diaspora.
Step 4: Modern descendants
The Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East are heirs of this tradition. The Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India came into communion with Rome over several centuries and keep much of the Church of the East’s liturgy. The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, by contrast, came from the Oriental Orthodox side of India in the twentieth century.
These facts show that the picture is not simply of two blocs. Church history in this region includes divisions, reunions and further divisions, and each community tells its own story.
Step 5: Modern agreements
Since the twentieth century, theologians have examined whether the dispute was about the faith or about words. In 1973 the Coptic pope Shenouda III and Pope Paul VI signed a Christological declaration. In 1989 and 1990, official dialogue between the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches produced agreed statements (at Chambésy) saying that both had kept the same faith with different terms. In 1994 the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East signed a Common Christological Declaration.
Not everyone has agreed. Some Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox leaders and communities object that the statements pass over the councils, and some Catholics ask whether the language is precise enough. Full communion has been achieved in some cases and not in others. Readers should treat the declarations as significant but not as the end of the discussion.
- Why did the Oriental Orthodox hold that two natures after the union risked dividing Christ?
- In what sense is miaphysite different from monophysite?
- Why did the Church of the East not take part in the Ephesus controversy in the same way?
- What do the joint declarations claim, and what do they leave open?
- How does this history affect the claim that Chalcedon spoke for the whole church?
- What would it mean to say a dispute was only about words?
Examples
The Coptic Church today
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox churches in the Middle East. Its liturgy confesses that Christ’s divinity and humanity were united without mixture, confusion or alteration, a sentence similar in spirit to Chalcedon’s adverbs.
The stele at Xi’an
A stone inscribed in Chinese and Syriac in 781 describes the arrival of Christian teachers from Persia in the Tang empire. It is a physical witness to the reach of the Church of the East, whatever one thinks of its Christology.
A constructed exchange
A Coptic priest and an Eastern Orthodox priest compare their liturgies and find the confessions close. Each says that the other tradition once misunderstood them. They disagree on whether any council can now be revisited. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Oriental Orthodox
These churches say they hold the faith of Cyril and Athanasius and that they never denied Christ’s full humanity. They view the break as largely the result of mistaken language and politics, and they accept the first three councils.
Eastern Orthodox
The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that Chalcedon is an ecumenical council and that its rejection was a mistake, though many now speak of the Oriental Orthodox with respect and some accept that they were not Eutychian.
Catholic
The Catholic Church accepts Chalcedon as ecumenical and has signed Christological declarations with Oriental Orthodox churches and with the Assyrian Church of the East. These declare shared faith while leaving questions of communion and authority for further dialogue.
Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East teaches that Christ is one person in two natures and honors Nestorius and Theodore as teachers. It rejects the label Nestorian as an insult, and says it was condemned without being heard.
Protestant and historians
Protestant bodies generally accept Chalcedon, and relations with the ancient churches are friendly in the World Council of Churches. Historians increasingly describe the split as a mix of language, politics and loyalty, and not simply as heresy against orthodoxy. Others hold that real doctrinal differences remain.
Why it matters
A study of Chalcedon that ignored the churches who did not accept it would give a false picture. These churches are alive and large, and understanding their position helps in reading current Christian dialogue.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Oriental Orthodox deny that Christ is truly human.
Correction: They teach that he is fully God and fully man and reject Eutyches. Their phrase one nature refers to a united nature, in Cyril’s sense.
Misunderstanding: Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox are the same thing.
Correction: They are two families of churches. They are not in communion, though relations have improved. The names differ because their histories differ.
Misunderstanding: The Church of the East teaches that Christ is two persons.
Correction: Its official teaching is that Christ is one person in two natures. Whether its older writers always expressed this clearly is debated by historians, and the church rejects the label Nestorian.
Knowledge check
Which churches are Oriental Orthodox, and what is their view of Chalcedon?
They include the Coptic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Indian Malankara churches. They did not accept Chalcedon because they held that Cyril’s phrase one nature of the Word incarnate was the safer language, and feared in two natures could divide Christ. They reject Eutyches.
What is the Church of the East and how does its position differ?
It is the ancient church of Persia and Asia, which followed the Antiochene tradition and honored Theodore and Nestorius. It confesses two natures in one person but did not accept the condemnation of Nestorius. Its modern forms include the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church.
What did the modern declarations say?
Joint statements in 1973, 1989 to 1990 and 1994 said that the churches involved confess one Christ, truly God and truly man, and that the disagreements were largely about terms. They did not fully resolve questions of the councils, authority or communion, and some members of each church disagree.
Why is the label monophysite disputed?
The word describes Eutyches, who was thought to say that the humanity was absorbed. Oriental Orthodox churches condemn that view and describe themselves as miaphysite, holding one composite nature from divinity and humanity. Using monophysite for them is seen as inaccurate and unfair.
Think it through
- How should a council’s claim to speak for the whole church be understood if large churches did not accept it?
- What makes a dispute about words serious?
- What would you want to know before judging whether the 1994 declaration is adequate?
- How should Christians speak of groups whose names for themselves differ from the names others use?
Independent assignment
Three descriptions of one faith
In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. Write a short statement of the faith in Christ as it would be given by a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church, by an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and by a member of the Assyrian Church of the East, taking care to use each community’s terms. Then write a paragraph on what is the same, what is different, and what you think is still unresolved. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church Read the passage on Chalcedon and the non-Chalcedonian churches.
- J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines Read selectively on the aftermath of Chalcedon.
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Use it for the spread of the Church of the East and the Oriental churches.
- Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes) Read selectively on the Christological division of the East.
- John 17:21 That they all may be one.
- Ephesians 4:3 Keeping the unity of the Spirit.
- Acts 11:26 Christians first so called at Antioch.