Response Essay

THE NON-CHALCEDONIANS ETHIOPIAN, ERITREAN, COPTIC, ARMENIAN, AND SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY

WHAT’S COMING…

• The Great Schism (1054 CE)

• A division will occur between the Latin West and the Byzantine East.

• The Church in the Latin West will continue to exist and grow, and is known today as the Roman Catholic Church.

• The Church in the Byzantine East will continue to exist and grow as well, and is known today as the Orthodox Church.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE…

• Are all Orthodox Churches (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, etc.) part of the same church, the same way that Roman Catholics all over the world are part of the same church?

• Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Albanian, Antiochian, Georgian)

• Oriental Orthodox (Coptic [Egyptian], Ethiopian, Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac)

HERE’S HOW WE GOT HERE…

• Long before the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, some churches in the East had separated from the Orthodox/Catholic Church due to issues related to the Third (Ephesus) and Fourth (Chalcedon) Ecumenical Councils.

• While these churches look and “feel” very similar to Eastern Orthodox Churches, and are very similar theologically (many would say almost identical), there are key theological and historical differences which continue to separate the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED

• I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

• And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light; True God of True God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end.

• And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets.

• And in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

• I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

COUNCIL OF EPHESUS (431 CE)

• Nestorius – Patriarch of Constantinople

• Incarnation

• Two Natures of Christ (fully God, fully Human)

• Virgin Mary as Theotokos (“God- bearer,” or Mother of God)

NESTORIUS

• Mary gave birth to the incarnate Christ, but not to the divine Logos who existed before time itself.

• The Logos occupied the part of the human soul that was stained by the Fall.

• Consequently, the Virgin Mary should be called Christotokos (“Christ- bearer,” or Mother of Christ), not Theotokos.

• There could be no union between divine and human because then the Logos could not be consubstantial with God or with us.

• The two natures of Christ must remain separate.

CYRIL, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA

• Accuses Nestorius of dividing Christ into two persons existing in one body.

• Appeals to Pope Celestine I of Rome.

• Council of Ephesus called in response.

COUNCIL OF EPHESUS

• Condemns Nestorius.

• Condemns any departure from Nicene Creed.

• Jesus is one person (hypostasis) possessing two natures.

• Virgin Mary called Theotokos (“God-bearer,” Mother of God) because the one to whom she gave birth was fully God.

“CHURCH OF THE EAST”

• The Nestorian Church continued to grow and expand throughout what is now Iraq and Iran, India, China, and Central Asia.

• The Nestorian Church of the East continues to exist today, although its numbers have greatly declined.

• According to Nestorian.org, there are roughly 300,000 Nestorian Christians throughout the world today.

COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON (451 CE)

Some of Cyril’s language was imprecise, which was

further complicated by linguistic differences.

Cyril had said there was only one physis (nature),

apparently thinking that was the same as the Latin

persona (person), instead of the Latin natura (nature).

COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON

• Diocorus & Eutyches: Christ had two natures before the incarnation, but afterwards they were merged into one.

• Christ has one divine/human nature.

• Not distinct enough for their opponents.

COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON

• Results: Christ was one person with two distinct natures – one divine and one human.

• “So it is on account of this oneness of the person, which must be understood in both natures, that we both read that the son of man came down from heaven, when the Son of God took flesh from the virgin from whom he was born, and again that the Son of God is said to have been crucified and buried, since he suffered these things not in the divinity itself whereby the Only-begotten is co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, but in the weakness of the human nature. That is why in the creed, too, we all confess that the only-begotten Son of God was crucified and was buried, following what the apostle said, If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty. And when our Lord and Savior himself was questioning his disciples and instructing their faith, he says, Who do people say 1, the son of man, am? And when they had displayed a variety of other people’s opinions, he says, Who do you say I am ? —in other words, I who am the son of man and whom you behold in the form of a servant and in real flesh: Who do you say I am? Whereupon the blessed Peter, inspired by God and making a confession that would benefit all future peoples, says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He thoroughly deserved to be declared “blessed” by the Lord. He derived the stability of both his goodness and his name from the original Rock, for when the Father revealed it to him, he confessed that the same one is both the Son of God and also the Christ. Accepting one of these truths without the other was no help to salvation; and to have believed that the Lord Jesus Christ was either only God and not man, or solely man and not God, was equally dangerous.” (Tome of St. Leo the Great)

COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON

• Many did not accept this council.

• These churches, which continue to exist today, call themselves the Orthodox Church, but often use the term Oriental Orthodox to distinguish themselves from Eastern Orthodox Churches.

• This church makes up about 95% of Egypt’s Christians and 43.5% of Ethiopia’s Christians.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN ORIENTAL ORTHODOX AND EASTERN ORTHODOX • The Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches look and “feel” very similar.

• In official dialogue between the two churches, many theologians in recent decades have suggested that the differences over the Council of Chalcedon have more to do with linguistics than with theology.

• However, even if that is the case, there are complex historical problems preventing formal reunion of the two churches:

• For the Eastern Orthodox, the Council of Chalcedon, as well as the fifth, sixth, and seventh Ecumenical Councils are considered authoritative.

• Both churches have official saints who have been condemned as heretics by the other church. Both also have martyr-saints who were martyred by the other church.

TWO FINAL NOTES…

• In both the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, appeals were made by Christians in the East to Rome to intervene.

• In both councils, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed affirmed and forbidden to be changed in the future.